Mustang Rally

FORD RETOOLS ITS PERENNIAL CLASSIC

Ever since Steve McQueen raced a Ford Mustang through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt in 1968, the man and the car have blurred into one national archetype: the car chase. But the car was a phenomenon well before the movie, and McQueen and the Mustang represented more a pairing of heartthrobs than savvy product placement. After unveiling the Mustang at the New York World's Fair in 1964, Ford sold more than 600,000 in the first nine months of production. Dealerships were stormed; cops had to be called; the national demand-supply ratio at one point was 15 to 1. The Mustang became an American icon almost immediately, and in 2004 it will turn 40 years old. To mark the occasion, Ford will debut two brand-new Mustang concept cars at the Detroit Auto Show this month—a coupe and a convertible. "We've gone back and looked at our favorite Mustangs—from 1967 and 1968," says J Mays, head of design at Ford. "It's a very modern-looking vehicle, but it could only be one kind of car, and it's a Mustang."

ANNE FULENWIDER

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