Pony cars and the car that sired them.2/26/2009 6:44:38 PMThere were small cars before the Mustang came along in mid 1964, that is true. And there were attempts to sport them up to attract the younger market as buyers. But when Ford General Manager Lee Iacocca (yes he later was head of Chrysler Corp- same guy) and Production Manager Donald N. Frey created the compact Mustang, they created what would become the biggest selling model in the United States with a model for every taste. Within 18 months of production startup they had built and sold over 1 MILLION Mustangs. Nothing since the Model A had accomplished this feat. To keep the costs down the Mustang was based on parts from the Ford Fairlane and Falcon models. The early cars were available with the 200 cid 6 cylinder or the 260 V8 engine, but once the changeover came to the 65 models those were changed to the 250 for the straight 6 and the 289 for the V8. The easiest way to tell a 64 and a half model would be the dashboard light that would say "GEN" for generator instead of the 65 model and later that had "ALT" for alternator. Nothing body wise changed from the two years, basically. Chevrolet for some reason known only to them thought their Corvair was adequate competition for the Mustang and they did not react to the threat for a couple years by which time the Mustang was established with a loyal following.