What do you say when asked if it's a Mach 1, but it's not?
- Thread starter TheDude
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Were the orange lenses from an export 69 Mustang? Only red lenses on US sold cars.
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Yes of course, but I'm not going to tell someone who's already a little confused and try and explain that my car that isn't a Mach 1 also is a fastback to most of the car world, but not for ford for those particular years. So it's a fastback, but not a fastback but yes it's fastback.
On the convertible, the thing that really jumps out at me is those raised rear hips. That body line from the side is miles different than the non vert models and very much like the lines on the 67-69 Camaro.
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Try explaining what a “Sprint “ , you will probably blow their mind . I’ve done this before.
Lazarus
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I know it’s silly brother! My point was that if you think about it super-technically… if Ford made zero “fastbacks” those years (specifically calling them sportsroofs) but did make many Mach 1s, in a way a person calling it a Mach 1 is closer to correct than a person calling it a fastback.Yes of course, but I'm not going to tell someone who's already a little confused and try and explain that my car that isn't a Mach 1 also is a fastback to most of the car world, but not for ford for those particular years. So it's a fastback, but not a fastback but yes it's fastback.
Now I actually don’t know for a fact that Ford never once called them fastbacks. It would surprise me if the term didn’t slip into the marketing somewhere (like at a random dealership or something at least); I am just going by what fellas a lot more knowledgeable than me say. I also know that “fastback” has come to mean a more general body-style in car parlance. My point was just that whatever our response, we should be gracious about it so someone trying to make a connection doesn’t feel like they got their nose slapped. That’s all I was getting at.
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Correct. My '72 convertible has the Exterior Decor Group. It did include the Mach 1-style grille with sportlamps, two-tone paint, caps 'n rings, and some other stuff.
People often ask me if my convertible is a Mach 1 since it looks like a Mach 1 without the sloped roof. I've had to explain it countless times at 30-something years of car shows. I often overhear "experts" telling their buddies that it's a Mach 1. I don't bother correcting them because I hate arguing.
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Geez, so much about something of such little impact on our daily lives, just adding turmoil where turmoil is not needed or even wanted. Yet, I have my own few quick stories to share, just because the spirit so moves me to do so...
Back in 1979 or so I was working as a technician at a Ford dealership n San Bernardino. I loved working there as a technician I was a big Mustang/Shelby fan even back then (since 1967 or so). I knew those First Generation Mustangs inside and out, having owned a 69 HardTop/Coupe, and a 69 Mach 1 by then ( both gone by 1976, because life "happened"). Sadly, being at a dealership meant seeing mostly newer model year Fords, and usually few cars more than 4 or 5 years old. But, when a 69 or 70 Mustang came in I was really happy to work on them, even the 71-73, or pre-69 model years. But the 69 & 70 model year Mustangs were very special to me, especially the 69 models as I loved their quad headlight look.
Anyway, one day I guy brought in his really nice looking Mustang, which at first glance looked like a Mach 1 as it had all the correct striping and hood blackout schema. It was there because of a poor fuel mileage and sluggish performance complaint, with a request for a tune-up. When I hooked up our Sun oscilloscope to check its overall condition I was surprised to see the primary and secondary ignition looked perfect. I pulled a few spark plugs and saw they were not only new, but a decent brand (Autolite or Motorcraft), and they had no indication of a fuel or oil issue. The ignition points looked new, and the dwell angle was right on spec. Usually when I saw a recently tuned car come in for a tune-up I find a tune-up was often recently performed, but some other situation was not yet corrected.
My normal process before tuning a car was to check the plugs, and points.condenser for older electro-mechanical ignition systems. I would also make certain the distributor vacuum advance was connected to a Ported Vacuum source, then test the vacuum advance diaphragm was not leaking or ruptured, Usually over half or the diaphragms I would check were leaking or ruptured, and this particular diaphragm was also ruptured.
The owner was waiting in the customer lounge, so I went to go see him to ask some questions. I asked him to come back with me, and along the way explained that I found the ruptured diaphragm and told him how it would be adversely impacting his fuel mileage and low end (around town city) performance. He approved the replacement, and I told him for me to tune his engine with yet another set of plugs, points, and condenser would be wasteful as the prior technician used good parts and did a good job from what I could tell (another Ford store in Riverside). So, he was going to get the proper repair for less than the tune-up would have been, so he was very pleased. I kept chatting with him about the car while replacing the failed part, and shared some info about those 69 Mustangs that he was not familiar with.
At some point I told him the 69 Mach 1s came with the premium molded inner door panels, as opposed to the flat, standard panels. He then looked at me quizzically and asked if that meant his car was not a real Mach 1. He had just purchased it a few months prior from a downtown used car lot. I told him the best easy to tell was by the Body Code being a 63C, and the side stripes with proper hood blackout schema were good indicators.
