Mustang II on the American Road
by Robert W. Irvin
The guy behind the wheel of a little foreign car took one look and almost drove off I-80 in Nebraska.
The driver of a new intermdiate size coupe went tearing by on I-25 in Colorado and then put on his brakes as if he had spotted a police speed trap up ahead.
Instead, he and many other drivers on the road were only trying to get their first good look at Ford's new Mustang II.
It all happened on a cross-country trip of the new car just before its introduction last fall. The reaction was sensational all during the 3,034-mile drive from San Diego to Detroit.
There was the time the first day of the trip when i bumped into a group of engineers from another auto company testing their new models in Death Valley.
Like the auto men they were, one crawled under the car to get a look at something or other while another raised the hood and looked at the new V-6 engine from Germany. A third hit the rear bumper with the rubber-like cover and said admiringly, "They did a nice job on this."
Praise from the competition is valued in Detroit auto circles because if anyone is going to nitpick you can be sure it will be your opponent.
Easy handling
Did the car handle as well as it looked? In a word, yes. One indication is what I did after leaving Death Valley. I drove at high speeds across the Nevada desert. (There is no speed limit on back country roads in that state.)
The car soaked up the bumps well, even though it is a small car. It reminds me of that sory about how small cars used to ride so hard when you ran over a cigaret butt you could tell whether it was a regular or filter type. With the Mustang II you float over such things. It even road quietly and smoothly with the accelerator flat out.
I wanted to measure and prove the car's performance. Some auto enthusiast magazines didn't think it had the slam-bang performance of Mustangs a few years ago. It doesn't. But that's because it's not supposed to; this is a different breed of Mustang-from recent models.
It's hundreds of pounds lighter and over a foot and a half shorter than the 1973, and the engine is smaller. Instead of a 256-inch six cylinder engine and a 302-inch V8 this one has a standard 2.3 liter (140-inch) in-line four and a 2.8 liter (170-inch) V-6.
So you won't win any drag races with it any more than you will with a European car of the same engine size. But, obviously, you can get it up to speed. After all, driving over 70 mph will get you a speeding ticket even in many parts of Nevada.
Importantly, the car also give you good economy. The V-6 got nearly 19 miles per gallon - 18.0 to be precise - over the 3,000-odd miles of the trip. Since that included over 2,000 miles of freeway driving plus hundreds of miles of desert and mountain driving as well, I thought the economy was super.
The public didn't have to be told what Ford is trying to accomplis with the car. To begin with, virtually everyone recognized it straight off as a Mustang. The two basic themes of the early models are on the new one - the open center grille and the distinctive side sculpture.
Of the dozens of people I talked to about the car on my journey from California to Michigan, only one didn't like the looks. He was a gas station attendant in Arizona. On the other hand, another station man in Iowa took a look at the car and said, "I'm cancelling my order for a Pinto; I know what I'm getting - this new Mustang."
Ford expected this - that the Mustang II would take some sales from other cars it makes. But overall, Ford officials believe it will persuade a lot of people who drive competitive cars to get behind the wheel of the new Mustang II.
The car is different from the Pinto in many ways. You can see this by a glance at the two cars or a ride in them. I didn't have one person I talked to refer to the Mustang II as a dolled-up Pinto. If anything, the Mustang II is more like a mini-Thunderbird.
The reason is the quality that is going into the Mustang II. You find things like the same cut pile carpeting used on the Continental Makr IV.
How do the customers "read" all this? Listen to some comments I gathered in a series of interviews I conducted for The Detroit News:
Jeff Kretz, San Diego: "It's a very convincing car; very nice and I think it's going to do well." His brother, Steve, chimed in with the observation that "it's a great car."
Rod Rook, Escondido, California: "It's a lot like the '66 Mustang I had, only smaller - quite a bit smaller than Mustangs I've owned before. But I like this. There's kind of a small sporty feeling about it."
Charles Page, Indian Springs, Nevada: "This looks like a real nice small car."
Bill Malson, also of Indian Springs: "I hope they keep it small the way it is now."
Ed Terry of Colorado Springs, Colorado: "It's fantastic; it's about time they built something like this."
I talked to Terry at the top of 14,110-foot Pike's Peak where I had taken the Mustang II as part of the test drive. It made it up the 22-mile drive to the top of the mountain without a stumble. In fact, we could have passed several cars on the way up except the road is only two lanes wide and gravel most of the way with no guard rails. I finally bogged down in traffic about two miles from the summit - we were held up by a couple fo foreign cars, straining, apparently, to reach the top.
I found myself out of breath at the top, which they say happens to people. However, the car seemed none the worse for the climb, not overheating.
I was also pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the riding was in the car. I am six feet one and weigh a little over 200 pounds. Yet I wasn't cramped in the driver's seat. Nor was I sore after 10 or 12 hours behind the wheel.
The test car was a top-of-the-line Ghia model with a list of options as long as your arm, including power steering, air conditioning, automatic transmission and even a digital clock and sunroof.
The car, like all 1974 models, had an ignition interlock seat belt system with the three-point combined lap-shoulder straps you are supposed to fasten before driving. This was another pleasant surprise. I found them comfortable to use. The shoulder portion of the belt is attached to an inertia reel which unwinds (you can reach over to the glove box) yet locks tight in an accident.
What's more, I was also surprised by the reaction of people I asked to try the system. Auto observers and executives in Detroit had been predicting a consumer revolt over the interlock. But the people I talked to - most of them at least - knew about the system and seemed willing to accept it. They said that, anyway. I also asked them what they thought others would do when they say the system and the gave the same reply. (This is a favorite approach of researchers - to ask someone what he thinks his neighbor's opinion is. Then, the theory goes, he tells you what he really thinks.)
What I really think is that Ford's got a very successful car.
Incidentally, the idea for the test drive wasn't Ford's. It was mine and came because I was tired of the normal test drives auto writers get at new car introduction time. For instance, one of Ford's competitors had a press showing and "test drive" which consisted of going around a parking lot at speeds of 25 mph. I thought a real test drive should be something longer and faster, on a route to the lowest and highest places in North America. But I wouldn't want to test every new car this way. However, I thought the Mustang II was worth it. I was right. Mr. Irvin writes about automobiles for The Detroit News and a number of national publications.)
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