<VV> VV> A breath of fresh air..

Brent Fullard brent.fullard at rogers.com
Tue Dec 8 09:44:12 EST 2009


Re:  ³If Lee Iacocca hadn't invented the pony car...²

On that point, here¹s a bit of interesting automotive history on the true
origins of the ³pony car², for lovers of the Corvair:

If you read the book Lee Iacocca: An autobiography², which I strongly
recommend, you will realize the extent to which the Corvair¹s success
spawned the Mustang, and the realization in Lee Iacocca¹s mind that the
appeal of the Corvair and the demographics of those who were buying it and
the extent to which they were ³optioning  it up², presented a new market and
marketing opportunity that Ford needed to respond to. Lee Iacocca¹s response
was the Mustang. 

To get a graphic sense for the extent to which the Corvair factored into
Iacocca¹s and Ford¹s thinking, take a look at the attached photo, which is a
photo taken on September 10, 1962 in the courtyard of the Ford Design
Center. 

This was  the time and place where the various competing design studies for
the new, yet unnamed ³Mustang² were being presented to Ford¹s management and
the Board for final selection. This was a design ³bake-off² with the various
divisions within Ford presenting their competing vision for the Mustang. The
submission from the  Fairlane Group won the competition.

Notice the car in the background, against which these competing designs were
obviously being measured and compared.....a Corvair Club Coupe. The
broodmare of the entire pony car era.
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