ADVANCED MUSTANGOLOGY
THE MARTI REPORT by Kevin Marti
SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO BE AT THE END OF THE LINE
“We’re number two! We’re number two!”
Somehow that just doesn’t resonate with us,
does it? We’re interested in who’s the best or
the first at something. A rental-car company
decided to play off of it though. Avis managed
successfully for 50 years with the pitch, “We
try harder,” because they were always second
behind Hertz in car rentals. It didn’t elevate
them to the number-one spot however, and
they quietly discontinued the slogan in 2011.
With cars, people pay attention to the
“firsts.” Some like to say Ford built the first car,
but the Duryea brothers really built the first
gasoline-powered car. The first car was built
in 1871, or 1860, or 1769, or 1335, depending
on how you want to define a car.
When it comes to Mustangs, most of us
know the story of Captain Stanley Tucker,
who bought the ’64½ Mustang with serial
number 5F08F100001. Or Bob Fria who owns
the first hardtop assigned a serial number,
5F07U100002. For Fox-body Mustangs,
we’re familiar with Jim and Rick Schmidt (of
National Parts Depot) owning 9F04W100001.
12 FOXMustangMagazine.com
Maybe you remember gathering with
your friends on a Saturday morning to play
stickball. The two most popular kids got to be
captains (somehow everybody just accepted
who they would be). They’d start choosing
their teammates, and you know what went
through your head: I hope I’m not the last
one picked.
Well, this time we’re celebrating the last
Mustang of the Fox era. There were 2,598,133
Mustangs produced from number one for
the ’79 model year to the closeout of the ’93
year with a convertible. The sales volume for
1979 eclipsed the sales of every model year
preceding it other than the first three years
of production. During the Fox-body run (15
years — the longest of any generation), sales
averaged over 173,000 units per year. These
were impressive numbers, ones that Ford
wishes it could duplicate today.
Let’s look at some other lasts. Once
Ford decided 1973 was to be the last year
for a convertible (at that point in time), a
replacement for that open-air feeling was
needed. It led to the flip-up open-air roof
and the T-roof. With the resurrection of
the convertible Mustang for the ’83 model
year, sales of both of these options dropped
precipitously. The T-roof saw the end of
production with the ’98 model year, while
1993 was the end for the flip-up roof.
With the advent of EEC systems on
Mustangs, we saw the last of distributors
with vacuum or mechanical advances. And
1983 saw the termination of eight-track tape
players in Mustangs (that was a good thing).
When Ford decided to cease convertible
production with the ’73 model year, it
cast a pall over the Mustang community.
Convertible had always been synonymous
with Mustang. This was not generally true
with the other cars in the ponycar universe. As
customers realized they would not be able to
get a convertible for 1974, sales skyrocketed.
Then there was nothing for nine long years.
There were companies that did aftermarket
conversions of the Mustang, but these were
woefully engineered. I personally went to