1970 Model of American muscle car- Shelby Mustang GT500
With a long and VERY lucrative background, the Ford Mustang has a history like no other vehicle. There has been a longstanding bit of rivalry between the Ford Motor Company and the Chevy division from GM, since both companies operated on the same market.Ford introduced the Falcon in response to Chevy's release of the Corvair, and fortunately sold much better, similar to what the Thunderbird did to the Corvette in the 1950's.
Chevy's next move was to introduce the Corvair Monza, a sporty, compact vehicle that the public loved. To combat this new threat, Ford had to produce a brand new vehicle with not only a sporty image, but sporty actions that would attract the younger generation. Called the 'Pony Car', the Mustang was unveiled to the public on April 13, 1964 and was advertised as 'the car to be designed by you'. Knowing that baby boomers would be ruling the 1960's, and that they would want a car as vastly different from their parents' as possible, Ford designed a production vehicle that would wow this generation. Except for the Corvette, compared to every other American car then in production, the Mustang was stunning and gorgeously sleek. Wanting it to be an affordable vehicle, much of the Mustang's engineering would be shared with an existing Ford product.
The young vice president at Ford, Lee Iacocca is responsible for this iconic legend. Requests were made to him to bring back the two-seater Thunderbird, and in 1962 he built the Mustang I-prototype; which was a V4 two-seater. What was introduced in 1963 ended up being a four-seater that was met with overwhelming acclaim and the vehicle was taken into production. A variety of the Mustang's components, including the drivetrain, were 'borrowed' from the Falcon to reduce the cost of production. The Ford Mustang was launched at the World Exhibition of NY in the spring of 1964.
Chevy's next move was to introduce the Corvair Monza, a sporty, compact vehicle that the public loved. To combat this new threat, Ford had to produce a brand new vehicle with not only a sporty image, but sporty actions that would attract the younger generation. Called the 'Pony Car', the Mustang was unveiled to the public on April 13, 1964 and was advertised as 'the car to be designed by you'. Knowing that baby boomers would be ruling the 1960's, and that they would want a car as vastly different from their parents' as possible, Ford designed a production vehicle that would wow this generation. Except for the Corvette, compared to every other American car then in production, the Mustang was stunning and gorgeously sleek. Wanting it to be an affordable vehicle, much of the Mustang's engineering would be shared with an existing Ford product.
The young vice president at Ford, Lee Iacocca is responsible for this iconic legend. Requests were made to him to bring back the two-seater Thunderbird, and in 1962 he built the Mustang I-prototype; which was a V4 two-seater. What was introduced in 1963 ended up being a four-seater that was met with overwhelming acclaim and the vehicle was taken into production. A variety of the Mustang's components, including the drivetrain, were 'borrowed' from the Falcon to reduce the cost of production. The Ford Mustang was launched at the World Exhibition of NY in the spring of 1964.
1970 Shelby Mustang GT500 sports car
Only 636 Shelby Mustangs were sold as 1970 models, of which 350 were GT-350s and 286 were GT-500s.
The Shelby Mustang had gradually transformed from a highly successful race car, the first American race car to win an international race, to an overweight and underpowered production car posing as a race car. In 1970 Caroll Shelby turned away from the car production business and Lee Iacocca was promoted to president of the Ford Motor Company and so the paths of the two men who started the Mustang muscle car craze parted. However the paths of these two men were joined again in 1982 at Chrysler, where Iacocca asked Shelby to be the "performance consultant". This lead to a less exciting range of Shelby cars based on compact front-drive Chrysler products, like the Shelby GLH-S 5-door hatchback (based on a model known as Simca Horizon to Europeans) or the Shelby CSX hatchback coupe. In the early 1990s Shelby inspired Chrysler to build the Dodge Viper RT/10, a car far more worthy of the Shelby name and kind of a successor to the classic Shelby Cobra sports cars.
The Shelby Mustang had gradually transformed from a highly successful race car, the first American race car to win an international race, to an overweight and underpowered production car posing as a race car. In 1970 Caroll Shelby turned away from the car production business and Lee Iacocca was promoted to president of the Ford Motor Company and so the paths of the two men who started the Mustang muscle car craze parted. However the paths of these two men were joined again in 1982 at Chrysler, where Iacocca asked Shelby to be the "performance consultant". This lead to a less exciting range of Shelby cars based on compact front-drive Chrysler products, like the Shelby GLH-S 5-door hatchback (based on a model known as Simca Horizon to Europeans) or the Shelby CSX hatchback coupe. In the early 1990s Shelby inspired Chrysler to build the Dodge Viper RT/10, a car far more worthy of the Shelby name and kind of a successor to the classic Shelby Cobra sports cars.
1970 Shelby Mustang GT500 convertible
For the 1970 model year, the Boss 302 and 429 continued on, while the 428 Cobra Jet remained as the top engine choice for the Mach 1 Mustang. The 429 Cobra Jet was new for 1970 and standard in the Boss 429. The Super Cobra Jet was rated for 375 bhp while the 429 Cobra Jet was rated at 370 bhp. 1970 was the final year for the Shelby Cobra's. A total of 40,970 Mach 1's were produced, 7,643 convertibles, 13,581 Grande Hardtop Coupes, 6,318 Boss 302's and 498 Boss 429s.
For the 1970 Mustang, Ford went back to just two headlights, replacing the outboard lights with attractive scoops that fed nothing at all. The phony side scoops were also deleted on all models. The 351 V8's were now produced at Ford's Cleveland plant rather than the Windsor, Ontario facility and were of a slightly different design. Sales for the 1970 model year dipped to 190,727 Mustangs.
The 1971 Mustang was extended by 2.1 inches of length, 2.8 inches of width, a 100lbs were added and an additional inch of wheelbase was added. Ford's decade of 'Total Performance' was reaching its end. Taken off of the lineup this year was the Shelby models, the Boss 302 and the Boss 429 models. The remaining engine choices were not great, as the 351 engine was detuned from 300 bhp to 285 bhp while the 429 Cobra Jet dropped 5 bhp down to 370 bhp.