In his case the inner door panels were flat, the passenger side of the dash did not have the Mach 1 emblem, and the entire hood was painted flat black. While road testing the car I swapped places so he could see how much better the engine ran (351W 4v), and he was pleased, When we go back to the dealership I looked up the Model Code qnd verified he had a SportsRoof, but not a Mach 1. He looked so dejected, and I told him that for many people they would think he had a "real" Mach 1, but the reality is there were no appreciable performance differences with the Mach 1, and his car had some great options (including factory A/C. I hated to tell him about his car to that level of detail, but in the end he realixed he still had a really nice Mustang, and once that ran really well. I had nudged his ignition tming to 12 degrees BTSC, as there is where those engine began to really wake up. I decided to never tell anyone their Mustang was not a real Mach 1 ever again, unless asked point blank. To do otherwise did not serve any real purpose, and with this one guy he was really upset for a moment about not having a real Mach 1.
Many years later, about 2023 or so, I drove our 73 Mach 1 over to a local parts store for some rubber fuel line, hose clamps, and coolant. While walking toward the registers I heard one of their counter reps sak, "Did you guys see that cool looking old Charger out there?!?" There were only a handful of cars in their parking lot, and none of them was anything close to being an older Charger. I was about to say something, but one of his fellow workers exclained, "Cool car!" So I let it lay and said nothing. After all he was right about one things, it was a really cool looking older car. So, why burst his bubble?
When I first looked at our 73 Mach 1, when considering buying it a few years ago, there were no Mach 1 side stripes, although the hood had the correct blackout paint schema. So I looked at the VIN and determined it was indeed a real Mach 1, and bought it. It turns out the prior owner had it repainted and opted to not have the side stripes installed. Funny thing, by 1973 the Mach 1 no longer included the premium, sculpted inner door handles like the 1969 model year (and others). Our 7s Mach 1 inner panels are the standard flat design. The 73 Mustang Convertible does have the premium side panels, however. The attached photo of what happened to my older 69 Mach 1 when a friend was using it downtown. A sad end to say the least. The other photo is of our current fleet of pony cars:
Gil
Back in 1979 or so I was working as a technician at a Ford dealership n San Bernardino. I loved working there as a technician I was a big Mustang/Shelby fan even back then (since 1967 or so). I knew those First Generation Mustangs inside and out, having owned a 69 HardTop/Coupe, and a 69 Mach 1 by then ( both gone by 1976, because life "happened"). Sadly, being at a dealership meant seeing mostly newer model year Fords, and usually few cars more than 4 or 5 years old. But, when a 69 or 70 Mustang came in I was really happy to work on them, even the 71-73, or pre-69 model years. But the 69 & 70 model year Mustangs were very special to me, especially the 69 models as I loved their quad headlight look.
Anyway, one day I guy brought in his really nice looking Mustang, which at first glance looked like a Mach 1 as it had all the correct striping and hood blackout schema. It was there because of a poor fuel mileage and sluggish performance complaint, with a request for a tune-up. When I hooked up our Sun oscilloscope to check its overall condition I was surprised to see the primary and secondary ignition looked perfect. I pulled a few spark plugs and saw they were not only new, but a decent brand (Autolite or Motorcraft), and they had no indication of a fuel or oil issue. The ignition points looked new, and the dwell angle was right on spec. Usually when I saw a recently tuned car come in for a tune-up I find a tune-up was often recently performed, but some other situation was not yet corrected.
My normal process before tuning a car was to check the plugs, and points.condenser for older electro-mechanical ignition systems. I would also make certain the distributor vacuum advance was connected to a Ported Vacuum source, then test the vacuum advance diaphragm was not leaking or ruptured, Usually over half or the diaphragms I would check were leaking or ruptured, and this particular diaphragm was also ruptured.
The owner was waiting in the customer lounge, so I went to go see him to ask some questions. I asked him to come back with me, and along the way explained that I found the ruptured diaphragm and told him how it would be adversely impacting his fuel mileage and low end (around town city) performance. He approved the replacement, and I told him for me to tune his engine with yet another set of plugs, points, and condenser would be wasteful as the prior technician used good parts and did a good job from what I could tell (another Ford store in Riverside). So, he was going to get the proper repair for less than the tune-up would have been, so he was very pleased. I kept chatting with him about the car while replacing the failed part, and shared some info about those 69 Mustangs that he was not familiar with.
At some point I told him the 69 Mach 1s came with the premium molded inner door panels, as opposed to the flat, standard panels. He then looked at me quizzically and asked if that meant his car was not a real Mach 1. He had just purchased it a few months prior from a downtown used car lot. I told him the best easy to tell was by the Body Code being a 63C, and the side stripes with proper hood blackout schema were good indicators.
In his case the inner door panels were flat, the passenger side of the dash did not have the Mach 1 emblem, and the entire hood was painted flat black. While road testing the car I swapped places so he could see how much better the engine ran (351W 4v), and he was pleased, When we go back to the dealership I looked up the Model Code qnd verified he had a SportsRoof, but not a Mach 1. He looked so dejected, and I told him that for many people they would think he had a "real" Mach 1, but the reality is there were no appreciable performance differences with the Mach 1, and his car had some great options (including factory A/C. I hated to tell him about his car to that level of detail, but in the end he realixed he still had a really nice Mustang, and once that ran really well. I had nudged his ignition tming to 12 degrees BTSC, as there is where those engine began to really wake up. I decided to never tell anyone their Mustang was not a real Mach 1 ever again, unless asked point blank. To do otherwise did not serve any real purpose, and with this one guy he was really upset for a moment about not having a real Mach 1.
