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General Motor's Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen was hired by Henry Ford as Ford's new president in 1967, then fired a year later. His contribution to the Mustang saga was the large, intermediate-sized Mustang line of 1971, the "SportsRoof" model having been inspired and heavily influenced by the Maserati "GHIBLI" coupe from Italy.
Since then, sales had been falling steadily, and Iacocca had decided it was time to get the Mustang back to its original character by model year 1974. Several design studies for this direction had been attempted before I arrived in 1971, but Iacocca felt they were all far off the mark.
Around the time I began to work at Ford, Iacocca wanted an all-out effort, and further required that no one over the age of 30 participate in the sketch development phase (or so I had heard). He had been disappointed by the previous efforts and apparently felt the older guys did not have the right "feel" for the Mustang's youthful image. I was 25 at the time, so I would be among those submitting sketch concept proposals.
The engineering component package we were required to work with looked promising, and significantly favored Ford's own successful European Capri, introduced in 1969 as their version of the original Mustang concept. This package stipulated four-cylinder and V6 engines only, and the car's total weight was not to exceed 3,000 pounds. Exterior and interior dimensions were to be similar to the Capri specifications as well.
Enthusiasm for the new program was running high (including all of us under 30, and those over 30 as well). Unfortunately, all was not what it seemed at the onset. To economically achieve the new package objectives, it was decided to utilize as many Pinto running gear components as possible.
Soon after the concept sketch phase began, several hundred theme sketches were displayed for review. Fritz Mayhew, now head of all North American Ford design, was our L-M studio manager at the time. He divided all of our studio sketches into basic design group categories, including one called "Jellybean Shapes." That particular category would prove to be quite prophetic as a guiding Ford design philosophy many years later on such cars as the 1983 Thunderbird and the radical 1986 Taurus and Sable, with which Ford would achieve design leadership over rival General Motors.
Of several sketches I had completed and displayed during the early stages of the program, one had caught Iacocca's eye and really got his attention. This sketch showed just the frontal area of a design I proposed to capture a high-performance "Boss 302" flavor on the smaller Mustang theme. Even though it was obvious there would be no longer a place for the ground-pounding Mach 1 429s and high-revving Boss 302s of the recent past, Iacocca still like the idea of a strong visual performance image on some models of the newly proposed Mustang. He actively encouraged the development of my "Boss 302" sketch them, as it came to be called by the studio staff.
The final design our studio submitted was a three-door fastback-only proposal, created by staff designer Howard "Buck" Mook. Our Lincoln-Mercury proposal was personally selected by Lee Iacocca over all the other studio efforts. This proposal had wound up as something of a disappointment to the designers involved. Its exaggerated curvaceous lines and heavily dipped beltline combined with massive non-integrated bumpers and small 13-inch wheels resulted in a stubby, overworked appearance. All this was a far cry from the sophisticated "Domestic Capri" concept originally hoped for.
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