The Ford Mustang is perhaps one of America’s biggest contributions to the car world, and it’s also a pop culture phenomenon. But there used to be another model by that name known across the globe. We’re talking about Harrison Ford, who turns 79 this month. Just kidding, it’s the P-51 Mustang, of course.
Today is the 4th of July, and there are many ways to celebrate America, like fireworks, barbeques, and even burnouts. Our social media feeds are flooded with shorts of red, white, and blue cars and flags. But this stood out, and we immediately knew what was going on, even before reading the description.
Artist Abimelec Arellano has created a Mustang-based tribute to the other Mustang. At its core, this is a 1969 version of the iconic muscle car presented in the fastback body. The mods aren’t radical, and you could say they’re hot rod-like.
The ’69 Mustang sits way lower with fender wells cut out to make room for Goodyear Bluestreak tires on golden steelies. But it’s the bodywork that’s magical here, all-metal, polished, and finished off with shark’s teeth on both sides.
Both hot rod and rat rod cultures got heavy inspiration from the military. We’ve seen a lot of 32 roadsters with shark teeth. So that could be one way to explain the steelies. But they could also be inspired by the look of a Jeep Willys.
Shark teeth aren’t specific to the American P-51 Mustang, though the airplane did wear them well. The British version of the Mustang also had them painted on sometimes. And I particularly like them on seabirds like the F6F Hellcat or attack helicopters like the Cobra.
As for the silver finish in the rendering, there are at least two ways of looking at this. Towards the end of the war, the allies had air superiority. So instead of camouflage, Mustangs were like quarters, a sort of “come at me, bro” to the enemies. Also, the Korean War mustangs were silver too.
But I also remember some highly modified Mustangs for the Reno Air Races with modified engines pushing double the normal power, and those are also pretty shiny
