Cars - Pony car

	Cars - Pony car

The pony car is a class of automobile launched and inspired by the Ford Mustang in 1964. It describes an affordable, compact, highly styled car with a sporty or performance-oriented image.

Origins of the breed

The pony car (and of course the Mustang itself) had its beginnings at Ford Motor Company in the late 1950s following the demise of the original, two-seat Ford Thunderbird. While the Thunderbird's transformation into a larger, four-seat personal luxury car, starting with the 1958 model year, proved to be successful in sales terms, dealers and buyers alike lamented the loss of the two-seat 'Bird, which served as an image leader for the company and a traffic-builder in showrooms, attracting buyers who would ultimately purchase more mundane automobiles. For several years Ford explored various plans for reviving some equivalent of the early Thunderbird.

An added impetus came from Chevrolet, with the popularity of the Corvair Monza late in 1960. The initial Corvair had been positioned as an economy car, but it was much more successful with the plusher trim and sportier image of the Monza model, which sold around 144,000 in 1961. Ford responded with sportier Futura and Futura Sprint versions of its Ford Falcon, and Chrysler Corporation with the Plymouth Valiant Signet and Dodge Dart GT.

Some executives, however, principally Ford's Lee Iacocca, believed that sporty versions of mundane compact cars only scratched the surface of the potential market. During this period there was a strong influx of young buyers with disposable income and a taste for vehicles with a younger image than a standard sedan, and Iacocca's marketing studies revealed that if a unique-looking sporty car could be offered at an affordable price, it would find many buyers. Ford's response to this demand was the Mustang, launched on April 17, 1964, which proved to be an enormous success, selling 680,000 cars in its first extended model year.

Defining the class

The Mustang provided the template for the new class of automobiles. Although it was based on the platform of the Falcon, it had a unique body (offered as a hardtop coupé and a convertible) with distinctive, "long hood, short deck" proportions. In basic form it was mechanically mundane, with a 170 cu. in. (2.8L) six-cylinder engine and three-speed manual transmission. It carried an attractive base price of $2,368, and had an extensive option list offering a range of V8 engines, Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission or four-speed manual, radios, air conditioning, power steering, and other accessories. A V8 Mustang with all available options would cost about 60% more than a basic Six, which made it an extremely profitable model for Ford.

The requirements were therefore set:

Attractive, sporty styling
Affordable base price
Extensive options, including six-cylinder and V8 engines
Aggressive, youth-oriented marketing and advertising.

While most of the pony cars offered more powerful engines and performance packages, enough to qualify some as muscle cars, a substantial number were sold with six-cylinder engines or mundane, "cooking" V8s, with the high-performance models largely limited to drag racing, road racing, or racing homologation purposes.

Pony car competitors

Despite the immediate success of the Mustang, many (including some within Ford) feared that the bubble would soon burst, and other manufacturers were surprisingly slow to respond. The first competitor was the Plymouth Barracuda, which actually went on sale on April 1, 1964, about two weeks before the Mustang. The Barracuda was not a direct response to the Mustang, which had not yet debuted (although Chrysler was certainly aware of the upcoming model), but a low-cost way to expand the sporty appeal of the Valiant. Chrysler's precarious financial situation meant that the Barracuda was compromised, with insufficient distinction from the Valiant and styling that drew mixed reactions; its sales were a fraction of the Mustang's.

Initially General Motors believed that the restyled 1965 Corvair would be an adequate challenger for the Mustang, but when it became clear that the Corvair itself was doomed, the more conventional Chevrolet Camaro was introduced, going on sale for the 1967 model year, at the time the Mustang was entering its second generation. They were presently joined by the Camaro-based Pontiac Firebird, the Mercury Cougar, and, in 1968, the AMC Javelin. Dodge joined the party belatedly with the 1970 Dodge Challenger, an enlarged version of the Barracuda.

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