Ford Mustang Celebrates 50 Years, Revisits The Empire State Building
Ford’s iconic Mustang muscle car is about to celebrate its 50th birthday, andFord has a special treat in store to mark the occasion.
The original Mustang may have raised eyebrows for its styling, but it raised a few more when it was perched on the Empire State Building’s 86th floor observatory at its official launch in 1964.
The all-new 2015 Mustang is about to replicate that feat, with one of the ‘pony cars’ painstakingly cut into pieces so it can be transported to the 86th floor by elevator.
Upon arrival, the engineers will have just six hours to reassemble the pieces until the complete Mustang is once again parked in the same place as its predecessor from 50 years ago.
The elevator is the only viable option to transport a car to the Building’s 86th floor; no portable crane can reach that high, and helicopter delivery is impossible due to the narrow deck.
The original Mustang was cut into three pieces, with the windscreen transported separately. As the new model is around 18cm longer and 10cm wider than the ’64 model, the task will be even more difficult second time around.
The Ford Mustang was revealed to the world with a television advertising campaign on the evening of April 16, 1964, before being shown to the public at the New York World’s Fair on April 17.
Visitors to the Empire State Building around these dates in 2014 will have just 54 hours to see the Mustang before the removal process begins.
“New York is one of the greatest cities in the world, and it’s the place where the Ford Mustang story began 50 years ago,” Ford chief operating officer, Mark Fields, said.“We’re thrilled to be visiting the architectural landmark that has been the heart of the Manhattan skyline for 83 years with the newest generation of the car that is the soul of Ford Motor Company.”
Ford US dealers recorded 22,000 sales and orders for the Mustang on its first day, with 418,000 sales chalked-up in the first year, and one million North American sales in less than two years.
To date, the Ford Mustang has sold more than nine million units in the last 50 years.
0 comments:
Post a Comment