The two Ford execs saw a vast market
literally rolling before their eyes, and, according to legend, the notion of a
sports car with a back seat was one of those "ah-hah" moments. If
Ford could dilute the European ethos just a bit by making the cars a bit more
practical and a lot more affordable, Iacocca figured, the company would sell a
few thousand. He was right, but boy was he wrong. Ford
didn't sell thousands of them. It sold millions of them. The pony car is easy to define. It was small
by Detroit standards, with sporty styling. It had a back seat for your kids and
a usable trunk for your stuff. And the rear wheels were driven by an engine
& mdash; ideally a big V-8 — mounted up front where God and Henry Ford
intended. Pony cars may not have had the finesse of a
European sports car, but they made up for it with brute force. A small-block
V-8 can make up for a multitude of handling deficiencies. The
Mustang was successful like the Beatles were popular. Ford figured it would
sell around 100,000 in the first 12 months of production. It sold 10 times that
number in the first 18.
