From the Archives: Meet the Mustang

It should be noted at the outset that the Mustang is not simply a special-bodied Falcon, on the order of a Ghia VW, even though a casual glance at the specifications would lead one to that conclusion. There are significant changes in the suspension, in chassis and body strength, in driving position— all of which add up to an important difference in ride and handling. Those familiar with the char­acteristics of the Fairlane or Comet Caliente will find the Mustang much the same, yet much better.

This story originally appeared in the May 1964 issue of Road & Track.

Despite its long hood and engine setback, there is a front-end weight bias ranging from 55 to 58 percent, depending on engine/transmission combination and body style. Such a factor may tend to put one off, but the fact remains that the driving— particularly at speed— shows no adverse effect from this. At more moderate about-town speeds, the car does have a tendency to plow at the front but seldom does this cause the driver as much concern as, say, any other Ford product.

Such understeer all but disappears, however, as the speed increases. The Mustang seems to lift its nose and charge around the bends in easily controlled drifts, kept in hand as much by the throttle as by the steering wheel. Body lean, unlike the Falcon, is minimal and the underpinnings are well damped to eliminate the spongy porpoising which is all too common with domestic cars. Even with standard suspension components, the spring rates provide admirable firmness without undue harshness.

Wheel hop was never a problem, even on some of the diabolically designed rough surfaced roads at Ford’s Dearborn proving grounds where we drove the cars, but the sounds of strenuous suspension workings (hardly uncommon with unitized structures) provided constant companionship. It would seem that the special handling package, which greatly stiffens up the suspension, is hardly called for when the car is used for most normal service.

In this vein, Ford engineers tested one of the special-handling-equipped Mustangs (with soon-to-be 271 bhp engine) at the short, twisty 1.5-mi Waterford Hills, Mich., road circuit. They reported it lapped within 0.6 sec of the lap record (owned, incidentally, by a none-too-fast Cobra) even before any chassis tuning was attempted.

As expected, the braking and steering proved to be the Mustang’s Achilles heel. Deceleration rates on various cars, in all-out stops from 80 mph, registered in the neighborhood of 21 ft/sec/sec, hardly on par with any imported sports car. There was a slight tendency for the rear wheels to lock up, but brake fade seemed less of a problem than usual with domestic cars. The steering, power-assisted as was the brakes, was quite precise but required too much twisting of the wheel (3.8 turns between locks) for cornering comfort.