Fabrizio Giugiaro, the 41-year-old styling director of Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, called the redesigned 2005 Ford Mustang “the most beautiful Mustang I’d seen in decades.” The son of legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, he saw the new pony car as a personal challenge.
At the 2005 Detroit auto show, Giugiaro approached Ford’s chief creative officer, J Mays. “I want to do my next concept car for Ford,” he said, “I want the new Mustang!” Mays paused briefly before agreeing. That conversation led to the Giugiaro Ford Mustang Concept, which debuted at the Los Angeles auto show in November 2006 and was scheduled for its European unveiling at the Geneva motor show in March 2007.
Before its trip to Switzerland, Motor Trend conducted an exclusive drive of the one-of-a-kind, multi-million-dollar concept car. It is a fully functioning automobile, not just a static display. Fabrizio Giugiaro traveled from Italy to be present for the drive and to take a few laps himself at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
A Designer’s Vision for an Icon
Giugiaro’s project had a long gestation period. Work was interrupted when his father diverted resources to create a Ferrari 612-based GG50 concept car. Once that was complete, Fabrizio resumed work on the Mustang. “I made some early sketches, some too retro and some too far out,” he explained. He ultimately chose a “two-box-and-a-half shape, like a fastback,” making the car smaller, lower, and wider, more like a Corvette.
The final design, completed in September 2006, is immediately recognizable as a Mustang yet distinct. The concept car is more than two inches shorter, two inches lower, and over four inches wider than the production model. It features a glass roof that flows from the hoodline to the rear deck, and scissor doors that raise and lower electrically.
“Because this is a concept car, it has to be more sporty, more extreme,” Giugiaro said of the glass, which is made of a special crystal filtering out 100 percent of UVA rays. He admitted it might be replaced with glass before the Geneva show. The designer is refreshingly candid, wishing he had stretched the platform slightly for better track handling.
The Design Philosophy
Fabrizio Giugiaro saw the 2005 Mustang as a challenge he could not ignore. It was a delicate proposition, but necessary for him to create a new design while still representing the icon. The goal was to maintain the Mustang’s identity while showing a different approach.
The designer wanted to prove that Italdesign could create concepts that are real, working cars, not just fantasies. This was important for the business. He regularly drove prototypes with his father, including the Mustang Concept, around Turin.
Giugiaro acknowledged the car’s long development period. He is particularly proud of the front wheel arches, which flow smoothly into the front clip. The scissor doors do the Lamborghini one better by raising and lowering electrically.
An Italian-American Cockpit
If the exterior blends American muscle with Italian flair, the interior is pure Torino. Chrome-ringed analog gauges float on a door-to-door expanse of glossy black Plexiglas. When the car is switched on, three TV screens, fed by cameras replacing the mirrors, bring the dash to life. A chrome shifter shaped like a connecting rod rises from the center console.
Almost every surface is trimmed in orange or dark-brown horsehide. “For effect, I tell people it’s horsehide,” Giugiaro laughed. “But really it’s cow.” The only familiar element is the Mustang emblem on the steering wheel. The effect, from the driver’s seat, has the cool of a James Bond movie set, offering an unobstructed view of the sky and the F-22 Raptors at a nearby air force base. Pressing a dash rocker glides the doors down with a click. There is no ignition key; the engine starts with two pushes of a button.
On the track, the supercharged V-8 roaring, the Mustang Concept behaves like a production car. “There are squeaks and shimmies you wouldn’t find in a production Mustang,” the review noted, “but overall the Concept is uncompromised: After 30,000 man-hours of development, it’s every bit the fast, exceptionally debonair, reality-grounded Mustang Fabrizio Giugiaro intended it to be.”
When asked if the concept was a preview of the 2010 production Mustang, Giugiaro was adamant. “Absolutely not,” he insisted. “I have seen the designs for the new Mustang, and while it is very modern and very lovely, it is not my car.” Ultimately, the project serves as a calling card for Italdesign. “At the moment we are not working with any American automakers,” he said, “but with this Mustang for Ford we have designed an exciting, driveable car that fits with America’s unique rules, one that’s fully capable of being produced.”
