Congratulations on your decision to purchase the latest from Ford — the Mach 1. If you’ve owned or leased a Ford product in the past, we’re glad you’re back. If this is your first Ford vehicle, welcome to the Ford family! We are confident that our dedication to performance, quality, craftsmanship and customer service will ensure many miles of exhilarating, safe and comfortable driving in your new Mach 1.

Your choice of a Ford product is an intelligent and informed one. Ford strives to build engaging vehicles that involve the driver in every aspect of the driving experience. Although performance is at the heart of every Ford vehicle, we go much further. Our goal is to deliver a comprehensive, complete vehicle, sweating the details such as the sound of the exhaust, the quality of the interior materials, and the functionality and the comfort of the seats, to ensure that the driver enjoys not only exceptional performance but an outstanding driving environment as well. In the Mach 1, that philosophy is expressed by a sophisticated powertrain, outstanding chassis dynamics and significant interior and exterior enhancements.

This supplement complements your Mustang Owner’s Manual and provides information specific to the Mach 1. By referring to the pages listed in this supplement, you can identify those features, recommendations and specifications unique to your new vehicle. If there are any discrepancies between this supplement and the Mustang Owner’s Manual, this supplement shall supersede the information found in the Mustang Owner’s Manual.

The Ford Mustang has been celebrated over the past half-century with many special performance versions, including several unique models that have proudly carried their own nomenclature. There have been HiPos, Shelbys and GTs, plus California Specials, Bosses, Cobras, SVOs and 5.0s, Cobra Jets and Bullitts – each with distinct design cues and equipment enhancements targeted at specific buyers. Of them all, perhaps the best-known and most accessible to the widest owner base is the Mustang Mach 1, a sporty fastback first introduced in 1969 that had the look, features and performance that helped define the muscle car era.

In postwar America, the Jet Age influence was all the rage -- especially in the auto industry, where tail fins and air intakes influenced progressive car designs. It was then when the terms Mach 1 and Sound Barrier became part of public conversation, as jets and rockets were being employed in aeronautic experiments to help humankind soar past the speed of sound.

Ford’s first use of the Mach 1 name came on a concept vehicle – a wheel-less single-seat pod tethered to an arm that allowed it to glide on a cushion of air around a circular track set up at the Ford Rotunda in the spring of 1959. Ford’s Levacar Mach 1 Concept was an air-propulsion flying car of sorts, suggesting that vehicles in the future could use ducted air to levitate and maneuver at high speed while off the ground.

The Mach 1 name was resurrected in 1966 for another Ford concept car that was meant to preview some aerodynamic and styling advances for a futuristic high-performance Mustang fastback. The two-seat Mustang Mach 1 Concept that was shown at the 1967 Detroit Auto Show featured a slanted areo-grille, severely chopped roof, large air scoops and steeply slanted rear glass as part of a full hatchback -- a design feature that wouldn’t appear in production until 1974. Ford updated the Mustang Mach 1 Concept with a new front-end treatment in time for touring the auto show circuit in 1968 to herald the popular pony car’s third styling refresh due the following year.

By the time 1969 had rolled around, the again restyled and upsized Ford Mustang was facing a series of new challenges, both in the muscle car wars taking place out in the marketplace by an onslaught of powerful new competitors, and inside of Ford Motor Company, where a new, Steed for Every Need marketing approach expanded pony car offerings to five distinct models with at least 10 different powertrain combinations. Ford's Mustang had galloped into its fifth model year refreshed with unmistakable good looks, thanks to its 2+2 fastback now called the SportsRoof, featuring upper rear-quarters cut with forward-facing scoops and a dramatic tail that incorporated an upswept rear edge.

Even though the GT equipment group introduced in 1965 was again available for a final year, it was overshadowed for 1969, as the hot ticket was an all-new Mach 1 model – wearing the name borrowed from those radical recent Mustang show cars. The new Mustang Mach 1 came standard with the 351, a desirable mix of appearance enhancements, plus special reflective bodyside stripes and an uplevel interior. Later, a flat-black rear decklid spoiler and a set of rear window louvers were added as dress-up options. To many enthusiasts today, a ’69 Mach 1 equipped with an optional new-for-’69 428 Cobra Jet V-8 is the first true Mustang muscle car and a top-shelf collectible.

