“Mustang Sally” changes that tone: how classic American muscle cars are heading for an eco-friendly future

Yes, we all know it. Steve McQueen’s driving through the streets of San Francisco in the 1968 movie Bullitt is a symbol of the classic Mustang to this day.

These beloved macho muscle cars are renowned for their roaring engine, large and bulky frame, and effortlessly stylish. Spoil your endangered such icons.

Still, the brave people at Ford headquarters in Dearborn near Detroit did just that. The latest Mustang Mach-E is a purely electric, battery-powered, zero-emission, crossover SUV.

The car is manufactured in Mexico and represents the American Revolutionary War. For many, they represent the American dream as much as the Statue of Liberty. The car is celebrated all over the world and is best known for Wilson Pickett’s popular Mustang Sally song.

When Sally Ride, the first female astronaut in the United States, went to space on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983, the audience wore a T-shirt decorated with the words “Ride, Sally Ride” from the song. .. And in September 2019, owners from all over Europe gathered in Belgium to help Ford set the world record for Mustang, the most in a single parade (1,326).

I attended the global launch of the new all-electric Mustang Mach E at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November 2019. At that time, British actor Idris Elba, who worked at Ford’s British factory in Dagenham, announced a new car to the world.

For all five models, the Mustang Mach-E range begins at £ 41,330 with a 269-horsepower rear-wheel drive version in the 273-mile range. The longest cruising range is a 294hp rear-wheel drive model that travels 379 miles and accelerates from rest to 62mph in 7 seconds.

The fastest, high-performance “GT” version will be available before delivery at the end of the year, starting at £ 67,225 and accelerating from stationary to 62mph within 4 seconds.

Flying start

Born in the same year as the miniskirt, the original Ford Mustang was launched at the World’s Fair in New York on April 17, 1964, in the month the Beatles held the top five slots on the US Billboard charts. rice field. 100 days after Ford executive Lee Iakokka commissioned the investigation, he suggested that there was a gap in the sporty two-door coupe market with a long hood.

As a mass-market performance car, the Mustang quickly proved a hit. Ford executives chased the Swiss Alps against Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5, supplying the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger, driven by assassin Tilly Masterson (Tania Maret), with a white convertible mustang. .. Another Mustang is the 1965 Follow-up Thunderball and the 1971 Diamonds Are Forever forever.

In October 1965, Ford placed a white convertible Mustang (“the most successful new car in history”) on top of the Empire State Building in New York, with eight staff members dismantling the car, taking it to the elevator and reassembling it on the 86th floor. Did. A 1,742-foot-high building. Ford repeated the trick twice. In 2014, we introduced a new Mustang on the 112th floor of Burj Khalifa, Dubai. This is the tallest building in the world since it was unveiled at the Empire State Building earlier that year.

Grits and glamor

However, when the 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback (Steve McQueen played Lieutenant Frank Brit) took part in a spectacular 11-minute chase with the Dodge Charger, the car’s status was sealed with Brit. .. For decades, that particular Mustang has been lost.

After filming, it was sold to Warner Bros. employees and then to a New Jersey detective who advertised in Road & Truck magazine in 1974. Purchased by Robert Kianan of Madison, NJ for $ 6,000, his wife was driving until the clutch broke down in 1980.

However, Kielnan kept it until his death in 2014, leaving evidence of his source to his son Sean. Kianan rejected the offer of cars, including those from McQueen, in 1977. In 2018 it appeared at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with a special edition “Brit” Mustang driven on stage by McQueen’s granddaughter Molly. In 2020, it sold for a record $ 3.4 million (£ 2.62 million) at a Florida auction. That’s about 1,000 times the original $ 3,500 price tag.

Gear change

The 10 millionth Mustang, dubbed the “best-selling sports car,” was celebrated at Ford headquarters in 2018. This is in line with the first original offline in 1964. But after the burning of six generations of gasoline, the seventh became electricity.

The Mustang Mach-E should be considered a new car in its own right-designed to take over the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model YSUV from Elon Musk. I’ve tested some new models, but like the original, they’re fun, quirky, well thought out with some clever “wow” elements, and drive very well.

All they lack is the intoxicating V8 roar or exhaust. Ford Global CEO Jim Farley (a true “petrol head”) loves both. He states: Mustang is the heart and soul of this company and is popular all over the world. It’s the person who makes smiles in any language. ”