Chance of being mass-produced: That's not really the point
If you believe the pitch, Ford didn't go to famed Italian design house Italdesign and ask them to build a custom Mustang; Italdesign came to Ford. So inspired by the new Mustang generation were Italdesign's legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro and his son, Fabrizio, that they asked to reprise the father's previous Mustang project, the 1965 Bertone Mustang.
Like that product, the new Mustang by Giugiaro is described as a Mustang in an Italian suit. The front carries a Mustang influence, but it also recalls the BMW 6 Series. (Don't you think today's car designers would look at the Mustang and this derivation and realize that headlights look better when they don't crawl up the hood and fenders?) This one-off shares the Mustang's roofline, but the short rear deck and overhang are even shorter here. The rear end and its rising fender line have fueled comparisons (angry ones, in our KickingTires blog) to the Chevrolet Camaro concept. Italdesign widened the car by a few inches overall but tapered the sheet metal inward at low points to the underlying structure, resulting in a swoopier form.
The sleek car is made slicker with 20-inch wheels and a ride height lowered 1.5 inches by the Ford Racing Handling Pack, an aftermarket-style package for the Mustang GT that includes shorter springs and different shock absorber and stabilizer bar rates.
Ford Racing gave the 4.6-liter V-8 engine something of a Shelby GT500 treatment by adding a supercharger, conical air filter and a performance exhaust for roughly 500 horsepower.
The interior is also redone, behind vertically opening scissor doors and under a single glass-panel roof that runs from the hood to the trunklid (or where a trunk would be if the car had one). The brown-themed interior is characterized by dark-brown horsehide upholstery and genuine mottled horsehide inserts. How far the Italian stallions have fallen.
For additional coverage of the Los Angeles Auto Show, visit our blog, KickingTires.
— Reported by
Joe Wiesenfelder, Cars.com; photographed by Tor Rolf Johansen, Cars.com; additional images courtesy of the manufacturer
