In just an hour or so I need to head out on the road to drive out to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Mustang 60th anniversary event, so before I go, let’s take a moment to appreciate one of my favorite and most ridiculous of Mustangs, the original Mach I and all the other “Big Horse” Mustangs in that ’71-’73 era. I like these big fellas because they’re so over-the-top and huge and kind of unhinged, really. The newest Mustangs are pretty huge now too, but they’re a bit more coy about it. The modern Mustangs still manage to drape their bulk with a bit of grace, and the Mach I just smacks you in the face with it, like a slice of ham wrapped around a bag of ball bearings. Again, I think that’s why I love them.
There’s something about the vast plains of hood and fastback (or, trunk lid on the notchback ones) that always both repel and draw me in; something about the massive bulk of that fastback, too. Also, the wheels aren’t huge, which, to eyes used to more recent car design, feels almost a bit comical.
Let’s take a quick look at the Big Horse family here, why not?
Look at the proportions on these things! Look at that yellow Mach I, a glorious banana torpedo! It’s almost a shooting brake, sorta, if it had a rear side window. Maybe it almost feels like a van? I’m not certain, but there’s something about the sheer mass of these brutes that gets me. Which is weird, because I’m usually all about tiny things. But I guess mixing it up is healthy?
One nice thing about a massive car is that if you have a good color, there’s plenty of real estate to show it off. Like this fantastic green! Those body-colored bumpers were pretty novel, too. Look at all that hood! You could stick a queen-sized mattress on there. Maybe those two will!
I really appreciate the deep weirdness of this Mach I brochure spread. Is this supposed to feel kinda like an alien planet? Because it does! But the seats sitting out there in the foreground, all proud and massive-looking, it’s all so weird. I kind of look at them like some kind of aliens, and the crew of the USS Mach I is back there, waiting to make First Contact.
The small plane shot in the middle of nowhere. There’s one of these in every brochure, I think. You’d think small-craft aviation was America’s biggest hobby if you only read car brochures.
Okay, I gotta get on the road! But before I go, look at this fantastic pop-art engine choice picture! This should be a poster.
I gotta get on the road! Oh jeez.
“SportsRoof” LOL
I’m going to go and have me a “ThinkingBurger” now.
You could play football on it.
The 71-73 coupes and convertibles are ugly as sin, but the “flatback” fastback is pure 70s hotness. It’s high on the long list of cars that I wish I bought when they were cheap and nobody cared about them. In the 90s and early aughts, these were just a small notch in status above the Mustang II. Even Mach 1s could be had on the cheap back then and crusty and dusty specimens for sale were fairly common sights on driveways, roadsides, and classifieds.
This car was made to be viewed or photographed from a front 3/4 aspect where all of that hood just stretches to the horizon. Rear 3/4 or full profile view reveals what a chunk this era Mustang was.
Fun fact- the aircraft in the background of the brochure with the blue Mach I is Cessna’s deeply wacky looking 337 Skymaster, where Cessna had a novel approach for making a small twin engine aircraft by utilizing one engine in the front to “pull”, and a second engine in the back to “push”.
The more conventional twin engine approach of having one engine on each wing creates sometimes challenging off-center thrust flight characteristics if one engine fails, so in theory the 337’s odd configuration is easier to control in single engine-out situations. However, at the expense of more complicated control rigging, inefficient cruise, and more cabin noise in flight.
If the Autopian were instead the Planetopian, a brown Cessna 337 would probably be one of the most Planetopian aircraft out there.
I’d vote for a brown Cessna Grand Caravan.
I knew these as the 0-2 in the Air Force, a Vietnam era Forward Air Control (FAC) plane that marked targets with smoke for fast mover ground attack aircraft and assisted in air rescue scenarios, among other missions. The CIA used a bunch of weaponized O-2s in Haiti and Central America, too. They finally were phased out of USAF service in the very early 80s. She may have been low and slow, but the 0-2 Skymaster was a tough little performer.
71-74 Mach 1 on those steel wheels is my all time favorite Mustang. I’d probably even forgo my usual black for sliver with black stripes.
See I do like things.
73 fastback is peak Mustang design. Prove me wrong.
You like things; it’s people that annoy you.
Fair.
You just described my uncle’s Mach 1. He sold it, but later my cousin tracked it down and bought it. I remember the back seat being a cave, and the rear window being useless. But then, I was only 10 at the time, my cousin 18. He took a job at the local airport. Since it was a small town, with not much air traffic, my cousin would dump avgas into the tank and point it down the runway. And that runway was designed for WWII bombers.
That is a correct take.
