The Classic Ford Mustang

• Lee Iococca had originally estimated that Ford would sell 100,000 Mustangs in the first year of production. Over 100,000 Mustangs were sold in the first four months.
  
  
• The largest engine offered in a production Mustang was the 429 cu.inch V8 generating 375 HP introduced in 1969 as "The Boss".
  
  
• In 1966 Hertz Rent-A-Car purchased almost 1,000 Shelby GT350's which could be rented for $17/day and 17 cents per mile.
  
  
• The "Galloping Mustang" logo has the horse running in the wrong direction for a horse race track.
  
  
• In the 1960's and early 70's, it was possible to order a new Mustang in any color you wanted.

• The word "Mustang" comes from the Spanish word, mesteno, meaning "wild or untamed" horse.
  
  
• Names that were considered for the Mustang included Torino, Cougar, Colt, Bronco, Pinto, and Maverick
  
  
• The name Mustang was suggested by John Conley, of Ford's advertising agency.
  
  
• The Mustang was originally known as the T-5. This designation was also used by the German export version of the car when it was determined that the name "Mustang" was already being used by a German truck maker.
  

In homage to this summer's Dream Cruise, Detroit Free Press staff writer Sally Tato will cruise Woodward all week in a 1965 Mustang. Oh baby, you haven't cruised until you've had Sir Mack Rice riding shotgun belting out "Mustang Sally" from behind his shades.

I picked up Rice -- a longtime Detroiter -- at Euro-Tech Motors in Royal Oak where he was getting his car serviced Thursday afternoon. Ya didn't think I'd be Mustang Sally all week without getting the story from the man behind the song, did ya?

So Rice bent his 6-foot-2 frame into my Mustang and we cruised for miles talking about his asphalt company, his '85 Mercedes with the SIR MAC license plate and why in all of Dream Cruise history no one has ever asked him to perform his cruisin' classic.

He said he figures people don't know who he is because songwriters get less attention than singers. Turns out Rice not only wrote "Mustang Sally," but he recorded it, too. The Wilson Pickett version is the one most of us know.

And to think the song started as a joke back in 1965.

Rice was out in New York at Della Reese's place when he heard her band leader was looking for a new car. Rice figured the guy would want a Lincoln, a big-daddy luxury car.

Oh no. He wanted a Mustang.

"I said, 'Man, you got to be out of your mind. You want that little car instead of a Lincoln?' " So Rice started writing.

He called the song "Mustang Mama" at first.

The chorus "Ride Sally ride" came courtesy of "rise Sally rise" from the Little Sally Walker children's rhyme Rice liked while growing up in Clarksdale, Miss. Back in Detroit, he took "Mustang Mama" over to Aretha Franklin's home to put it to music. She heard it and told Rice to make a switch.

Call it "Mustang Sally," she told him. He did. It got recorded.

And the song still brings Rice royalties to this day.

"I feel blessed," he said at the end of our cruise. Me too.

Story by Sally Tato, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

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