Sponsored video: Ford Mustang headed to Australia for 50th birthday

This post is sponsored by Ford.

Coinciding with the 50th birthday of the iconic sports car nameplate’s launch, the Ford Mustang is finally headed to Australia as a proper right-hand drive version tuned to Aussie roads. To celebrate the occasion, Ford organised a Mustang lover convention in Sydney which will see two lucky winners flown to Las Vegas after winning a Facebook competition asking ‘Which road is Australia’s answer to America’s Route 66?’. There they drive 2015’s brand new Mustang, available in Australia in about 18 months.

Arguably the most recognisable automotive nameplate in the world, the Ford Mustang’s production started in Dearborn, Michigan on 9th March 1964 and was unveiled to the public on 17th April 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, five months before the normal start of the 1965 production year. Initially based on the platform of the 2nd generation North American Ford Falcon to cut cost and achieve a retail price of US$2,368 at launch, the Mustang ended up being Ford’s most successful launch since the Model A. Less than 100,000 units were forecast by Ford for the first year, but this milestone was passed in 3 months, after 12 months the total was 418,812 and in 18 months more than one million Mustangs were built!

2015 Ford Mustang. Picture courtesy of Ford.

The Mustang stepped into the pantheon of iconic cars with an appearance in the James Bond film Goldfinger in September 1964, but most of all when Steve McQueen drove one in the famous chase scene in the movie Bullitt (1968). The Mustang created the “Pony car” class of American vehicles: sports car-like coupés with long hoods and short rear decks, and inspired many competitors such as the Pontiac Firebird, Plymouth Barracuda, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger. Although some other pony cars have seen a revival (the latter two nameplates are now back into production) the Mustang is the only original pony car to remain in uninterrupted production over five decades of development and revision.

10 years after the first model was unveiled, the 2nd generation launched, with first-year sales of 385,993 units, just short of the record established by the 1st generation but still a very impressive figure indeed. Fast-forward to current times and the Mustang still sold 1,054,198 units one the past 10 years in a much more competitive US market. The 2015 model is the 6th generation of the Mustang nameplate, unveiled worldwide on 5th December 2013 in Dearborn (Michigan), New York, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Shanghai and Sydney.

Check out the all-new Ford Mustang on Ford Australia’s official website.