In recent news, Ford CEO Jim Farley didn’t rule out the possibility of building a four-door version of its pony car, the Mustang. After all, the Mustang family has expanded to include the Mach-E electric crossover, so anything is possible.
It’s an interesting bit of news, for sure. But the thing is, the idea of a four-door Ford Mustang isn’t totally new. In fact, the American automaker dabbled with the thought during its inception in the early-‘60s.
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It’s hard to imagine the Mustang being anything other than a coupe or convertible, especially the original version launched in mid-1964. But during its development phase, Ford drummed up several prototypes exploring how to expand the Mustang line into a series of other models.
The result is this proposal that was shown in 1963, about a year before the pony car made its debut. From the front, at least, it looks like any other ‘Stang from the era, but turn it to its side and it appears more, well, stretched. The front doors are shorter than that of the coupe as to make way for the rear doors. As for the back, it’s the ’64 as we know it. Sadly, there are only two known photos of this prototype and we’re genuinely curious about its current whereabouts.
One might think that there was a load of re-engineering involved here. However, one has to remember that the original Ford Mustang was based on the Falcon, a compact car (by American standards) that was designed as a two-door and four door, as well as a station wagon. We’d like to think the company was trying to come up with ways to make the most of its platform. Think of it as one of the earliest forms of modular platforms.
That said, Ford did technically make a four-door Mustang later on although it didn’t wear the Mustang badge. In the late-70s, the Mustang shifted to the Fox chassis that underpinned several models that included would sustain the company throughout the ‘80s. But the real ‘four-door Mustang’ arrived in 1984 with the LTD LX.
As it was based on the Mustang, Ford thought it was wise to stick in the 5.0-liter V8 under the sedan’s hood. Because of the extra grunt, it was a popular choice for police fleets in the US. It was short-lived, however, only being produced for two model years before the front-wheel drive Taurus took its place. Since then, Ford has yet to make a V8-powered, rear-wheel drive midsize sedan.
Had the Ford Mustang sedan been made as early as the ‘60s, it could have significantly changed the course of the car’s history. Ford could have been a pioneer of sport sedans, a segment that the company had to play catch up with upon the arrival of German marques, particularly BMW.
Conversely, it could’ve flopped and dragged down the entire Mustang range and kill off the entire pony car genre. It’s unknown why Ford pulled the plug on the Mustang sedan, but we’re sure there’s a good reason for that.
