James Thorpe and Phil Quaife's Blue and White, 1965, Ford Mustang, during the Adrian Flux Trophy for Transatlantic Pre'66 Touring Cars Race
The Ford Mustang began production five months before the normal start of the 1965 production year. The early production versions are often referred to as "1964½ models", but all Mustangs were advertised, VIN coded and titled by Ford as 1965 models, though minor design updates in August 1964 at the formal start of the 1965 production year contribute to tracking 19641⁄2 production data separately from 1965 data (see data below). With production beginning in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 9, 1964;[26] the new car was, on 14 April 1964, first sold to the public, at a Ford dealership in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada before it was even introduced on April 17, 1964, at the New York World's Fair.[29] Body styles available included a two-door hardtop and convertible, with a "2+2" fastback added to the line in September 1964. A Wimbledon White (paint code P)convertible with red interior was used as product placement when the James Bond movie Goldfinger was released September 17, 1964, at its London premiere, where Bond girl Tilly Masterson was in a spirited chase with James driving an Aston Martin DB5 in the Swiss Alps. A Tropical Turquoise (paint code O) coupe was again used in the next film Thunderball at its Tokyo premiere 9 December 1965 with Bond girl Fiona Volpe as she drives James to meet the villain Emilio Largo at his compound at a very high speed across The Bahamas. Favorable publicity articles appeared in 2,600 newspapers the next morning, the day the car was "officially" revealed. A four-seat car with full space for the front bucket seats and a rear bench seat was standard. A "fastback 2+2", first manufactured on August 17, 1964, enclosed the trunk space under a sweeping exterior line similar to the second series Corvette Sting Ray and European sports cars such as the Jaguar E-Type coupe.
Size: 3828px × 2362px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1965, 2023, 4700cc, adrian, blue, cars, circuit, close-, festival, flux, ford, hamilton, james, mustang, phil, pre66, quaife, race, silverstone, straight, thorpe, touring, towcester, transatlantic, trophy, white
