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'74 PREVIEW: FORD'S ALL NEW MUSTANG
Designed to compete in the sport subcompact market, Ford's new Mustang II could prove to be quite a challenge to the rest of the field.
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The rumors are true! Ford has definitely killed the car that started the pony car revolution in the mid-'60s, the one and only Mustang. How can that be, you say? How could Ford have taken upon itself so giant a task as to end the existence of one of the most popular cars ever to come out of Motor City? Well, the Mustang wasn't laid to rest without Ford first backing up itself with another sure winner in the automotive marketplace, and wouldn't you know it'd be called the Mustang II!
Yes, the old Mustang as we know it is gone forever, but in reality it has been doomed for several years. Remember when Ford first introduced the Mustang back in the Spring of '64? It was a neat little car, just 181 inches long, 68 inches wide, with a wet weight of around 2800 lbs. Year after year, styling changes (and federal safety requirements such as bumpers and door guard beams) had ballooned the once-small Mustang to its 1973 dimensions: 193 inches long, 74 inches wide, with a wet weight of 3400 lbs. Wheelbase had also risen from 108 inches to 109 inches. The Mustang II is a refreshing throwback to 1965, dimension-wise. It's just 175 inches long, 70 inches wide, should weight in at around 2700 lbs., and it has a much shorter wheelbase, just 96.2 inches. The potential is there for another pony car revolution, Phase II.
What a smaller, redesigned Mustang? For one thing, the automotive public has gone small-car crazy. Almost 40 percent of all new cars sales in 1973 will be small cars, and that figure is expected to rise over 50 percent in 1974 and even higher in succeeding years. Ford decided that the time was right to switch its Mustang concept around to fit the buying public's needs, and it certainly looks like they got the jump on the other domestic auto manufacturers with the Mustang II.
The Mustang II is aimed directly at the fast-growing sporty subcompact market. Its front appearance is typically Mustang with a wide oval egg-crate grille that extends almost to the exposed, bright-framed headlights. Parking lights are mounted at the outboard edges of the grille. The steel front bumper is covered with molded urethane plastic in body color, accented with a full-width narrow bright strip.
The most prominent features of the rear end are the large three-pod taillights with a European-type center amber turn signal lens. Like the front bumper, the rear also is covered with urethane in body color and trimmed with a bright, full-width horizontal strip.
Mustang II will be available in five models, two in the two-door (Mustang II hardtop and Grande) and three in the three-door (Mustang II two-passenger, 2+2, Mach 1). The two-door models have a classic notchback roofline reminiscent of the original Mustang, while the three-door models have a nice fastback design. The fastback roofline of the three-door imparts an exceptionally low look to the car that is further emphasized by the ventless window glass and the acute slant of the windshield. The third door, which includes the rear window and deck lid, is attached to the roof with hidden hinges. Gas-filled cylinders assist opening and keep the door in the full-open position.
Mustang II's interior sets a high standard for comfort and convenience in the subcompact sporty series. Standard appointments include all-new front bucket seats, cut-pile carpeting on the floor and lower door, a 6000 rpm tachometer, fuel, anmeter and temperature gauges, and simulated walnut woodgrain accents on the instrument panel, shift handle and parking brake. The seats we tested gave a good, firm, comfortable feeling of security without being too restrictive, and the instrument panel is a welcome relief from those awful idiot lights, although we would like to see an oil pressure gauge. The gauges are angled toward the driver and are very easy to read. The 2+2 and Mach 1 have a fold-down rear seat; a fully-carpeted load floor opens to the expansive third door.
The coil spring front suspension of the Mustang II is much different that the '73 Mustang. The springs sit on the lower control arm and are anchored at the top to the suspension crossmember. This configuration is designed to reduce transfer of road shocks directly to the body structure. The lower control arms each have a compression type strut which angles rearward and inward, anchoring to an isolated subframe structure suspended between the front side rails of the underbody. This "mini-frame" was designed to impart more of a body-on-frame ride to the Mustang II. Part of the road shock vibrations are routed to the mini-frame instead of to the body structure. The mini-frame helps dissipate the shocks into the mass of the engine-transmission assembly, which is also mounted to the mini-frame.
