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 EV, 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. Here are a few of the more interesting examples.

These life-size renderings, dated July 14, 1961, look to have come from the initial idea that Ford needed to build a poor-man’s Thunderbird. This would have been on the heels of the Edsel disaster and at a time when Thunderbird sales had soared after a back seat was added, so it would’ve taken a miracle to get a car like this built. The design was smart looking though: Its top was reminiscent of the 1961-1963 Thunderbird, but in profile it was devoid of anything resembling fins. It looked to be as small as a first-generation Mazda Miata, but with a V-8 engine. When you consider the original Windsor was just 221 cubic inches, that doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Photography by The Ford Motor Company.

The Mustang 1 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.

Read more about other Mustang concept designs...