Don’t worry, Mustang owners. Ford Motor Company is definitely leaning away from naming its upcoming sporty, “Mustang inspired” electric crossover the Mach 1.
Fans of what will soon be the last remaining Ford car gave the automaker an earful after it teased the model at this year’s Detroit auto show. Hold on there, sailor, the voices cried — you’re telling me the V8-powered fastback of my dreams, the one with an optional Cobra Jet motor, is about to be sullied by a case of name theft? Why not just debut a bicycle called the Thunderbird while you’re at it? The back-peddling began almost immediately.
Now, it seems Ford realizes not everyone is as eager for an all-electric, self-driving (but maybe not completely self-driving, wink, wink) future as CEO Jim Hackett is. The Mach 1 revival seems doomed.
Speaking to Automotive News at the celebration marking Ford’s 10 millionth Mustang, the automaker’s executive vice president and head of global markets, Jim Farley, tried to remain on the fence when it came to the Mach 1 name.
“We put that out there to evaluate it,” Farley said. “There are pros and cons. I don’t want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people.”
As AutoGuide notes, you won’t find any mention of the upcoming Mach 1 on Ford’s media site or YouTube channel anymore. This, plus Farley’s comments, shows that Ford knows it hit a nerve when it decided to reach into the past for a cool, ballsy model name. The electric crossover, of which there are still many unknowns, appears in 2020, and will remain Mustang-inspired to some degree. Front-end styling might appear Mustang-esque, as there’s not much you can do about the rear.
The original Mach 1 debuted with a standard sloping roofline and 351 cubic-inch V8 in mid-1968, before emissions regulations saw the base motor fall in displacement — first to a 302, then to a 2.8-liter Cologne V6. The moniker died when the Mustang II bit the dust after 1978, though Ford briefly revived the designation in the early 2000s.
As for the actual Mustang — soon to be the only Ford with a trunk — the original pony car is expected to borrow one of the company’s new modular platforms for its next generation. All-wheel drive is a possibility with this architecture. The launch of that vehicle has reportedly been pushed back to 2021.
“Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle,” Mustang chief designer Darrell Behmer told Automotive News. “The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it’s not going to bastardize Mustang.”
[Image: Corey Lewis/TTAC]
>>it’s not going to bastardize Mustang.
Like the ill-fated Probe?
I liked the Probe. Both generations. Good thing that the Mustang fans stopped Ford from replacing the Mustang with the Probe, though. The last years of the Fox platform that they were forced to freshen in a hurry were so much fun!
The Probe was a great car for its day and age. But neither the probe nor this EV crossover are a Mustang.
You mean, the Probe wasn’t a sporty coupe based off a plebeian sedan? Shows what I know.
What was ill-fated about the Probe?
We had one in the family for a while, and it was dependable, good on gas and very fast. The Mazda MX6-based Probe was a great improvement over the EXP/LN7 twins that it replaced.
Unfortunately named, absolutely. But they were actually very good cars, and their “fate” was a run of 9 years.
“What was ill-fated about the Probe?”
nothing in and of itself, rather that what was christened “Probe” was originally supposed to be the 1987 or 1988 Mustang.
I came here to say they should apply “Probe” to the new EV.
Good one!
Why is it that so many who write for a living have so much difficulty with pedal/peddle?
Or petal. :-)
“The Mach 1 revival seems doomed.”
Nah, it was doomed before they decided against raiding that grave for a cROsSovER.
Now it’s safe and can rest easy.
I’m guessing Ford’s wouldn’t be anything like the Zombie 222, which Mustang fans might actually like:
https://www.facebook.com/BloodShedZombie222/
I’ve got an easy solution for Ford…they should just call their EV the “Mock 1”.
Ford could name it the Mach 0.2, since that would be its approximate maximum speed.
one of the dark sides of fandom is how hardcore fans believe they “own” the things they like. see also Star Wars, and pretty much any popular band.
I think Ford forgot how the fanboys reacted back in the 80’s. They’d have to be crazy to mess with the current Mustang, which is the apex of pony-car development.
“We put that out there to evaluate it,” Farley said. “There are pros and cons. I don’t want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people.”
Hackett, Farley and especially the hapless deer-in-the-headlights Bill Ford really come across as stupid. They should listen to what Vito Corleone told Sonny after he spoke out about The Turk’s drug-sale offer: “Never let anyone outside the family know what you’re thinking!”