A Faster Horse Page #4

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Every company is faced

by the same market,

the same technology.

It's the people

that make the difference.

Henry Ford ii understood that.

He brought in Lee iacocca,

who was simply

the best car salesman

the world has ever known.

Probably the most

important thing to remember

about Lee iacocca is,

without him,

the whole story of the mustang--

that story would not even exist.

He joined Ford

as an engineer,

but he found very quickly

that he could do other things.

So in Philadelphia,

he started doing

Ford sales work

as a district-type person.

This is 1956,

and he contemplated a way

that the average person

could by a 1956 Ford

and pay $56 a month

as a payment.

So the "56 for 56" slogan

was popular.

It sold hundreds of thousands

of more fords

than they ever thought

they would sell.

Henry Ford ii recognized that,

and that's how

he got to dearborn.

For our customers,

for our loyalists,

the people who love

this machine,

the prototype is like, you know,

it's like almost the holy grail.

We're gonna do whatever it

takes to protect this vehicle.

So one of the things

we're doing is we--

this actually represents

a part of the new car,

a small portion

of the new car.

So we don't want anybody

to see this.

We put foam

and this material over this,

and that way when it's

out on the road

and someone wants

to photograph it,

they have no idea

what's going on.

They know there's

something going on in this area,

but they don't know

what's going on.

We'll end up having to do

a lot of nighttime testing

on fairly secure

Ford facilities

where we can peel all that back,

but we certainly don't want

anyone to see it

until it's time so...

- Right.

- Do you want to show this one?

Sure. Why not?

Let's do it.

The next, what I will say,

big milestone

is what we call

preliminary engineering cutoff.

We've basically

engineered the car,

and now we gotta drive them

and make sure

that they ride correctly,

they steer correctly,

there aren't

any kind of error states.

Everybody is trying to figure

out what the next guy is doing

because if they've got

the better gadget

or if they have

a better hood, unique wheel,

you name it, then they're

gonna want to have it, too.

And it's not about

who invents it first,

it's about

who gets it out first.

Barnes did not want to be the

first guy caught in a mustang.

It was fully camouflaged.

It was time,

so I made tom take the car

out to go evaluate something.

And he came back,

and as he tossed me the keys,

he said, "congratulations."

And I said, "what?"

He said, "you'll see me

on the Internet soon."

Yeah, there's tom.

- There's barnesie.

- He was so proud of that moment.

I was testing

out on the track.

It was all working,

but while it needs to function,

you can write down the numbers

and all that stuff,

a lot of what a car is,

I mean it's still needs

to have character.

Really the mustang in itself is,

you know, a character.

What would the world

be without a mustang?

It's hard to imagine.

Ford mustang.

People sing about it

not necessarily because

it rhymes with anything,

but because it's part

of our culture.

People will say,

"when I get in my mustang,

I feel like

I'm a different person.

I am Steve McQueen."

Ford wanted instant

street credibility.

How do you get

instant credibility?

You want to race in it.

The idea was you win on Sunday,

and you sell on Monday.

Mustang showed it

could be a race car,

I think principally

with carroll Shelby's help.

We've got a couple of new

entries in our stable this year,

the new mustang-based gt350,

first American car of its kind.

He just started putting

high-performance engines

in mustangs

and making them extra special.

It was a performance

vehicle that was accessible.

You know this

is not a 911 Porsche.

It's not a snooty.

That was the basic thing

that made this work,

the fact that you could bring

genuine aspiration

down to the affordable.

Little old you could have

something this neat.

Fast, fun and affordable,

that's the essence of mustang.

Dave was talking about,

the other day,

some people think you just

follow the recipe and then,

okay, then it pops out,

and it's really good.

That's not how that happens.

You know you have

this all-American classic,

but to be successful,

you have to

constantly innovate,

and there is always

a possibility of failure.

By failing,

i mean delivering a product

that would not be viewed

as a mustang.

In '94, mustang was gonna

go to front-wheel drive.

It was going to be transverse

v6 engine front-wheel drive

European sports sedan.

That is fundamental change.

There was one school of thought

that it would make it

more fuel-efficient,

we would get better return

potentially,

then there was a camp that said,

"that's not what a mustang is."

When this news broke,

there was a massive

letter-writing campaign.

100,000 letters

from customers coming in

questioning the chemical

makeup of our brain.

They were convinced

we were on drugs, I think.

They actually

had a demonstration

outside of Ford

world headquarters.

Fortunately,

the product was launched

as a separate product

called a probe,

and we stuck

with the tried-and-true

rear-wheel drive formula

for the mustang.

It's probably

one of the biggest coups ever

in the automotive industry.

The customers rising up

and changing your product?

I don't think

it's ever happened before.

It turned out to be

a great car, the '94 mustang.

I remember when it came out,

i was in high school.

Beautiful car.

Welcome back

to "muscle cars on the radio"

broadcasting coast to coast on

132 radio stations.

Joining us on the "muscle cars

on the radio" hotline,

Dave pericak,

chief nameplate engineer

for the 2015 mustang.

- Welcome back, Dave.

- Thanks, Gary.

Thanks for having me

on the show.

I love the fact that you kept

the sequential tail lights.

There are some things

you just can't change, Dave.

I tell you,

the sequential tail lamps,

at one time,

was discussed

on whether or not they

should stay in the car

purely from

a financial standpoint,

and that discussion,

you can see

who won the discussion.

As I basically told them,

"well, then you might need

a new chief engineer."

You also got rid

of the hockey-stick "l"

on the sides of the doors...

When he took the job,

i said, "Dave,

the best thing

about working on mustang

is everybody knows

what a mustang is.

The worst thing about working

on mustang is everybody knows

what a mustang is,

and they'll tell you."

Sometimes I wish that I was

on one of these committees

where they ask public opinion

because I'd rip

most of these cars.

A lot of people were afraid

it's gonna be a major

European look.

Some people are afraid

it's not gonna have

that old muscle-car image.

I just never pictured mustang

again with four cylinders.

Everyone wants to be

the chief engineer

and everyone wants

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