My Passion for Mustang GTs Ch. 01

Back then, being able to go fast in a straight line was more important than being able to stop before hitting something. Back then, straight line performance at the track was more important than going the fastest around a circle with nothing but left hand turns. Now it's all three ingredients with handling just as important as acceleration and being able to stop. Go, turn, and stop, it's surprising how few cars there are that can do all three of those things that every car should do well.

A true testament to my love of cars, Gumball Rally is my favorite car movie and the French Connection with Gene Hackman and Bullitt with Steve McQueen, are my favorite car chase scenes. Top Gear, the original show from the United Kingdom that broadcasts on BBC, with Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond, and, of course, the Stig, is my favorite car television show. Every Sunday, I used to faithfully watch John Davis of MotorWeek discuss cars on public television. Being that I wasn't much in to the mechanics of cars, I didn't much care for the Pat Goss segment of how to care for your car and what to do when you experience a problem. Ralph Nadar, my hero, made us safer at any speed by demanding and championing the cause that car manufacturers make safer cars after the dismal safety record of Chevrolet's Corvair.

Lee Iacocca, right up there with Cheney, as far as I'm concerned, Devils in disguise, more concerned with profits than to recall his unsafe cars, gave us Mustangs and Pintos that exploded in rear end collisions. With the top of the gas tanks that were actually the floor of trunk, instead of positioning them where they should have been under the car, he was non-apologetic that so many loyal, Ford, automotive enthusiast fans were incinerated in a car fire. I'll never forget Lee Iacocca's comment when interviewed on 60 Minutes by correspondent Mike Wallace after being questioned about the exploding gas tanks of collector's beloved 1964 to 1970 Mustangs.

"If you really want a real safe one, trade up. After 35 years, it's time to dump that old Mustang," said Lee Iacocca.

From the lips of the man himself who was responsible for the creation of the beloved Mustang, how about that?

To be continued...