Photo is CarandDriver for their Tested: 1974 Ford Mustang II Mach I article which is from a 1973 issue September issue.
A decade ago, after over a year of promotion earning it the title of “the worst kept secret in Detroit’s history,” the Ford Motor Company publicly announced the Mustang with an extravagant introduction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Standing proudly by “The House of Good Taste” and the Population Clock with its blinking display of ever larger numbers recording the world’s move toward total urbanity, was a flotilla of cars intended to be sold to a segment of the population Ford identified as the Youth Market. Those convertible and hardtop Mustangs had a projected first year sales goal of a quarter of a million cars, Ford PR men announced with evident trepidation. Their trepidation was founded on the fact that no one in Detroit had ever made an economic success of a sportily-styled car—particularly a car that had been built up out of existing components (in the Mustang’s case, most of the chassis came from the boxy Falcon compact). Nor had any car maker ever had much good to say about the idea of courting anything but a middle class and up market. In fact, Plymouth had tried much the same thing as the Mustang months earlier with its glassback Barracuda (a rebodied Valiant compact) and was meeting with near total customer apathy. But even the skeptics wouldn’t deliver a blanket death warrant on the car simply because it wasn’t a Mustang. By means of a then-unique marketing ploy, made possible by relatively new production line technology, the Mustang could be just about anything to anybody via an ape arm-long list of options. They weren’t just trim options, but whole running gear and suspension packages. Everything from a 101-hp Six with a 3-speed manual transmission up to a high performance 289 with a 4-speed could be found on the options list.
This is article is owned by CarandDriver Tested: 1974 Ford Mustang II Mach I
The Mach 1 name is taken from the term used to denote when something is travelling at the speed of sound. Ford had first used the Mach 1 badge on the futuristic Levacar concept, first shown in 1959 and used it for the Mustang and it was a brilliant decision by Ford.
In 1974 the Mach 1 sold incredible amount of them at over 330,000. It only had a 2.8 litre Cologne V6 with only 105 hp. In 1975 you had the option for the 302 with 140 HP.
The Mach 1 remained mostly unchanged in 1976, as a new performance model – the Cobra II – was introduced alongside. 1977 proved to be the weakest sales year of the Mach 1 to date, selling only 6,719 units. The package remained for one more year and was discontinued when the third generation Mustang was introduced for 1979, the famous fox body and was not made again until 2004.
I am looking for any more information on the Mustang II Mach 1’s such as the options, the paint colors or anything else I am missing.