Yesterday And Today

When you think about it, it's amazing there is still a Ford Mustang. Through 35 years of changes in the car market, the global automobile business, and the tastes, desires, and values of society itself, the Mustang lives on in a form so very little changed-philosophically-from the original. While an 18-year-old who bought a brand-new Mustang in the summer of 1964 would now be contemplating retirement, the current version of the same car still has two doors, a potent V-8 engine, and rear drive. And, thank God, it still burns rubber.

A good chunk of the sport coupe market in recent years has gone to Japanese cars such as the Acura Integra and the Mitsubishi Eclipse. The Camaro and Firebird may be on life support, though the rumble that GM will pull the plug on America's only other V-8 ponycars has gotten quieter for the moment. Yet Ford sees something here, knowing that this Mustang thing has staying power, brand value, and fervent customers. So for '99, it has given the entire lineup a substantive midlife update-we hear an all-new Mustang platform won't show up until at least 2003.

We already brought you the exclusive first test of the limited-production '99 SVT Cobra (Dec. '98). This time, we'll concentrate on the more-powerful-for-'99 Mustang GT and what has lately become the Mustang sales mainstay, the also-more-powerful base V-6 version (see sidebar). For a proper perspective on these 35th-anniversary-year Mustangs, we rounded up a couple of vintage models just celebrating their 29th and 30th birthdays, and took this passel of ponies out to Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California, for some seat time. We also brought along a guy who's somewhat familiar with track testing Mustangs of this vintage: a true American racing veteran, George Follmer.

Follmer comes from the ultra-versatile cadre of racing drivers who would climb into just about anything, so long as they could race. And race George did. His motorsport career began some 40 years ago, but hit the best of a really long stride in the late '60s and early '70s. A capital year was 1972: Follmer, one of the consummate SCCA Trans-Am racers of forever, had already bagged the '72 Trans-Am championship when he was tapped by team owner Roger Penske to step into the injured Mark Donohue's Porsche 917 Can-Am car. You guessed it; he won that series, too. He's driven in Formula One, raced at Indy, won in NASCAR, and polished off yet another Trans-Am title in 1976. When it comes to going fast, George Follmer has been there, done that.

The soft-spoken Follmer was a member of the Bud Moore team's factory-backed assault on the Trans-Am series in 1969 and 1970, teamed with another Mr. Versatile, Parnelli Jones. Their rides were Mustangs, of course-in this case, race versions of the now legendary Boss 302. There was no personal driving title during those years; all the glory went to the manufacturer. Although Mark Donohue had just beat them in a Penske Camaro for the title in 1969, Jones and Follmer won it all for Ford in 1970.

In recognition of George's driving mastery of Mustangs during these two years, we brought along one from each: A fabulously original (down to the Medium Bright Blue Metallic paint), 47,000-mile '70 Mustang Mach 1 428 Super Cobra Jet four-speed, and a beautifully and authentically restored '69 Bud Moore Mustang Trans Am racer. No. 16. George's actual team car for the '69 season.