Racing driver Dan Gurney demonstrated the Mustang I prototype at Watkins Glen in 1962.
The event took place at the United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, New York, on October 7, 1962. Gurney, an accomplished American road racer and contemporary Formula One driver, drove the fully functional prototype around the circuit in demonstration laps. His performance helped turn the experimental car’s public debut into a major publicity moment.
The Mustang I was very different from the production Mustang introduced for 1964. It was a lightweight, two-seat, mid-engined sports-car prototype with an aluminum body and a V4 engine derived from Ford’s European Taunus program. The production car instead used a more practical four-seat layout and a front-engine platform related to the Ford Falcon.
Gurney’s Watkins Glen run is therefore an important milestone in Mustang history, but it was not a competitive Grand Prix entry. The prototype was being displayed and demonstrated, while Ford used the event to build interest in a possible youth-oriented sports car. The later production Mustang retained the name, not the Mustang I’s basic mechanical layout.