By Christopher A. Sawyer
The Virtual Driver

(September 15, 2013) Speculation on what form the 2015 Mustang will take is rampant. Rumors suggest a car much like the 2011 Evos concept could have moved to production had not Ford's plans for a global rear-drive platform fallen apart. It's not the first time the Mustang has taken a detour, nor will it be the last; as can be seen by the concepts and ideas that never made it intact into production.

As hard as it is to believe, this is not an early '60s Oldsmobile. It's just one of the concepts put forward in 1962 for Ford's nascent pony car. The roofline does look more Ford than GM, but the horizontal bar grille split by a thin, Pontiac-like V-shaped spear and framed by quad headlights looks like it came out of the design studios in Warren, not Dearborn.

Totally out of place is the front wheel well character line that mimics the cove on an early Corvette.

Two-door sedans were hot at the time, as exemplified by this July 31, 1962 mockup in Ford's design courtyard. About the only thing even remotely sporty about this car, part of the Allegro design portfolio, is the forward-swept grille. The large headlights have 1950s overtones and the Ford Falcon full wheel covers are a real buzzkill. However, note the prototype BMW "Hoffmeister kink" at the trailing edge of the rear window.

This July 30, 1962 full-size tape drawing is of a three-door hatchback that uses hydraulic cylinders to hold the hatch open. Dubbed "Avventura" (the Avventura was later named "Avanti" before being given the Allegro badge), the concept had a unique seating position. Rear passengers entered the car through the hatch, and sat facing the rear, much like station wagon passengers of the day, or Tesla S third-row occupants today. This gave easy access and great headroom, but motion sickness might be a problem. Also, the figures in this drawing look like they are acting out a scene from Good Fellas...

As the Avventura became the Allegro, it moved from tape drawing to clay model. The rear taillights borrow heavily from the 1961-1963 Thunderbird, and the fastback roof stops short of the trailing edge of the rear deck, much like the production Mustang Fastback would. (Mustang designer Gale Halderman wanted the roof of the production car to reach the end of the decklid.) Note the forward-sloped B-pillar, which would have made entry and exit a real head banger, and the extreme rear bias of the cabin. A V12 would fit under that hood! Though the A cars didn't make it, their grille shape was very close to that of the production Mustang.

The first time the public heard "Mustang" follow "Ford" it was on this prototype, the Mustang I. This 1962 stunner had dual radiators mounted amidship, fully independent suspension, a hand-beaten aluminum body, hand-cranked pop-up headlamps, a spaceframe chassis, and a mid-mounted V4 engine mated to a four-speed manual transmission. The powertrain was pulled from Ford's then-secret front-drive small car project (Project "Cardinal"), and mated to a sleek two-seat body. Plans were made for a full-height windshield, removable roof panel, and other production niceties, but the Mustang I didn't have the potential a full four-seater would.

That didn't stop the designers from trying, however, Ford, after all, was in the midst of its "Total Performance" kick and negotiating to buy Ferrari. Old Enzo frustrated the Ford execs at every turn, using the negotiations to get support from Italian auto giant Fiat. With the negotiations over, Henry Ford II wanted nothing more than to beat Ferrari at his own game, and authorized creation of the GT40. This July 11, 1963 sketch shows what happens when you meld the basic shape and layout of the Mustang I with a high-performance closed coupe meant for Le Mans. If only...

Gale Halderman was a designer in Joe Oros' Ford studio, and he was given the assignment to create a new look for Ford's small personal car. The Avventura/Avanti/Allegro designs were too predictable and old. Ford needed something fresh and exciting. In less than a week, Halderman came up with this design, which changed very little as it moved toward production. Dubbed "Cougar", the car had a sloping rear deck and a hint of fins, as well as recessed individual lights.

The clay model of Halderman's design shows a few interesting features. Note the cat (borrowed from Ford's heraldic corporate badge at the time) in what would become the "corral" at the center of the grille. Also, the European-style headlights would never make it to production as they were illegal in the U.S. By regulation, all headlights were round. Most important, however, is the open scoop along the car's flanks filled with grillework copied from the Mustang I. The open scoop proved to be a problem for the engineers who had to make the car affordable and easy to build, and was dropped. Pity.

The idea of a two-seater Mustang never went away, as this April 23, 1964 clay model shows. Though it kept the C-scoop along the flanks and attempted to downsize the production car's roof, it carries a different nose and tail. The rear deck has a definite flavor of the Ford GT prototypes being sketched at Ford's Dearborn design studio at the time, especially in the way that the rear quarter panel sweeps up to meet the deck lid.

If you consider that the Mustang was built off the Ford Falcon's platform, this car (shown with dog dish hubcaps and whitewall tires) comes full-circle. If produced, it would have killed the Mustang's image in the crib.

Worried that Chevrolet's Corvette would be seen as a style leader, Ford designers hastily cobbled together this split-window fastback. Shown in the design courtyard on April 2, 1963, the proposal created a trough in the center of the roof, and filled it with a chrome spear. Two separate windows were used in back, and the effect, especially if the spear was removed, was similar to that of Italian design house Zagato's "double bubble" roof. Undoubtedly, Mustang buyers would have disliked it as much as Corvette owners of the time, though it undoubtedly would have become the model to have as time went on due to its rarity.

It's early January 1964, and the design staff is still working on badging. Though the galloping horse in the corral was the favorite, that didn't stop Ford from looking at alternatives. This version looks like a chess piece located in a small square at the grille's center. It lacks both the motion and emotion of the design that made production, and was better suited as branding for an upscale men's cologne.

October 28, 1966 brought this proposal for a Mustang wagon that carries many cues from the 1969-1970 production car. It's a tantalizing prospect, and one that would have made the rear seat much more hospitable, but probably is not in keeping with the Mustang's image. The Kamm-back roofline would have helped the aerodynamics as well as the cargo capacity, and appealed mightily to young families.

The Mustang Milano concept launched in 1970 as a way to prepare the buying public for the 1971 production Mustang. It shared that car's basics -- a long hood and long fastback -- but was infinitely better looking. The Milano had a stance and presence the production version couldn't match, and borrowed items, like the NACA duct-filled hood, from the Shelby Mustang of the day. It was just one of many examples where the concept promised more than the production design could ever deliver, especially in looks.

The Virtual Driver