Ford Mustang marks 60th birthday with 800-car party in UK

Every country has its car: Mini, Volkswagen Beetle, Fiat 500, Renault 5 – each bound up intrinsically with the heritage of its respective land of origin, and in certain cases nearly as long-lived.

The US could claim a few, but it’s arguably the Ford Mustang that stands proudest as the automotive embodiment of Americana, with its fusion of affordability, cachet and performance propelling it to become one of the country’s – and the world’s – best-selling cars of all time.

But who would think it had such a huge and fanatical following in the UK, where it’s been sold officially for only the past seven years?

Some 800 cars turned out to celebrate the Mustang’s 60th birthday at the British Motor Museum last weekend, which would feel like a commendable turnout had it been held in Ford’s home state of Michigan, let alone Oxfordshire.

The variety of cars on show was testament to the Mustang community’s inclusive and accepting nature, which is clearly reflective of the everyman appeal of the car itself.

Topfuel funny cars rubbed wings with well-worn, scrappily painted, ‘grandpa-spec’ cruisers and ground-scraping drift weapons; concourse-spec museum pieces – seemingly fresh of the Dearborn production line – parked next to comically modified examples adorned with bullet-hole stickers and famous cartoon characters; and even the less well-loved iterations of the Mustang, such as the 1980s Fox Body and its SN95 successor, were well represented.

Perhaps it goes without saying, though, that the infamous Pinto-based Mustang II – emblematic of America’s lesser-celebrated Malaise era – was less overtly celebrated. The new-generation S650 Mustang, which is just a few weeks away from being launched officially in the UK, took centre stage.

But it was flanked by an immaculately restored 1966 car and a freshly registered Mach-E, both of which commanded a good deal of attention from enthusiasts young and old – somewhat reassuringly, in the case of the Mach-E.