Donald Farr

I would say that I am rather fond of the Ford Mustang, particularly the early models. Because I’m Australian, there is a gap in my Mustang knowledge from the end of the muscle car era to when right hand drive Mustangs returned to showrooms several years ago. Ford Mustang: America’s Original Pony Car does a great job in filling in those gaps from the Mustang II to the Fox and through to the models as of 2016.

The book is a large, glamorous hardback, befitting of the Mustang and its status. It’s not just America’s car, but beloved the world over from Australia to Malta and South America. Japan also has Mustang clubs. It’s lavishly filled with pictures, some from the Ford archives. Each model has a compilation of reviews (and not all of them are stellar, which I appreciated). The story of Mustang is told in a sequential fashion, starting with the idea and moving from the concept to the release of the first Mustangs in 1964. (If you’ve seen Ford vs Ferrari, this is just a hint of the marketing that was involved. Think the World’s Fair with a Mustang ride, a Mustang on top of the Empire State Building, competitions and huge media events). I was heavily invested in the first chapters, with enough Mustang trivia to have me searching for more. The chapters then tell the stories of other models beyond 1964½-1966. The Mach 1 and Boss Mustangs have a chapter devoted to them, as well as the Fox and Fox-4. For those interested in the engines, the types available are discussed in detail. (If you’re not into the detail, it’s only a paragraph or two). There are pictures of concepts, clay models and prototypes and a racing section. The story closes with a chapter on the Mustang in popular culture (Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mustang Sally) as well as some lesser known uses. (I did not realise that Vanilla Ice’s Ice Baby’s reference to the 5.0 in the song was the Mustang – and that he had it recently restored).

The book is a great one to dip in and out of (as it’s heavy) or read in order. There are a few typos in the book and sometimes the formatting could have been improved (e.g. no point in having the title of a section on one page and the text on another) but it doesn’t detract away from the read. It is also an official Ford product with the foreword by Edsel Ford II (the great-grandson of Henry Ford, and the son of Henry Ford II who was president and CEO when the Mustang was launched). The pictures are clear and decently sized – easy to pore over.

One for the fans, or those with an interest in cars overall.

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