Other than yet another front-end freshening (including going back to just two headlamps and adding non-functional outboard air inlets) and the elimination of the side scoops, the biggest change to the 1970 Mustang lineup was a move to the Cleveland-design 351 V-8 over the Windsor 351 version from the year before. The GT model was dropped in the face of the Mach 1's popularity, but the 428CJ engine option was again available across the board. By 1971, Ford’s famed first-generation pony car had already undergone its fourth major facelift, growing in every dimension to accommodate even bigger engines. The ’71 Mustang featured an extended nose with a body that was wider, close to a foot longer and around 600 pounds heavier than the original. The SportsRoof-only Mach 1 model was now Ford's bread-and-butter enthusiast model, especially with the optional new big-block 429 Cobra Jet engine, good for 370 horsepower.

There were only minor changes on tap for Mustang in 1972 and ’73, most of them dealing with the options list and the continuing emasculation of engine offerings and horsepower in the face of emissions and fuel economy regulations, as well as the elimination of a convertible. The automotive performance world soon came to a screeching halt in the wake of an oil embargo and resulting gas shortages, forcing most Americans to abandon their muscle cars and V-8-powered rides in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford saw the market shift as the perfect time to return its pony car to its roots – a compact, affordable, sporty car whose styling and image captured the spirit and imagination of the American public.

When the new-from-the-ground-up, second-generation Mustang II was launched for the 1974 model year, it was the first Mustang equipped with a four-cylinder engine. An all-new 2.3-liter I-4 produced around 90 horses as the standard powerplant for the downsized Mustang II - yet performance was roughly equivalent to the previous Mustang’s big inline six. The Mustang II was available as a hardtop two-door notchback coupe or a three-door hatchback-style fastback. Buyers had a choice of either I-4 or V-6 power, as well as a three-speed automatic or four-speed manual transmissions. To keep Mustang’s performance image going even in a world where consumers favored fuel economy over horsepower, an enthusiast-focused Mustang II Mach 1 model was offered as a three-door hatchback-style fastback, replete with bucket seats.

There’s little question that the saving grace for the Mustang II’s performance reputation came when Ford finally realized it needed to put the 302 V-8 back onto the Mustang option list for 1975-78. The V-8 was available in any model, but first only mated to a three-speed automatic transmission, as a four-speed manual was delayed a full year until a suitable clutch could be tooled up. The two-barrel 302 shoehorned into the Mustang II got catalytic converters to help meet 1976’s tighter emissions standards, and saw an increase to 139 horsepower – nearly equal to the ’73’s standard V-8 power level. The Mach 1’s optional Competition Suspension package offered stiffer springs, adjustable shock absorbers and fatter front and rear stabilizer bars to improve handling, and kept it a popular enthusiast choice over all five years of Mustang II's production. By the dawn of the third-generation Mustang, the Mach name would not return again to the Mustang line until some 25 years later.

After the 1979-93 Fox Body Mustang years had come and gone with the reintroduction of a GT model, new sheet metal on a revamped SN-95 platform helped to rekindle consumer interest in a fourth-generation Ford Mustang. Enthusiasts lavished their attention upon the 1993-1999 Mustang Cobra performance model developed by the Ford Special Vehicle Team skunkworks group, while Ford engineers looked to specialty models to fill the mid-market slot between the standard Mustang GT and the upmarket Cobra.

After the success of the 2001 Bullitt, a new-for-2003 Mach 1 was launched to offer fans some design cues from its '69 namesake, including a blackout hood, black front air-dam extension and rear decklid spoiler – even bodyside scoops. To match its aggressive look and hardware upgrades, the '03 Mach 1 was powered by a 305-horsepower, 4.6L DOHC modular V-8. Unlike the SVT Cobra, the Mach 1 offered an automatic transmission option in lieu of the manual, and consequently drew a new group of enthusiast buyers into the Ford fold. The strong customer response prompted another year of Mach 1 production for 2004, the Mustang's final year on the fourth-gen platform.

Thanks to a popular mix of appearance, features and power, the 1969-73 Mach 1's proved to be everyman's muscle car, and have earned a respected place in Mustang performance lore. Beyond those classic years, the Mach 1 carried over for all five years of the often overlooked 1974-78's before a hiatus that ended with the modern and muscular 2003-04's. Mach 1’s return to the Mustang lineup for 2021 will add a new chapter on modern-day muscle for this beloved model, and will cement its rightful place near the very top of Mustang performance history.

John M. Clor

Enthusiast Communications Manager / FORD PERFORMANCE