Ford once planned to race fiberglass-bodied Mustang touring cars

Tucked away on page nine of the May 9, 1964 issue of Competition Press and Autoweek is an intriguing little story: “FIA Rejects Ford Bid for Homolgation [sic].”

At the time, the Mustang had just made its world debut, but Ford was already scheming to fold the car into its “Total Performance” campaign. The automaker apparently proposed to do so with a fleet of crazy fiberglass-bodied touring cars.

According to Competition Press, Ford tried to get the new Mustang classified as a touring car for international racing. “Ford's request for homologation,” we explained, "described the Mustang as a car with all fiberglass body, disc brakes on all four wheels, and a 289 cubic-inch displacement engine equipped with four dual-throat Weber carburetors.”

Save for that 289 cu.-in. motor (which sucked air and gas through a four-barrel carb in production form, not quad Webers), not much about this hypothetical Mustang touring car looked like the vehicles enthusiasts would eventually buy and race. It took a few years for the Mustang to sport disc brakes, for example. And though it isn't mentioned, we suspect the touring car would have had independent rear suspension to better compete with European offerings.

FIA officials rejected the request out of hand, noting that Ford had made no effort to even begin building the 1,000 cars required for homologation. The same officials noted that Ford made no bid to get the car classified as a Grand Touring car, either (that class had a lower homologation threshold of 100 cars). Nor did the Blue Oval try to have a steel-bodied Mustang homologated as a Touring Car at the time -- despite meeting all the requirements for that classification.

Of course, it wasn't long before the Mustang saw racing success, especially once the likes of Shelby American and Holman Moody got involved in the effort to put the car on the tracks worldwide. But it's fascinating to imagine what a fiberglass-bodied pony car would have looked and handled like -- and where the 1,000 examples that would have had to have been built for homologation purposes would have wound up. Or how much they'd be worth at auction -- a 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R recently sold for nearly $1,000,000 at an RM Auctions event.

Enjoy the news brief below, and note Shelby American, Inc.'s ad for Weber 48 mm downdraft carburetors -- they're the exclusive distributor west of the Mississippi, you know.

Ford's bid to have the 1965 Mustang homologated by the FIA rejected

The Ford Mustang turns 50 years old during 2014; to celebrate the many lives of America's favorite pony car, we'll be posting selections from our archives. Check out our Mustang mini-site where you'll find news, road tests, sneak peeks and even classic Mustang ads from the pages of Autoweek. We'll also have all the latest news and photos surrounding the redesigned 2015 Ford Mustang as it rolls out, so stay tuned.

By Graham Kozak