Junkyard Find: 1974 Ford Mustang Mach 1

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

All right, Mustang II experts, I’m going to start right off by saying that this Pinto Mustang might not be a numbers-matching real Mach 1. Maybe it’s a FrankenMustang with what appears to be the correct collection of Mach 1 options. Either way, this fine Malaise Era machine— which I found at a San Francisco Bay Area wrecking yard a few weeks back— is a fascinating museum of the diminished automotive expectations faced by car shoppers in a grim period in American history.

The Mach 1 for ’74 came with a mighty 105 horsepower. No, really.

Thanks to Ford’s European operations, a very compact 2.8 liter pushrod V6 was available for the Mustang II. If a Ford dealership also sold Mercury cars, Cologne-powered Capris could be found in the same showroom.

This car received a thick coat of what appears to be gray latex house paint, probably just before it took that final tow-truck ride to the Parking Lot of Automotive Doom.

Automatic transmission with factory tachometer! Yes, that’s a 5,000 RPM redline on an allegedly sporty V6.

Remote passenger-side mirror!

Truly amazing vinyl-on-vinyl-on-pleather PetroPolstery™ seats!

Either the original buyer of this car cheaped out and got the $61 AM radio instead of the $346 8-track player (that’s $1,634 in today’s dollars, for those of you who scream that your Bluetooth-enabled head unit cost too much), or this is an aftermarket Philco that replaced a stereo ripped off by Seconal-crazed junkie thieves in 1976.

You’d never see a pre-1974 Mach 1 in one of these low-buck self-serve wrecking yards, because such a car would be snapped up at the auction for much more than the junkyard chain’s buyer would ever pay. Poor unloved Mustang II!









Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Andy D Andy D on Feb 10, 2014

    Heh heh, I was into '66 bugs. and was too busy wrenching to sneer very hard. Then I got into faux wood wagons when the goons came.

  • Dannew02 Dannew02 on Feb 13, 2014

    THe one car my Dad's mother ever drove was a notchback like this. (Possibly a 75 though) She got her license, in her late 50's, just to be able to drive her Mustang. IT was a silver GHia, 4-cyl auto (with no power steering or brakes, but it did have power windows and a sunroof.) She LOVED that car and drove it proudly. SHe had seen it in the dealer's showroom when my Grandpa was there getting one of his work trucks for his business and she just had to have it. SHe had never driven, or had interest in driving before that, but once she saw that Mustang she did what she had to do to get it. ONce it got about 10 years old, both she and the Stang started getting to old. She never drove any other car, that I ever heard about. Grandpa had a string of Oldses, LIncolns and Caddies but Gran only ever rode in those. THe Mustang was still in the back of his business garage when he sold out in the late 80's/early 90's. Even when she was in a care home, one of the grandkids got her a plastic model of the Mustang and she'd get all smiles and recall some of the trips she made in it. SO rag on all you want, P/M-II haters, I'll never have anything bad to say about this genration of Mustangs because I'll remember how happy it made my Gran.

  • Dukeisduke Is the Volvo EX30 even on sale yet? It was pulled from the NACTOY awards because they were having software problems with the vehicle.
  • Wjtinfwb If you've only got 5k to spend on transportation, I cannot imagine a worse way to spend it than on a GM orphan from Sweden that's 15 years old with 150k on the clock and limited plus expensive parts availability and dwindling techs who'd even want to work on it. Go find a similar vintage Camry or Accord with 150k miles or even a Ford or a Chevy, whatever. Hell, even an old Jaguar is less of a crapshoot than a Saab. At least you can still get parts.
  • Kwik_Shift Brands that were considered from China include BYD, Dayun, Great Wall Motors, Maxus, Nio, Omoda/Chery, Seres, XPeng, and Zeekr. KG Mobility from South Korea also made the list of candidates.That's a lot of car companies from there ready to head here.
  • Analoggrotto Clean sweep and unanimous victory for the world affluence engine of 22nd century : Hyundai/Kia/Genesis. Toyota and Lexus, for 120 years of history have not been able to capture the zenith superlative status of Hyundai Motor Corporation the most awarded, decorated and revered automotive corporation in the history of historical. Featuring best ever, first ever and greatest ever e-ATPs the Hyundai Genesis Kia lineup is posed to become the envy of every country club, ivy league college and fortune 500 corporation in the world. I've been taking a roadtrip in my loaner Elantra N, visiting colleges from east to west, elite universities of higher learning to inspect their parking lots. WHat did I find? Leagues of Genesis models, outnumbering Lexus 3 to 1. When I interviewed faculty and staff at these places of greater learning, their response was unanimous : they chose HMC for the ATPs.
  • Mikey 2019 Chevy Impala Premier FWD with 20 inch factory Bridgestones. I'm looking at replacing tires at the 65,000 KLM's (40,000 miles ) mark ....It doesn't thrill me .. I'm pricing Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires ouch !! ..Up here in Canuckastan ....Big $$$$$
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