The Ford Mustang is an automotive and cultural touchstone. It has spanned generations, attracting countless enthusiasts along the way, all in search of sporty, affordable performance. You can rattle off the many iterations and editions that’ve made the Mustang special: Shelby’s GTs, the Mach 1s, Bosses, Fox-chassis 5.0s, Cobras, Cobra Rs and Bullitts. In what can only be described as a sign of the times, in 2021 Ford introduced an electric crossover/SUV that it called Mustang Mach E. It’s the first Mustang electric vehicle, but it’s also the first Mustang with four doors, and available all-wheel drive, raising the question, "Is it actually a Mustang?"

Over the years, Ford designers asked themselves questions about door quantities, drive configurations and more, resulting in some interesting Mustang or Mustang-adjacent mockups and design studies. Recently, Dearborn released photographs of some of those concepts to the media.

The Mustang 1, above, is considered by most to be the original Mustang concept and it had almost nothing in common with the car we all know and love. It was an open two-seater with an aluminum body and was powered by a mid-mounted V-4. It made its debut at Watkins Glen in October 1962, with Dan Gurney behind the wheel hot lapping a working prototype. The car in this June 11, 1963, drawing bears a striking resemblance to the Mustang I but with a closed cockpit. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to the GT40 MK I.

Here are a few of the more interesting examples.