At first, man had almost no speed. We could jog and we could manage short sprints. But speed, compared to the rest of the animal kingdom? It really wasn’t our thing. To compensate, we learnt to use our head. This initially led to better stuff like weapons, fire, flint and tinder (no, not the app), which helped make us more effective hunters.
But then, man transcended his natural limits by leaping on the back of a horse. The increase in speed was massive – while we can run at an average of 20kph (unless you’re a certain Mr Bolt who hit an incredible 44.64kph in 2009), a good horse can manage 55. This, depending on whom you ask, happened somewhere around 3500BC, in what is now modern-day Kazakhstan. And the horse continued to be our fastest mode of transport until it was fully replaced by the car somewhere in the early 1920s – roughly 5,000 years later!
So, is it any wonder then that the horse and speed are inexorably linked? Sure, the real iron horse is a motorcycle and the car is actually a horseless carriage. But think of it in a broader sense and it’s the car that replaced the horse. Speed, power and performance are also what you represent when you use a horse as a totem. And a powerful totem it is – just look at the aura of success the horse has conferred upon sportscar makers, all of them super successful. There’s Ferrari, of course, and Porsche (there’s a horse in the shield of Stuttgart), and then there’s the latest entrant into India, Ford’s Mustang, a car that’s literally “democratised” horsepower.
So what better way to welcome it into the largest democracy in the world then, than to take the first Mustang to hit our streets and the first Mustang ever and drive them to a place full of, well, some wild horses?
In The Flesh
One Mustang is good enough to stop traffic. Two, both in red, standing next to each other, can spark a riot. And they did, just like that: people were fighting to take selfies against the duo. So we decided to move a couple of kilometres up the road. But the cars drew a crowd again, and people just stared and stared.
I sort of understand that; I stared and stared too. The proportions on both the Mustangs are clearly right. The basic ‘long in hood and short in deck’ (long bonnet, short boot) silhouette works a treat. And I simply love the detailing.
What a sensation SB Jatti’s 64-1/2 Mustang must have caused when it first hit Ford showrooms in the US! The car looks sort of contemporary even today. Have you seen what other American cars looked like in the ’60s? I just love those sunken headlights, I love that the nose has a bit of an ‘underbite’ and that kink in the shoulderline also lends just the right amount of dynamism. And don’t those white walls simply rock? I don’t like the faux vents near the rear wheel arches though – they look a bit out of place.
The new car, the first one let out by Ford on our roads, clearly looks more menacing. The wide ‘hood’ and open mouth give it the look of an angry cobra, and the low roof lends it a sportier stance than the ’64. But the basic look and feel of the car are still there; even half a century on, you can easily tell that this is a Mustang. Can’t mess too much with these icons, can you? I think Ford has done a stellar job. The letters F-O-R-D, however, no longer adorn the bonnet – guess every hick in Louisiana knows who makes the Mustang. The chin of the new car is a bit cluttered and there’s a bit of flab around the body, but apart from that, I think the car’s the bee’s knees. I even like the ‘fastback’ (American slang for a raked hatchback) styling more than the conventional boot of the original – a trend that began back in August ’65.
