Despite an army of imitators, the Mustang continued to lead the ponycar category in 1970, and the Ford Motor Company was happy to boast about it.
The top line of the Mustang marketing campaign for 1970 was “Still Number One,” and we’ve got to hand it to Ford: It was a fairly remarkable achievement. When the Mustang was introduced in April of 1964, it was met soon enough by an army of copycats: Chevy Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, Mercury Cougar, Plymouth Barracuda, AMC Javelin, and Dodge Challenger. So while the ponycar pie was cut into increasingly smaller pieces, if you will, Ford continued to take the biggest slice, with total sales of nearly 200,000 units for the 1970 model year.
In this nicely preserved color tv spot, we can see the winning product strategy at work: As much as any car of the time possibly could, the Mustang endeavored to be all things to all people. Multiple models, rooflines, and appearance packages were offered, along with an entire range of engines, from the 250 CID inline six to the 428 Cobra Jet and Boss 429 V8s. (See our feature on the mighty Boss 429 engine here.) You’ll surely notice that while the Boss 302 model gets yards of attention here, the Boss 429 isn’t mentioned at all. We presume that’s due to their relative volume. Some 6,318 Boss 302s were produced in ’70, but only 499 Boss 429 models. Video below.
The last of the great Mustangs for a long time. I’ve always wanted a 70 Boss 302 or Mach 1 in Acapulco blue with white stripes and those cool sports slats. The 71-73’s were OK, even if a little bloated, but from 74 to 04 none of them really caught my eye. Then the 05 came out and I was in love with the Mustang again. Too bad they screwed it up again just a few years later.
69 and 70s were the best looking of the lot. And such a huge range of engines and transmissions.
The big blocks however are really too big for those cars.
And that headline pic with the Badday Polyglass that were junk even then. They caused a lot of cars and people demise.