John Clor, Buck Mook and Howard Payne Are Not At All Ashamed Of The Mustang II

How can you mock a car this clean? Full gallery here.

Mustangs had grown fat by the 1973 models. Sales of the pony car had slowed by the 1970s and by late 1970 Lee Iococca, by then president of Ford, had embraced the idea of a smaller Mustang, getting back to its compact Falcon roots. That was well before oil started getting expensive in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur war as the Arab oil producing states started flexing their economic muscles. When the oil crisis hit, making a smaller, more fuel efficient Mustang proved to be a fortuitous move. People flocked to buy the Mustang II just as the original Mustang drew people into Ford showrooms in 1964. The Mustang II era includes some of the highest sales years in the nameplate’s history.

John Clor’s immaculate 1977 Mustang II Cobra II. Note the Malaise Era trifecta of bold graphics, louvers and T-tops. Full gallery here.

Coincidentally, just before Ford released the video with Clor, I had made plans to visit Mustang Alley at the recent Woodward Dream Cruise, specifically to take pictures of Mustang IIs. If I’m the kind of guy who will walk past a half dozen ’69 Camaros to shoot one Corvair, you just know I’ll walk past more mundane Shelbys and Boss 302s to get pics of Mustang IIs.

Nobody knows what happened to the actual TV cars, but the Mustang II was featured on Charlie’s Angels, hence the decal on the spoiler. Don’t TorqThrust wheels look great, even in small sizes? Full gallery here.

In addition to finding a handful of 2nd generation Mustangs hanging out in the Ferndale district court’s parking lot, Clor’s Cobra II was in a premium spot, a place of honor if you will, right on Nine Mile Road with John dressed in a shirt with both Mustang II and Pinto patches, extolling the Mustang II in general and his Cobra II in particular (it’s a genuine Cobra, so to speak, since Ford paid Carroll Shelby $5 a car for the rights to call it one).

Starting with the Firebird TransAm’s “screaming chicken”, it became fashionable in the 1970s to plaster a huge decal of some kind of fauna on the hood, in this case, a cobra. The Mustang II got a snake, the TransAm got a bird, and the Hornet based AMC AMX got a bug. This was the only Mustang II that I could find among over 800 Mustangs at the Mustang Memories show. Mustang enthusiasts generally don’t have fond memories of the Pinto derived Mustang II, but it was hardly the worst car of the era. Full gallery here.

Clor hasn’t been the only person who worked at Ford whom I’ve met at car shows that is not at all ashamed of the Mustang II. Retired Ford designer Howard “Buck” Mook is active in the Detroit area car collecting community, bringing his cars to local shows and serving as a judge at events like the Eyes On Design and Concours of America shows. His resume includes some Ford’s F series trucks and while still in design school he helped customizing great Dean Jeffries create the Monkeemobile and Green Hornet Black Beauty television cars. Buck was responsible for the three-door fastback shape of the Mustang II (Dick Nesbitt drew the notchback variant).

Lee Iacocca had two competing teams work on the Mustang II, an important project at Ford. Howard “Buck” Mook, of the Mercury design team drew the fastback. Dick Nesbitt of the Ford team drew the notchback. Is there some kind of metaphor about blind justice and how the Mustang II is regarded? Full gallery here.

Another Howard, Howard Payne, headed the interior design team. Payne’s own resume includes the model he made with John Orfe that ultimately became the 1961 Lincoln Continental. You can mock the Mustang II all you want but it was a priority job and Ford assigned some of their best talent to the task.

Interior designer Howard Payne said that no expense was spared and it shows. The cockpit has indeed aged well. Full gallery here.

Payne says that his team was told to spare no expense, and the Mustang II cockpit has aged well. Like Mook, Payne can be seen showing one of his cars at local shows. I’ve run into them at different events around town. Actually, I ran into both of them at the same time once, when Mook was showing his French Ford Comete and Payne his own Cord at the Orphan Car Show.

Some folks may laugh at the Mustang II King Cobra, but even with a smog choked 302, because of its light weight it was actually faster than many V8 powered first generation Mustangs. The rack & pinion steering and control arms have made Mustang II front suspensions popular with customizers and hot rodders. Full gallery here.

As mentioned, they’re not ashamed at all about the Mustang II and will gladly talk about their experiences designing it. They might also mention that while sales later dropped, the first year the Mustang II was on sale, it sold almost 386,000 units, the most of any Mustangs since 1968 and one of the best years ever in the car’s now half century history.

J\Ford Racing’s John Clor. Note the Pinto patch on his sleeve besides the one for the Mustang II. Full gallery of John’s ’77 Cobra II here.

The inclusion of the Mustang II in the Mustang’s golden anniversary celebrations is appropriate, if only because of its role in the nameplate’s history. Unlike the Chevy Camaro and the Dodge Challenger, the Mustang never went out of production, in no small part due to the Mustang II’s success keeping the nameplate alive. While it may have had its shortcomings as a car, the ultimate measure of success in the auto industry is selling a lot of units.

Per the “Grand National Effect” most Mustang IIs that you see today are Cobra models, but as you can see from this 1976 fastback, the car could be ordered without gaudy stripes and decals. It has a Stallion decal on the hood but I’m not sure that it’s a Stallion edition. Full gallery here.

Over 5 model years, Ford sold over 1.1 million Mustang IIs. Cars, though, are also a hobby in addition to being a major industry. The inclusion of the Mustang II in Ford’s celebration of the pony car’s 50th anniversary is also appropriate because the people who own and collect them obviously love them as much as owners of first generation K-code Mustangs love those cars.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS