Mach Speed: A History of the Mustang Mach 1

Unforgettable

They’re unmistakable. Long, sleek bodies with an aggressive motor tucked under a Shaker hood.  A four-wheel shark ready to eat up the street.  The Mustang Mach 1 is Ford’s iconic muscle car.

Photos courtesy of ClassicCars.com

Small Pony Grows Up

The Ford Mustang first went into production in 1964. The stylish, affordable sports car quickly caught on with the public and became wildly popular.  The base V8 model had a 289 cubic inch motor and a two-barrel carburetor that produced 225 horsepower.  The powerplant wasn’t especially remarkable but it had enough zip for a light car to make it fun to drive.

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Horsepower Wars

By the late 1960s, muscle cars were taking over the streets.  Dodge and Chrysler were turning out big body Mopar monsters with Hemi engines and Chevrolet wasn’t pulling any punches either.  In 1967, the Chevy Camaro entered the ring, a pony car to challenge the Mustang with similar body size and a whopping 396 CID powerplant.  The first-generation Pontiac Trans Am was smoking the competition with a 6.6-liter, 400 cubic inch motor.  Other big block badasses like the Pontiac GTO and the Oldsmobile 442 were out there burning rubber too.  The Ford Mustang was losing the race.

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

Mach Speed

The fastest Mustangs are really Cobras.  The Shelby GT350 and GT500 are really fast cars, they’re also really expensive.  Even in the late 60s, the average Joe couldn’t roll off the lot with a Cobra.  The cars are amazing but beyond the means of most people to own.  Enter the Mach 1.  Ford beefed up the 1969 Mustang with a 351 cubic inch Windsor engine, slapped on a sports roof, added some stripes, a Shaker hood, and chrome-tipped dual exhaust. The end result was a performance muscle car that could hold its own in a street race with a Trans Am or a Camaro. 

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

Need for Speed

The Trans Am was running wild with a 400 cubic inch motor.  The Camaro was tearing up the track with a 396 CID big block powerhouse.  In comparison, the 351 Windsor was still a bit anemic.  Ford answered the challenge with an upgrade.  The standard 5.8-liter engine could be optioned up to a 7.0-liter 428-cubic inch V8 powerplant with a four-barrel carburetor.  The end configuration was capable of producing 335 horsepower and 440 foot-pounds of torque. 

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

Horsepower Generation

The first generation of Mustang Mach 1 cars ran until 1973.  In 1971, the Mach 1 hosted various engine packages starting with the 302 CID Windsor V8, building up to the almighty Big Chief—the 429 cubic inch Super Cobra Jet engine.

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

Gas Guzzlers

As America entered a fuel crisis in the 1970s, production of muscle cars came to a halt.  The Mach 1 was put aside and out of production. Decades later in 2003, Ford brought back the Mach 1 as an upgrade package to their current body design. But the nameplate vanished once again at the end of 2004. 

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

Unicorns

We still see them once in a while.  There are a few in this writer's town.  A broke down, yellow and black ’73 rusting under a tarp.  A cherry ’69 cruising around on Saturdays.  A really nice burgundy ’73 parked behind the gate of a mansion on the other side of town.  Every time we see one, we turn our heads and stare.  They just don’t make them like that anymore.

>>Join the conversation about the Mustang Mach 1 here in The Mustang Source.

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