RIP Donald Frey, designer of the original Ford Mustang

An inspiration to all who strive to innovate, Donald Frey, the driving force behind a legendary American sports car, has died. He was 86.

Frey was the chief engineer behind the Ford Mustang, which debuted in 1964. Frey worked with former Ford manager Lee Iacocca to develop the roadster, which almost never saw the light of day. Frey pursued the project even though Henry Ford II, the president of the company, had turned it down four times, partly because Ford’s new Edsel had just failed so spectacularly. Lacking an official go-ahead, Frey met with Iacocca and other engineers and designers in a motel by night and a storage room by day. “The whole project was bootlegged,” Frey told USA Today in 2004. “There was no official approval of this thing. We had to do it on a shoestring.”

Frey proved that if you believe in something you should always pursue your goals. Ford eventually approved the product, which turned out to be a hit: Within two years, a million Mustangs were sold and an icon was born. The Mustang sprung to global prominence in the 1968 Steve Mcqueen thriller Bullitt, which itself went on to inspire our friends over at Larry vs Harry.

YouTube video of the legendary Bullitt car chase:

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Categories: Stuff we like, Collaborators