“There’s less Pinto in a Mustang II than there is Falcon in a 1965 Mustang,”—John Clor, Enthusiast Communications Manager for Ford Performance

While formerly reviled by enthusiasts, Ford’s Mustang II has has finally seen as the model that saved the Mustang. The car was manufactured from 1973 until 1978.According to Pony Parts, for the 1974 model year, Ford sold 385,993 units, which was the fourth most in the iconic vehicle’s five-decade-plus history. The 1974 Mustang more than twice outsold the Chevy Camaro, which had also undergone a major redesign that same year. In an exciting turn of events for Ford, the 1974 Mustang won Motor Trend Magazine’s Car of the Year Award that year.

Mine Mustang II was a 1978 and I was inspired to buy it from the very same ad you see below. Much earlier I owned a 1966 Mustang convertible with 200 cubic inch six-cylinder and Fordomatic transmission and cool wire wheel hubcaps. I was determined that my Mustang II would be different: It had the 302 Windsor V8 and five-speed transmission. It was trimmed out just as you see in the illustration, a white fastback with T-Tops but mine had black pin stripes and interior.

The Mustang II had no common components with any of its preceding models sharing some of its platform with the equally unloved Ford Pinto but  Mustang II’s were used on the original Charlie’s Angels TV show. When I owned it some of my friends called it my Charlie’s Angels’ car even though the car Farah Fawcett drove was a white fastback Cobra with no T-tops.

Lee Iacocca who spearheaded the creation of the Mustang and then presided over turning it into a larger, less nibble car ordered the development of a smaller Mustang for 1974. Initial plans called for a downsized Mustang based on the Ford Maverick that was similar in size and power to the Falcon and it would have been a great way to bringing Mustang back to its roots but that didn’t happen. Instead those plans were scrapped in favor of a smaller Mustang. The final Mustang II production design was set in 1971 by Dick Nesbitt but according to him the new model was “less of a Pinto than the ’64½ had been a Falcon.”

Yet the quality control, at least for my car, was not as good as a Nissan Versa and my car had a number of electrical problems starting with it shutting down at importune times, like while driving down the highway. When it was towed to the dealership, guess what? It started right up. Several months of coping with that porblem got old, I’ll tell ya but finally when it went to the shop and wouldn’t start, they fixed it for not a lot of money.

In 1981 I moved to Colorado and lost all my connections with the Maryland car scene, especially mechanics which ended up costing me dearly. At one point, I had to have a new clutch installed (by an incompetent mechanic) making the car difficult to drive and Mary hated driving it. Ultimately I had transmission problems forced me to sell the Mustang but I still have a sense of nostalgia for the car, more so than my ’66. Every time I see a Mustang II—and they are few and far apart—I get excited. And to tell the truth I really would like to own one again, if I could find another T-Top fastback.

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After a press trip I took to San Diego was over the person driving me to the airport wanted to talk…about cars. He knew I started this site and asked, if I could have any car that I wanted what would it be? Without even thinking I answered “a Shelby Mustang.”

Shelby Mustang,The Total Performance Pony Car by Colin Comer is a wonderful and beautifully presented book about this automotive legend and will be appreciated by newcomers and aficionados alike. In fact I might as well say it now, this is the best car book I’ve read in a long long time.

The book is printed on heavy paper stock with photographic reproduction that is nothing short of superb. The author’s text combines the excitement of an enthusiast with the details of a historian. If you want to know what happened during the birth of the Shelby Mustang you’ll find it here along with amazing archival images plus beautiful contemporary photographs of the cars that made me originally fall in love with the Shelby Mustang oh-so-many years ago.

In it’s pages you’ll learn about special models that I never knew about like The Green Hornet or a GT500 EXP prototype notchback that was nicknamed “Little Red,” along with details about these cars and how they are being restored right now.

While the book is informative, entertaining and comprehensive, it’s not perfect and, like me, you may have mixed feelings about some of the case histories of Shelby Mustang owners that pop-up from time to time. I did, however, love the tale of Richard Morrison and his 1967 GT350 as well as the story of an unsung hero in the Shelby Mustang saga, Chuck Cantwell. Cantwell’s story is historical gold as is all the text by the author, Colin Comer, who makes this book sing and feel like he’s telling a story that happened last month, not fifty years ago.

The author’s prose is so illuminating that I could have done without the reprints of reviews and articles from car magazine of various Shelby Mustangs, although I am sure completists will gobble this stuff up. I guess having lived through and read some of this material back in the day it seems redundant; it may not be so for you. Not so for some of the contemporaneous Shelby promotional material that enhances the author’s fascinating telling of this legendary car’s history.

The bulk of the book covers the heyday of classic Shelby Mustangs from their birth in 1965 to the penultimate 1970 models, with an interesting trip south of the border for the Shelby de Mexico 1971 model. The last part of the book, called “The Second Coming,” looks at more modern Mustangs bearing the Shelby name. I am sure that some day this section will itself become its own book but for now, its here because there are still cars being built carrying Old Shel’s name, although built by Ford. And if you’ve been paying attention, you know this wasn’t anything new. Starting in 1968 All Shelby Mustangs were “built by Ford” but really rolled off the line at A.O. Smith’s facility  in Livonia, Michigan.

In my life I have owned two Mustangs: The first a 1966 blue convertible and the second a (don’t hate me) 1978 Mustang II T-top fastback. I have never owned a Shelby Mustang and, I guess, at this stage of my life I probably never will but I can own this book and while not quite the same thing, it’s a start. Shelby Mustang by Colin Comer is also the perfect Christmas or Hanukkah gift for the Ford lover in your family or maybe yourself.

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 10760365970
• ISBN-13: 978-0760365977
• Price: $26.76 (Amazon Prime, as I write this.)