A link-type stabilizer bar is standard. It connects both lower control arms through rubber-bushed vertical links to help reduce roll when cornering. Shock absorbers are mounted within the coil springs.
The leaf spring rear suspension has also been modified over that previously used. Iso-clamps provide full butyl-rubber cushioning between the axle and rear springs to eliminate metal-to-metal contact. The shock absorbers are stagger-mounted. The left one is behind the axle, the right one is ahead. This design counters wheel hop more effectively than a conventional mounting pattern.
The optional competition suspension provides a rear stabilizer bar, heavy-duty front and rear springs, and adjustable front and rear shocks. If you're a performance-minded person, you'd best get the optional suspension group! On the prototypes we tested, the cars equipped with the optional suspension ran circles around the standard-equipped ones. In fact, we disliked the handling characteristics of the stock Mustang II suspension setup. With the stock setup, it's a truly fun car that'll run with the best of the subcompact sporty group.
Rack-and-pinion steering is standard on the Mustang II, and you can even get power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering as an option! Standard steering ratio is 24-to-1, while the power-assisted gear is 18-to-1. Manual front disc brakes are standard on Mustang II. The new brake is of a floating caliper design and automatically centers itself over the rotor when the brakes are applied. As a result, pressure is applied equally through the brake pads to both sides of the rotor. Rear brakes are self-energizing drum-type, featuring nine-inch drums with 1.75-inch-wide linings. Power-assisted brakes are optional.
And now to the heart of the subject, the engine. Mustang II will be available with one of two engines, a 2.3 liter overhead cam four-cylinder built at Ford's Lima, Ohio, plant or a 2.8 liter V-6 that is built in Cologne, Germany, by Ford of Europe. The 2.3 liter (140-cubic-inch) engine will be standard for all models except the sports-oriented Mach 1, which will get the 2.8 liter (170-cubic-inch) V-6 as standard equipment. The V-6 will be available in all Mustang II models. The 2.3 liter engine is a wholly metric-dimensioned design, the first U.S.-built automobile engine to be constructed to this internationally-accepted measurement system. It will produce about 100 hp at 5200 rpm. The 2.8 liter V-6 should be good for about 120 hp. Don't take these horsepower figures too literally; with all the smog devices attached, these numbers could be revised downward very easily.
The standard transmission with either Mustang II engine is a four-speed manual unit, fully synchronized in all forward gears. This the the first U.S.-built transmission to utilize a single rail shift mechanism like that of many European designs. It features an aluminum housing and wide-spaced gear ratios, with a 3.50-to-1 first gear. Also available as an option with either engine is a SelectShift Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmission. Rear axle ratio for both transmissions is 3.55-to-1, and a limited-slip rear axle is optional.
How will the new Mustang II stack up as a performance street package? The 2.8 liter V-6, with the four-speed transmission, should clip off 16.6-second ETs rather easily, with speeds around 83 mph. The 2.3 liter engine will be considerably slower, probably running in the high 17s or low 18s at around 72 mph. The performance potential of the V-6 is very good; it can be turned into a real tiger with some standard hop-up procedures such as headers and carburetion. The four-cylinder engine can also be made to run much better; the quickest way is turbocharging, which also does a nice job on the V-6. The fun part about these engines is that they're installed in fairly light cars, so any horsepower increase is going to show up noticeably.
In this new era of the small car, performance enthusiasts are going to have to learn to live with smaller engines and restrictive smog controls, but that is not to say that there will be no more high performance. Using our backyard ingenuity, we can make these small cars perform very well while maintaining a high level of engine efficiency. Ford has taken a step in the right direction with Mustang II. It's certainly not a perfect car, but there's nothing wrong with it that a little engineering car in the handling department can't cure. It looks like Ford has scooped the competition again, just like it did in 1964. Wonder what Chevrolet will do to counter this one?
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