The people who designed and created the 2015 Ford Mustang are like character actors. Even though a teenager in Sheboygan, Wisconsin might not be able to look at 2015 Mustang Chief Engineer Dave Pericak and tell you his name, he or she is familiar with his work.
There’s another similarity: Just as an actor playing someone famous, such as Marlon Brando, in a film has a great responsibility to his fans to do the legend justice, Mustang designers had to produce a car that would take the nameplate into the future without alienating those who love its previous generations.
No pressure. Only the entire world watched to see how Ford would commemorate the 50th anniversary of its car that changed the automotive landscape. Now, 51 years after the Mustang debuted at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Ford brings you an inside look at how the 2015 Mustang was designed and the expectations Ford’s stylists and engineers faced while working on it.
They proved that bigger is not always better. The visually shrink-wrapped new car’s hood and roof are both 30 mm lower and its rear end has been dropped a whopping 70 mm. Combine those changes with a 40-mm wider rear end and you’ve got a Mustang that looks leaner and sleeker than the car it replaces. If you happen to see an S550 parked next to an S197 Mustang, you’ll easily spot the differences all that streamlining made.
Later this week, you’ll see how the Blue Oval’s Mustang team decided on the looks of the new version’s interior.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
