raf-cars

"It depends on your definition of CONSIDER". In the BROADEST SENSE of the word, many consider 5F08F100001 the first Mustang. However, it is important to recognize the technical distinction between the "First Mustang" and the "First production Mustang convertible to be assigned a VIN number", that car's correct title. Keep in mind, there were some 150 preproduction cars made at the Allen Park facility before the PRODUCTION cars ever started off the Dearborn line. Even some of the preproduction cars were built on the Dearborn production line, further confusing the issue. Though The Henry Ford (museum) agrees it cannot prove this was the first production Mustang built, we must keep an open mind when using that title and not just make a blanket statement so as to be misleading to a lesser informed Mustanger. History is history, you can't go back and change it.

Can we please get this straight for one more time. Robert Lane's column reported once again that Capt. Stanley Tucker's 64 Mustang convertible, VIN 5F08F100001, was the first Mustang built. Wrong!!! No one, including Ford knows which Mustang was the first one built. I have done considerable research into this report and as the result of my research, the Henry Ford museum Curator on February 3, 1999, agreed to correct the name on the car display at the museum to Mustang Serial number 1 (only). The very technically correct title for this car is : The first production Mustang convertible to be assigned a VIN number. There is no record that can be found that shows which car was first off the assembly line at Dearborn. Ford built those cars out of VIN numerical sequence, so 001 may or may not have been the first off the line. I own this technically correct titled Mustang: The first production Mustang hardtop to be assigned a VIN number. The car is 5F07U100002. It may be that this car or 003 or 004 or 010 was the "first" off the assembly line. Usually a convertible was not the first car off the assembly line. In any event, it cannot be proven that 001 was the first off the assembly line. Hence any reference to it being built first in inaccurate and incorrect. And while we're in the corrections department, the car was not named after the P51 fighter as is commonly reported. It was named after the equine version, the horse. This is well documented historically.