CarBrandLogos archive · Ford Mustang · 1973

Ford MustangMustang II (second generation)

Downsized onto Pinto underpinnings, mocked ever since, and exactly right for 1974.

Photo: Alexandre Prévot from Nancy, France · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Ford Mustang history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Ford Mustang Mustang II (second generation), then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Mustang had grown too big, and Lee Iacocca knew it before anyone outside Ford did. His instruction for the second generation was to make it small, well-trimmed and quiet — closer to a scaled-down luxury coupe than to a muscle car. The engineering base was the subcompact Pinto, which meant a much shorter, narrower car available as a notchback coupe or a three-door hatchback, with a four-cylinder engine as standard and a Cologne V6 above it.

Ford Mustang II 2+2 04-VU-57 pic4 · AlfvanBeem · CC0

Design and engineering

There was no V8 at launch, which is the fact the car has never lived down. Ford added the 302 Windsor for 1975, but the first-year omission fixed the Mustang II's reputation among enthusiasts permanently.

Azalea Festival 2013 - 1976 Cobra · Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

The timing, however, was extraordinary. The car reached showrooms for the 1974 model year, weeks before the OPEC embargo sent American fuel prices through the roof and made large-engined coupes unsellable. Buyers wanted exactly what Ford happened to have: something economical that still looked like a sporting car. It sold strongly, won Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 1974, and kept the nameplate commercially alive through the worst years the American performance car ever had. The Ghia trim offered vinyl roofs and thick carpet; the King Cobra offered decals and a bonnet snake.

Ford Mustang II · dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

Production ran to 1978 at Dearborn, San Jose, Edison and Mexico City, after which the Fox-body third generation restored both the size and the performance. Its lasting technical legacy is odd but real: the Mustang II's compact front suspension crossmember became the standard front-end swap for American hot rod builders, and tens of thousands of pre-war cars now ride on it.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1973–1978

Engine

140 CID Ford Pinto engine#2.3 (LL23)

Designer

Buck Mook

Body

2-door coupé

Technical specification

The Mustang II (second generation), in detail.

Production: 1973–1978
Class: Pony car; Subcompact car
Body style: 2-door coupé; coupe ; 3-door hatchback
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Engine: 140 CID Ford Pinto engine#2.3 (LL23); Lima Straight-four engine; I4 ; 171 CID Ford Cologne V6 engine#2.8; Cologne V6 engine; V6 ; 302 CID Ford Windsor engine#302; Windsor V8 engine; V8
Transmission: 4-speed Manual transmission; manual ; 3-speed Ford C3 transmission; C3 Automatic transmission; automatic ; 3-speed Ford C4 transmission; C4 automatic (302 V8)
Designer: Buck Mook, Dick Nesbitt
Assembly: United States: Dearborn, Michigan (Ford River Rouge Complex); Milpitas, California (San Jose Assembly Plant); Edison, New Jersey (Edison Assembly) ; Mexico: Mexico City (List of Ford factories; La Villa Assembly)
Manufacturer: Ford