1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Mike Mueller
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team’s initial Salt Flats visit in July. Brock didn’t disappoint, putting the three purpose-built pony cars on his October 1968 cover, along with the main man behind the machines. “Mickey Thompson proves 1969 Mustang Mach 1 performance with Bonneville endurance runs,” read the accompanying blurb.
Ford’s original Mach 1 also made the covers of Motor Trend (August 1968), via artistic conception, and Car and Driver (November 1968). Then came the aforementioned March 1969 Car Life issue, leading up front with “The First Great Mustang.”
Hyperbole? You make the call.
Formally renamed SportsRoof for 1969, Ford’s latest, lowered fastback Mustang was a perfect base for the Mach 1. Various standard GT features carried over into the Mach realm, explaining why early Ford paperwork referred to this new model as a Super GT.
Engineers were still tinkering with the chassis for 1967’s bulked-up Mustang in the fall of 1965 when Dearborn’s advance design team began drawing up the breed’s next new skin, scheduled for 1969. That bigger, better foundation surely would carry on underneath. But it would be two years and gone for the outer hide that had critics a half-century back agreeing almost as well as today’s Democrats and Republicans.
“Anyone who likes the old Mustang ought to go nuts for the 1967,” claimed a Car and Driver review. “It’s a much better looking car than photographs show, and we think the styling is tougher than last year’s. It’s heftier, and more substantial looking.”
However, at Road & Track, staffers didn’t buy into that bigger-is-better proposition. In their minds, “The 1967 facelift has retained all the identifying characteristics of the first series but has fattened up the Mustang in all directions. It still has that chunky look about it and, frankly, looks a bit old-fashioned beside its new competitors.”
Pooh-poohing purists furthermore pointed derisively to falling numbers, as Mustang production went from an all-time high of 607,568 in 1966, to 472,121 in 1967, then 317,404 in 1968. But there was no need to panic, no need to let fly with a “make Mustang great again” battle cry. Rolling 300,000 cars per year out the door still qualified as nothing to sneeze at, and Dearborn’s original pony car remained number one in its field, by far, throughout this decade. And well into the next.
Designers began fattening Ford’s pony in 1967, making extra room for, among other things, the breed’s first big-block V-8. Interior space and cargo capacity increased marginally, too.
Besides, blaming the 1967 upsized redesign alone for downsized sales was simply deplorable considering the market impact made by those new competitors, which, along with Plymouth’s critically acclaimed restyled Barracuda, included General Motors’ two pioneering ponies, Chevrolet’s Camaro and Pontiac’s Firebird. Hell, Mustang even had to learn to share the 1967 pie with a corporate cousin, Mercury’s Cougar. Then another slice was carved out by American Motors’ all-new Javelin in 1968.
Putting a second fresh face on the Mustang proved to be particularly timely in 1969 after the Firebird and Camaro also were notably updated, with that new Chevy representing one of the 1960s most fondly remembered four-wheeled forms. Once again, Dearborn designers working in 1965 recognized the importance of retaining certain “identifying characteristics” but at the same time weren’t blind to the demands of progress. Hence the various significant updates seen in October that year on a clay mockup still plainly based on the original model. Most prominent were hidden headlamps up front.
Design chief Gale Halderman’s group also explored all-new body styles, including a sporty targa-top and a radical fastback that looked an awful lot like a station wagon (a concept tried as well, more than once, by Camaro’s dream team at Chevrolet). Although the targa theme never made it off the drawing board, the “wagon” idea, sketched in July 1966, looked good enough to morph into a fiberglass model. But it progressed no further. Not forgotten, however, were its two large air scoops, located up high, one on each rear quarter panel.
Similar scoops appeared on a notably shortened fastback conceived later in October. As Halderman explained to Automobile Quarterly Publications author Gary Witzenburg a dozen years later, “We went through a period where we were chopping about 6 inches off the back. But then we went to 2 inches and finally back to where we had started because we still had to package a spare tire, fuel tank, and some luggage room back there. Roofline-wise and scoop-wise, that one almost looked like what went out two years later.”
Rear-quarter air scoops began appearing in Mustang redesign sketches during the summer of 1966 and carried over, in non-functional form, into production for the 1969 SportsRoof. New as well were C-pillar medallions, which superseded the fully functioning interior vents found on 1968 fastback sail panels. These scoops and medallions were deleted on Boss 302s.
Quad headlights led the Mustang’s way for one year only in 1969. A standard Mach 1 feature, the blackout hood and cowl treatment also was available at extra cost on non-Mach models. All Machs featured two-place color codes on their door tags (or warranty plates, patent plates, data plates, etc.) thanks to this hood, with the first denoting the exterior paint, the second (a “5”) signifying the black hood. For example, this Candyapple Red rendition wears a “T5” code. The code on a non-Mach Mustang, in red all over, would be simply “T.” For a full list of this nomenclature, see the Appendix.
Even with two more headlights, the 1969’s updated nose (right) still reminded witnesses of the 1968’s (left). Additional updates included a molded-plastic grille in place of the 1968 metal mesh.
Another proposal, photographed in January 1966, was noticeably longer, lower, and devoid of the trademark bodyside sculpturing already well recognized by original pony lovers. But this super-clean stunner represented far too much of a departure from the original ideal, as did those hideaway headlights, which appeared off and on during the development process before burning out for good by the time production-ready realities began to coalesce early in 1967. Exposed lamps up front remained in the end, although the number this time was doubled. Quad lights, a Mustang first, debuted in concept form in June that year.
Flat-faced taillights set the 1969 rear (right) apart from the 1968’s (left). Also note the chromed split-exhaust tips. All Mach 1s fitted with 4-barrel V-8s featured dual exhausts ending in these bright tips; a mundane single exhaust pipe (typically turned down behind a standard valance sans those two indents) was present in the base 351-2V.
Height for the 1969 SportsRoof was 50.3 inches, compared to 51.6 for the 1968 fastback. Length increased from 183.6 inches to 187.4, with all 3.8 extra clicks coming via a more pronounced overhang ahead of the front wheels. One of 16 available