In the 70s, Ford’s advertising firm was notorious for shooting publicity shots of the car in front of a small airplane on the tarmac, or a small airplane out in a field, or with a glider behind the plane. While browsing through old brochures one day about the Mustang II, the locations with the planes started to look awfully familiar.
https://xr793.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1976-Ford-Mustang-II.pdf (cover photo)
https://xr793.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1977-Ford-Mustang-II-V2.pdf (page 6)
The glider and tree line next to the tarmac gave away the location. Its the Warner Springs airport in San Diego county. We took my MIL there for her birthday in the early 200s for a glider ride. The tree line is no longer there, but it was back then.
The first brochure’s mustardness is something.
But did you outrun the Las Vegas Police by driving your red rental Mach 1 through a narrow alley on just two wheels?
And did you drive your Mustang Grande into Minneapolis after that big breakup to get a new job at a TV station?
Nobody does that with new Mustangs anymore.
Forget it Curly. You had your chance
I love that line.
Her former 1970’s home in Beverly Hills is for sale again.
It’s been remuddled, but it’s as groovy as you’d expect of that era.
She’s brilliant in that film.
Bonus points for somehow switching which 2 wheels the Mustang is balancing on in the tight alley midway through.
Right? I never figured how that worked.
As much as this generation gets maligned for their size, they’re barely any bigger than the 69-70, about the same size as an XB Falcon, and still smaller than a midsize American car of the era. The proportions and heavy rear quarter tend to make them look bigger than they are.
The extra size is all overhang.
That nose is almost completely hollow
Those deep dish wheels on the Mach 1 are soooooooo deep!
My favorite era of Mustang is the ’71. It’s more of a GT, but I love the look. For a fun example of a Mustang van in diecast, check out the Matchbox “Vantastic”: https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Vantastic
And I need those pop art engines on a tshirt! Do you have a hi-res version?
I really considered making the drive from Wilmington to Charlotte in my 04 Mach 1, but it needs a new clutch and I didn’t have time to do that prior to the event. Oh well, 70th it is.
I will be there today with my 2017 Mustang. I can’t wait to see Jason creepily photobombing people’s photos.
My dad bought a 73 Mach 1 new, sold it just before I was born, it was a 351-4v 4 speed car, he still talks about it a lot. It’s really cool to see the brochures!
That engine pop-art should be a poster, I’d buy him one.
Anyone remember when Joey had a white one of this era on Degrassi High? Just me and my diet of Canadian teen shows? OK then.
I loved the big Mustangs, especially when the Mustang II was rolling eye pollution in the late 70s and were so bad that I hardly saw any after the 80’s Mustangs started showing up. The notch back vinyl top ones were the worst looking of the lot. I would love a bright blue Mach 1 in my driveway.
One of my favorite bits about this era’s sportsroof design is that due to that insane rake, it simultaneously has a giant field of glass and near impossible rearward visibility. It’s like looking through a mail slot.
You can still experience that now if you drive a 5th or 6th gen Camaro!
ROFL
Note; had a buddy in high school who had a Yellow Mach 1. It was amazing.
I just want to know which one of Jason’s cars will make it from Chapel Hill to Charlotte. How many charging stops is that for the Changli?
> from Chapel Hill to Charlotte
Jason only travels in alphabetical order.
I think Tasha Yar was killed just to the left of where that red Mach 1 was photographed.
Worst. Episode. Ever.
Made the mistake of reading the novel that episode was based on. (A friend I trusted said the book was terrific, and lent it to me.) The book was terribly dark, and come to think of it, terrible overall, Maybe some people are into Star Trek characters babbling about evil interminably.
The bottom of the Mach 1 does look like it just drove through a puddle of Armus.
Didn’t they end up killing her a couple more times after the talking tar pit?
The tar pit was made of ink and metamucil IIRC
Yes, sorta, there was the episode Yesterday’s Enterprise where the Enterprise-C comes through a temporal rift and alters the timeline to a universe where Tasha Yar never died but decides to go back through the time rift on the C. We don’t see her die but history records that the ship was lost so it was assumed.
Then another episode after that we meet a Romulan that looks just like Yar but it’s actually her half-Romulan daughter.
Armus also makes a reappearance in a Lower Decks episode.
I’d love to see a photo with the current model.
Much like Rosie,
????She ain’t exactly pretty
Ain’t exactly small????
When it comes to lovin’ she steals the show!
The yellow Mach 1 is the OG Eleanor
I seem to recall an old joke about the ’71-’73 Mustangs, something like “Bunkie Knudsen approved the final design while looking at a white car in a snowstorm”.
Jason, please station yourself at the exit of this event when it ends. The footage of the carnage should generate clicks for DAYS.
Be safe, though!!!
Original Mach 1 was 69′ Model year.
And the best version, with the quad headlights!
Though the ’70 with its outboard vent decor in lieu has steadily grown on me over the years.
I was partial to the Boss 302 and 429 of those years.
Shouldn’t Sally be the one covering the Mustang event?
COTD, right off the bat.