Lee Iacocca's job was on the line.
Ford Motor Co.
The 1965 Ford Mustang hardtop on display in the Ford Pavilion at the New York World's Fair during its debut on April 17, 1964.
Would his new Ford baby prove to be a brilliant innovation — or another Edsel?
The question was in the air that April day, 50 years ago, when Iacocca, then Ford's general manager, addressed the press at the soon-to-open 1964/65 World's Fair in Queens. At the end of his speech, Iacocca announced with a showman's flair:
"Ladies and gentlemen — the Mustang!"
Four days later, on April 17, 1964 — now considered the birthday of the Mustang — Ford officially introduced its new pony car to the American public, running prime-time commercials on the TV networks and unveiling the cars at Ford dealerships.
Over that World's Fair's two summer seasons, tens of millions of visitors to the Ford Pavilion got to check out a number of Mustangs on display. (They included a white convertible with a black top, on a platform above an indoor pool with fountains.) Fair-goers could even take a spin in engine-less Mustangs and other Ford cars that ran on a track, like an amusement-park ride.
Would Lee Iacocca's new Ford baby prove to be a brilliant innovation — or another Edsel?
The Mustang was an instant hit.
Marko Georgiev/Staff Photographer
John Pestrichelli poses inside his 1973 Mustang with 351 small block Cleveland engine, at Van Saun Park in River Edge, on Friday, March 21.
"That first year, they wanted to sell 80,000 Mustangs — that was the goal, 'cause [his bosses] told Lee Iacocca, 'If this doesn't go, you lost your job,'" says longtime Mustang owner John Pestrichelli of River Edge, a member and past president of the Garden State Region Mustang Club. "Well, the first day the car became available, they sold 22,000 Mustangs that one day. At the end of four months, they sold 100,000 Mustangs, and at the end of that year, they sold 418,000 Mustangs. So, Lee Iacocca is known as the father of the Mustang."
Over the half-century that the car has been in continuous production, more than 9.2 million
Mustangs have been made and sold. Appearances in hundreds of movies, including "Goldfinger" (1964), "Grand Prix" (1966), "Bullitt" (1968) and "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971), have cemented its status as a pop-culture icon.
Those who love Mustangs are a passionate lot. They can tell you about each of the six generations of Mustangs — from the "1964½" that kicked off the first wave to the upcoming 2015, due this fall, which will lead the newest generation. And they can talk at length about their own Mustangs, as they could about their own children.
The Mustang, they say, is more than a car. It's a state of mind.
The Mustang, they say, is more than a car. It's a state of mind.
"I guess it's a little bit of a freedom thing that you get from driving the car," says Mike DeLiberto of Wood-Ridge, a co-founder and current president of the Garden State Region Mustang Club, one of the two Mustang Club of America chartered clubs in New Jersey. He notes that many older members say driving a Mustang, especially a convertible, makes them feel younger, as if they can "set out onto the open road … go anywhere and have fun doing it, really. More often than not you can't, but at least you feel that way."
This week, the Mustang Club of America is holding two big 50th birthday parties — in Charlotte, N.C., and Las Vegas. Ford has also planned a number of events across the country, including a gathering today for local Mustang owners at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, site of the World's Fair.
Photos: The Ford Mustang through the years
DeLiberto, who was born the same year as the Mustang, plans to be at the Queens event — in his 1995 forest-green Mustang GT convertible with a tan interior.
It's actually the seventh Mustang in DeLiberto's life.
The first was a Sauterne Gold '66 Mustang hardtop, which his father bought from his Aunt Lucille. She had purchased it new, as a 19-year-old recent high school graduate who needed a car for work. "At that time, the Mustang was the car and it was small, which was good, 'cause I'm small. And it was sporty,"
Lucille Calabrese, now of Hackensack, says of that first in a line of Mustangs she has owned.
After about five years, Calabrese sold her original Mustang to her brother-in-law, DeLiberto's father.
"It wasn't really the family car, but I do remember one year when our other car wasn't working and we actually piled the whole family in it and went and got a Christmas tree," DeLiberto says, in an interview at his home. "That tree was hanging out the back, and we must have had five people in it. This was the age before mandatory seat belts."
In 1982, as a high school senior, DeLiberto purchased his own first Mustang — a 1965 coupe. Subsequently, he sold that and a 1968 Mustang convertible he had bought so he could get a brand-new 1985 Mustang as a college-commuting car. Soon after he married his wife Louise in 1990, the couple purchased another Mustang — a '65 Mustang fastback. Eventually, those two cars got replaced by the '95 convertible, which DeLiberto shelters in his garage. "It's a reliable, powerful, fun car," he says.
Carmine Galasso/Staff Photographer
Mike DiLiberto shows off his 1995 Deep Forest Green with saddle interior, Mustang GT convertible in his driveway.
In 1993, DeLiberto co-founded the Garden State Region Mustang Club, which meets monthly in Whippany. Besides putting on three shows a year — the next one is May 17 — the club raises money for a number of charities.
Pestrichelli, a club member since the mid-1990s, owns two Mustangs, both of them now award-winning show cars.
He and his wife, Anelle — who planned to be at the Charlotte Mustang celebration today — actually saw the "64½" Mustang at the World's Fair, when they were dating.
But his Mustang love affair really began in 1973, when the by-then-married couple were living in Atlanta and about to have their second child. His wife couldn't picture putting two babies into the Ford convertible she was then driving.
"So, she called me up one day and said, 'I saw a cute little car and it's got white letters on the tires and I really like it,'" says Pestrichelli, in an interview at his home. "Well, it was the Mustang that's sitting in my garage."
He bought that 1973 Mustang for about $3,500 and gave it to his wife for Christmas that year.
Over time, it was relegated to spare-car status.
Exposure to the elements caused rust, though the car still ran. In 1976, the Pestrichellis moved to River Edge. In 1990, a neighbor and fellow car enthusiast, John Pyrros, suggested that the two men rebuild the old Mustang. It was a long process.
"We started with the engine, did work on that, then we had body work done, got the car painted back to its original color, Blue Glow," says Pestrichelli, as Pyrros stands nearby. "It was non-stop. And to get it to the condition it's in right now, I guess it was over about 15 years, and we don't talk about cost. We do not talk about cost at all."
When Pestrichelli retired from his job as regional security manager for Rite Aid Pharmacy in 2006, he had to give back his company car. "My wife said to me, 'You've always wanted a convertible. This is your shot,'" he recalls.
That's when Pestrichelli bought his second Mustang — a 2007 limited-edition convertible GT California special in a color called Red Fire. And that's the one he planned to take to Charlotte for the 50th anniversary party. (His beauteous '73 is an "awful ride," he says. "You drive that car for 300 miles, you think you've been beaten with a stick.")
On this day in River Edge, Pyrros, who owns a classic Thunderbird and a '56 Chevy, kids Pestrichelli that a middle-age crisis was what prompted him to buy the convertible.
"I was a little beyond middle age, but basically, he's absolutely right," Pestrichelli says. "It's a sign of freedom. It's a sign of being cool. I am 17 when I drive it. … When you have a Mustang, you feel special."
Part of that has to do with the car's iconic status, he says.
"There isn't a show that I go to where somebody doesn't walk up to me and go, 'My father had one of those,' or 'My aunt had one of those,' or 'I had one of those when I was in high school,'" Pestrichelli says. "I think somebody in every family in this country has owned a Mustang at one time or another."
Email: rohan@northjersey.com
Source : http://www.northjersey.com/news/the-ford-mustang-at-50-1.997212
