History

• First displayed to the public at the 1964 World's Fair, the Ford Mustang quickly became an icon of the American roadway. Debuting with an intense buzz on April 17, 1964, about 22,000 Mustangs were sold on the very first day the car went on sale.
  
  

Name

• The Ford Motor Company says a World War II fighter plane, the P-51 Mustang, inspired the naming of what would become one of the world's favorite muscle cars. Upon celebrating the vehicle's 40th birthday in 2004, the company described one event as "a P-51 Mustang fighter plane flyover by Jack Roush--a tribute to the origin of the car's name."
  
  

Considerations

• An alternative theory is that the car was named after the American wild horse, the mustang. The imagery of the wild, free, galloping animal likely appealed to Ford executives as a positive attribute for the name of the vehicle, but the company seems to indicate that the fighter plane was the primary spark for what would grow into a phenomenon of travel and lifestyle.