In the early '60s the only American sports car was the Corvette at a price too high for most. The Thunderbird had grown into a large luxury car. Imported sports cars, mostly from England, were selling well. The Mustang II concept car generated a lot of excitement and led directly to the first Mustang less than a year later.

Ford was not unaware of how popular the car would be. They announced when the first television commercial would be shown and 29 million people tuned in to see it. The Mustang was introduced in April 1964. On the first day of availability, Ford sold 22,000 Mustangs.

Ford had origionally projected first year sales of the Mustang to be around 100,000, later bumping this number to 240,000. It took only four months to reach the 100,000 car mark and the 1965 production total was actually 680,992, an all-time record for first year sales. Mustang reached the one million mark by March 1966. This sales record is more impressive considering that until September 1964, there were only two body styles, the coupe and the convertable. The fastback was then added to the mix.

A legend was created literally overnight! But if the Mustang was an instant hit, it can be credited to the years of planning and effort put into it's concept and design. The Mustang was certainly a start of a Detroit revolution...the stampede was on.