Many years later, about 2023 or so, I drove our 73 Mach 1 over to a local parts store for some rubber fuel line, hose clamps, and coolant. While walking toward the registers I heard one of their counter reps sak, "Did you guys see that cool looking old Charger out there?!?" There were only a handful of cars in their parking lot, and none of them was anything close to being an older Charger. I was about to say something, but one of his fellow workers exclained, "Cool car!" So I let it lay and said nothing. After all he was right about one things, it was a really cool looking older car. So, why burst his bubble?
When I first looked at our 73 Mach 1, when considering buying it a few years ago, there were no Mach 1 side stripes, although the hood had the correct blackout paint schema. So I looked at the VIN and determined it was indeed a real Mach 1, and bought it. It turns out the prior owner had it repainted and opted to not have the side stripes installed. Funny thing, by 1973 the Mach 1 no longer included the premium, sculpted inner door handles like the 1969 model year (and others). Our 7s Mach 1 inner panels are the standard flat design. The 73 Mustang Convertible does have the premium side panels, however. The attached photo of what happened to my older 69 Mach 1 when a friend was using it downtown. A sad end to say the least. The other photo is of our current fleet of pony cars:
- 1969 Shelby GT500
- 1973 Mach 1
- 1973 Mustang Convertible
- 2020 Shelby GT500
Gil
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The photo of your 1969 was was painful to see Gil !!
Hi Chuck. The Hoosier rubbers on the rear are 15 inches wide on 15 inch chrome steel rims and there mounted on a Jaguar IRS from the 5.3ltr Jaguar XJS.
Orange Lens.--- I picked these up from an American Custom car show about16 years ago. A guy was selling these individual Orange indicator lens that he had manufactured them him self at his work place. He worked in a Plastics Blow Moulding factory. I idea was to remove and cut out one of the Red lenses from the cluster of three, and replace it with an Orange one. This would give you an Orange indicator but only 2 Red driving lights and brake lights. I opted to go for the ionic Mustang cluster of 3 red lights and 1 orange indicator. I think its a one off, I have never seen this done before here in the UK.
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My friend was in it when the was hit, and was trapped in the driver cabin until some folks helped him out. Both legs were broken. I really felt badly for him, not just the legs being broken - but obviously for having lost such a nice car.
The photo attached to this post is of the same car years earlier, in mid-1974. I was in front of my parents' home in Woodland Hills, CA. With my hair as long as it was in the photo it is clear I was not yet in the Army (11/74). Behind me is my younger brother next to his new 1975 Mach 1 with the 302 in it (74 did not offer a v-8). In the driveway is my father's 1974 Lincoln Mark IV, a nice car with a beastly 460 engine in it. I find this photo a lot easier to look at as compared to the photo showing it when it got crunched. Good times back then, even when I was in the Army.
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I just say No, my car has crank-down rear windows.
But it isnt a fastback. They didn’t make fastbacks after 1970. It IS a sports roof though. If we gonna educate them then we need to use the right nomenclature.
2 is NOT a fastback. It is a sportsroof. No fastbacks were made after 1970
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Sportsroof was a Ford marketing term, fastback is an actual recognized automotive body style. Ford started using sportsroof with the 1969 model year Mustang and full size Ford models, then in 1970 for the Torino. The 71-73 Mustang sportsroofs are technically a Kammback body style. The 69-70 full size Ford Sportsroof was simply a 2 dr hardtop with buttressed C-pillars, much like the 71-73 Cougar hardtops.
The Kammback though, also referred to the sharp-edged, flat tail end. It was supposed to provided aerodynamic advantages..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammback
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I usually key the body style as "SportsRoof/FastBack," which covers both bases. It is also a bit educational for those whose curiosity is spurred by the "SportsRoof" term. But, in the end I do not try to "correct" anyone calling a SportsRoof Mustang body style a FastBack. Either term communicates what the speaker wishes to convey. Same for HardTop vs Coupe. I understand what is being conveyed, so no sense in me trying to educuminate anyone else, lest I be branded a wannabe know-it-all of some sort. Life is too short, especially now that I a fairly preserved 70.
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Sorta like NACA vs NASA hood.
Spike Morelli
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If you have a '71-'73 Mustang, with the "fastback-style" roofline, ,.... and It's NOT a Mach 1, It's a SPORTSROOF, simple as that. Let others call it what they may, but you, as the owner, should know the body style. Just as Camaros that aren't Z-28s, are simply coupes.
Its not worth turning into the "well ackchyully" know-it-all guy over. Colloquially, these were known as fastbacks for decades. If somebody calls it a fastback, you know exactly what they mean.
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I prefer the term "flatback" for the 7123 sloping rear deck models myself...
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