10/27/2016
If you've been reading Mustang Monthly Magazine since you first started sharted shaving you will remember MM Editor Donald Farr's July 1987 "No Japanese Mustang" Hoofbeats editorial. Donald expressed his concern over Ford's plan to build a front-drive V-6 Mazda based Mustang for 1989. That's right, Ford had it in stone to build a Mazda based Mustang for 1989. It had produced "Mustang" fascias and emblems for the Mazda platform.
At one point there were plans to do a Mazda Mustang and a Fox Mustang side by side - which would have been a marketing disaster.
Donald's editorial inspired a huge letter writing campaign to stop Ford from building a Mazda Mustang. Letters were addressed to Donald Petersen, President of Ford at the time. Some 60,000+ letters poured into Ford's mail room. Most of the details have been lost over time, but Ford called a halt to its Mazda Mustang plan and the 1989 Mustang and Mustang GT continued in production as they were in 1987-88. The Ford/Mazda platform became the Probe.
We salute Donald for his gutsy editorial from nearly 30 years ago. It saved the Mustang as we know it today. Had it not been for Donald's editorial Mustang might not be alive today.
Mustang wasn't out of the woods, however. By 1990 Ford was considering a plan to end Mustang production due to poor sales. A savvy East Detroiter, John Coletti, a seasoned Ford engineer and manager, came to Mustang's rescue at the cusp of the 1990s. He went to Ford managament with a plan to save Mustang. Coletti was a guy you couldn't possibility say no to. If he made eye contact with you - you were on board....period. Coletti pitched his plan for Mustang and Ford management went with it willingly.
Coletti understood, much as Lee Iacocca did 30 years earlier, that if the Mustang didn't sell his career was over. Coletti, on a shoestring budget and a mimimum of facilities, conceived the SN-95 Mustang for 1994 - a redesigned Fox platform known as the Fox-4. He put together a very commited group of engineers, stylists, and product planners. Ford promoted the hell out of the new 1994 Mustang in a 100 +city tour where the car was rolled out for enthusiasts in October of 1993.
The car was introduced in December of 1993 just in time for Christmas. The all-new 1994 Mustang, GT and Cobra was a smashing success. People loved the car and it sold well.
When you get a rush from a 2017 S550 Mustang, remember how Ford got there to begin with. Long ago in the early 1980s Ford didn't take the Mustang's following very seriously. It was through the efforts of Donald Farr, Larry Dobbs, and Mustang Monthly Magazine that the Mustang survives at all. The Mustang Club of America's Mustang Times and Dobbs' Mustang Monthly Magazine started a revolution - a team of committed enthusiasts who were passionate about American's original pony car. That team has grown larger and larger in the decades since.
Ford has learned the value of listening to Mustang enthusiasts. We have to remain an asset in Ford's eyes - vocal about what we love about the car - and what we don't like.
The Mustang Club of America was born of passion for the Mustang nameplate in 1976 - 40 years ago this year. Larry Dobbs was a Mustang Club of America member who took that passion and created a magazine - Mustang Monthly. Then - he hired Donald out of his South Carolina home to be Mustang Monthly's first real editor. Donald charted a course for MM and it worked and has worked for nearly 40 years next year - 2017. Donald is today the editor of the MCA's Mustang Times - a legacy of service to enthusiasts that dates back a lifetime.
Raise your glass and put your hands together for those who've made a huge difference in where the Mustang has gone for more than a half century.
