With the new Ford Mustang Mach-E now here, there are a lot of Mustang fans that are unhappy that Ford took their beloved car and added an SUV to the line. While an electric SUV might be a modern ride that designers in the ’60s weren’t even dreaming of, the Mustang Mach-E certainly isn’t the first time that designers considered adding a couple more doors to the pony car.
A station wagon was also considered as an addition to the Mustang line. Ford had eyed several iterations of the Mustang in its early days, including a two-seater sports car more like the Corvette and a four-door sedan (pictured) in 1963. The prototype four-door Mustang was stretched wheelbase offering with a pair of extra doors. It looked very cool.
The classic Ford Mustang was also eyed by third-party companies for conversion into shooting brakes, or what we would call a station wagon in the states. The classic Ford Mustang looks rather good as a shooting brake, and looking at it now; it’s almost a hint at what was to come with the Mach-E. The Mustang shooting brake was very popular and created buzz in its era according to reports, but never went into production.
The single prototype was all that was made was initially intended to woo Ford to make it, but the automaker wasn’t interested. The designer was Robert Cumberford, and after Ford turned his design down, he tried to sell it elsewhere with no success. He says that he drove the prototype for thousands of miles and that it handled very well. Eventually, it was sold to a dentist in Oregon who used it as a daily driver before it was lost to time. No one knows where the prototype is today.
Subscribe to Ford Authority for more Mustang news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Source: Autoblog
Comments
Yes because if it had ever gone to a 4 door, the Mustang wouldn’t be what it is today. Never mind the electric crap.
Nice to see they repurposed the Focus.
That is not a Mustang. You have loyal followers and we have to put up with your blunders among the exceptional cars. I will not buy one nor am I even interested in reading up on it. What a joke Ford.
Exactly, the alternate versions of the “Mustang” shown above are re skinned Ford Falcons.
For a very long time, I have been a traditionalist when it comes to certain things. Especially for my automotive love, the Ford Mustang. I’ve owned them, modified them, worked for a company that dealt with the mustang community directly, obsessed over them and honestly alot of my life has been shaped by my love for what is to me, the greatest car ever built. This may sound a bit sacrilegious to alot of fans and members of the mustang community but I am hoping that Ford actually does make a Mustang family of vehicles along with a Bronco family of vehicles. Along with the rest of the Ford lineup.
Now that I have your attention, let me explain a bit as to what exactly I’m saying here. None of us Mustang fans need a history lesson to remind us just what happened when Ford unleashed the mustang onto the automotive scene April 17th 1964. The mustang hit the road and it has been shaping the automotive world ever since. Here we are, November 24th 2019 and the car is still with us. Never missing a stride, never skipping a beat. The current car may still hold the same name, a modern interpretation of it’s original self and and even a small block V8 under the hood but it is nothing like what it was back in 1964. It has evolved over the years from a sporty secretary car, a pony car and now a sports car. But as it stands, that whole genre of car is under fire and it is time that Ford assess the situation seriously and figure out how to keep the Mustang relevant. Now, this is just my humble opinion but I’m looking at all that ford has at its disposal right now and I’m looking at alot of other cars that are on the market, including some of the European vehicles out there. With Ford planning to move the mustang to the shared CD6 platform and making the mustang a bit larger, I narrowed my focus down to a car that was similar to the mustang in design but a bit larger and that was the BMW 8-Series. The 8-series coupe bears striking resemblance to the Mustang with it’s fastback design and its thick and seductive full figured curved body reminds me of the 94-98 SN95 Mustang but much more mature and elegant. Not to mention the headlamps on the new Mustang Mach-E heavily match the look of the equipment on the 8-series. I think most of us get the point that I’m making that the Gen-6 CD6 Mustang could become an American equivalent of the 8-series BMW also hopefully no where near as pricey. Ford has also managed to extract the same amount of power from smaller engines such as the 5.0L Coyote, the 5.2L Voodoo and 5.2L Predator V8 that other American companies do with engines larger than 6-liters. Not to mention ford has done wonders with the ecoboost platform, producing a 400hp 3.0L, a 3.5L that can make anywhere from 450hp/510tq to the 647hp/550tq and a 3.0L Hybrid that makes 494hp and a mind boggling 630lb-ft of torque, granted it’s all bogged down by the cumbersome weight of the Aviator but still quite powerful none the less. The only problem with Ford’s ecoboost platform is they have not figured out how to make any ecoboost sound good (minus the Ford GT). My thoughts would be