As a kid in the ’90s, I basically believed that the nicest cars resembled a bar of soap. That’s why the original Mustang SN95 – not the “New frontier“Refresh (which one .) not extremely new edge-y, let’s be real) – has aged beautifully to my eyes. I suppose my opinion is partly a reaction to the increasingly hysterical attitude of touring cars over the past 20 years, but that is neither here nor there.
I cherish the memory of the fourth-generation Mustang because I recently stumbled across a trio of pre-production designs that I somehow missed when Ford brought them back in 2013. These won’t be new to Mustang fanatics, but they’re still fun to mull over, because there’s nothing more exciting than what could be.
You may already know that the SN95 is an unplanned project from Ford. Back in the late ’80s, automakers were very confident in New Probe that they intend to quietly retire the Mustang with the third-generation Fox body. Worse, it was unexpected that people would be so upset about it.
That, of course, did not happen. Once Ford realized the love for the Mustang was still going strong, the engineers more or less had to work with what they had in the Fox platform, while the designers did what they could to tweak the skeletons. old in a new, forward-looking way.
That led to three outside proposals — dubbed “Jenner,” “Schwarzenegger” and “Rambo” — from friendly to the ferocious appearance. The Schwarzenegger, seen above, has finally gotten the green light, and the production Mustang we received is nearly identical to this concept, save for a bit of tweaking to the lower front fender.
As for the rejected designs, they don’t look so similar that they could come from different brands. In Jenner’s pitch, we see the rounded surfaces and general hardness that would define much of the Blue Oval’s line-up of the ’90s, with cars like the “Ovoid” Taurus and the Escort ZX2. It’s even more reserved than the production SN95.
That said, now that we’ve come a long way from a time when every new car looked like this, I’m really learning about Jenner’s design. It has a little Cadillac Catera/Opel Omega in the headlights. There’s subtle sportiness in the way the hood merges with those flared fenders, along with the single, uninterrupted cut that extends from the deck across the plane, all combining for a very clean look. and handsome, if restrained.
On the other hand, Rambo looks like an alien reptile before it lunges at you. It’s busier and the contours are much more silly, with “teeth” below the fog lights and a gap between the rear edge of the side windows and the B-pillar, hinting at a second pair of air vents. The small spoiler connecting those two giant wraparound taillights would also have been highly unusual for the time.
This is a more forklift truck than a coupe and much less pedestrian than the other two proposals. I appreciate the simplicity of the last SN95 we got, the Rambo concept exuding a sense of urgency and importance for the Mustang, as if Ford was aiming for the rougher and more sinister Dodge Viper. I wonder how the carriage might have evolved into what it is today if the fourth-generation model looked like that.
In the end, Ford management decided to opt for the mid-way Schwarzenegger proposal – the kind of compromise you’d expect from the Big Three in the ’90s. The rest is history. Which brings us to my final question: Which of the three do you like best?