this, we’ve already figured out how to make power with these engines, now lets figure out a way to not make them sound so terrible and more like the Ford GT. Once Ford gets that right, Having a base CD6 Mustang with a 400hp/415tq 3.0L doesn’t sound so bad, stepping up to a 450hp/510tq Ecoboost mid level car, a 3.0L Hybrid pushing 494hp/630tq, a 650hp/550tq 3.5L Ecoboost and to top it off a 700hp supercharged 5.0L V8. Back the base car with the current 10-speed auto, the hybrid would obviously have the 10-speed hybrid auto, and give the two 3.5L cars the 10-speed auto with an optional 7-speed DCT and the 5.0L Supercharged GT a 7-speed DCT only option and you have a hell of lineup. Not to mention once you move to the CD6 platform, Ford can offer the mustang with any engine with an optional AWD setup. Now before anyone scoffs, lets think for a moment of the recently departed Ford Focus RS. That car was absolutely Amazing and it was only a FWD based vehicle with AWD. Now what happens if Ford takes this new CD6 mustang with everything I’ve listed above, throws in an AWD system on a RWD based car that can still send most of it’s power to the rear wheels, give the car magnetic ride, Brembo brakes, and a suspension that takes the best of what the current performance pack mustangs, GT350/GT350R and GT500 Mustangs have? You get a car that performs flawlessly all while being more dynamic, more comfortable, easier to live with and just plain fun. As far as the design. Ford already has a fairly exciting body language with the current car and the Mach-E. I suspect a blend of those headlamps and grille design on an 8-series like body with taillamps similar to the ones on the Mach-E would be what is in store for the Mustang on the outside. I can’t help but to feel that some of the GT500 styling will carry into this next mustang, especially the grille and front fascia. On the inside, I cant help but to feel that the Mustang is going to move to something more along the lines of the 1971 style because of the fact that I’m almost positive this next mustang will have a large 12″ vertical touch screen and it’s not going to flow well with the current 64-68 design Ford has going on right now. I doubt it will push away as far as the 71-73 design did but it will be something to that effect. Honestly, it will more than likely flow into the center console with a rotary knob shifter, adopting the Mach-E’s sexy new steering wheel and a few other things. I do believe the current digital instrument cluster will continue but be updated as well as getting the new Sync-4 system with an improved B&O stereo system. With all of that being on the Coupe, if Ford is smart, it would continue to look at the BMW 8-Series Gran Coupe as the 4-door coupe entry to the Mustang Family, fitted with all of the same features I mentioned above. Being that we already have the Mach-E as the all electric entry to the Mustang, the only other entry to the Mustang family would be a gasoline powered performance crossover. For inspiration, let’s look Monster beast known as the BMW X6M. The X6M is an evil, fearsome beast, a monster made from the nightmares of Priuses and the dreams of men who have to endure a life of responsibilities who want to be able to still feel like a man behind the wheel of a rage machine. If an SUV is to be in the mustang family, it should be the American version of the X6M with all of the engines that I’ve listed above (400hp/415tq 3.0; 494hp/630tq 3.0 Hybrid; 450hp/510tq 3.5L Ecoboost; 650hp/550tq 3.5L HO Ecoboost; 700hp 5.0L Supercharged V8) and yes all three transmissions (10-speed auto; 10-speed hybrid auto; 7-speed DCT) should be present with performance AWD. If you’re going to make a mustang family of vehicles, this is how you do it.
With Carroll Shelby no longer with us, I think this generation mustang should be the last Mustang to use the Shelby name. Ford has so many other names to go with. such as the 3.0L Ecoboost Mustang ST, the 450hp 3.5L Ecoboost Mustang RS, the 494hp 3.0L Hybrid Grand Touring (GT), the 650hp 3.5L Ecoboost Cobra and the 700hp 5.0L Supercharged King Cobra. To me, it just fits better into the Ford Performance umbrella since all of those names were Ford names.
Another things about all of this. With alot of these engines being Ecoboost engines, I would love to see Ford Performance partner up with Mountune and offer factory backed upgrades for these vehicles. Along with the regular Ford Performance upgrades for the supercharged 5.0L V8 engine. But for the Ecoboost platforms, things like intercoolers, intakes, injectors, tuners (Cobb/Ford Performance) waste gates and blow off valves, down pipes, exhaust systems that actually sound good on an Ecoboost (Akrapovic), more modern Ford Performance wheels (BBS), suspension upgrades (Ford Performance/Whiteline) and other things like that. There is nothing wrong with the Mustang evolving into something like what i listed above, especially when you consider what the mustang is and what it was originally. It was always a car with a hot performing small engine with decent balance, not overpowered, packaged well for the most part, attractive, and fresh. Having a family of mustangs that can be evolved and modern but still keep the feeling of excitement and performance alive is what the mustang is all about.