I was on the third stop on my Great Michigan Adventure 2025 road trip this past August when this beautiful ’73 Mustang came into view. I was visiting Keri, a friend from our old Flint neighborhood, and her family, and it was fun to walk around their pretty resort town of Lexington next to picturesque Lake Huron. Keri and her family truly make me feel like one of their own. After several visits there, I have become accustomed to Lexington’s small town friendliness, even from complete strangers at random. The smile on this gentleman’s face speaks to this.
Why shouldn’t he have been smiling? It was a beautiful, sunny summer day, and he was behind the wheel, with the top down, of an example of the final year of the classic first-generation Mustang. After examining these frames more closely once at home, a few thoughts came to the forefront of my mind. First, this gentleman looked to be about of an age where he could have been this pony’s original owner. If not that, maybe this Mustang was just like one he had owned in his earlier years.
My next thought was that in its deep, factory Medium Green finish, with its dressy wire wheel covers, and depending on how it was optioned, this might have been as close to a luxury Mustang Grandé convertible as might have been offered from the factory. Finally, at the leisurely pace this gentleman and his Mustang were traveling west on Main Street, it could be said that they were moving at a canter. My mind then went to the summer I had gone to horse camp.
Fred & me. Fenton, Michigan. Summer 1986.
Camp Copneconic in Fenton, Michigan, sponsored by the YMCA, was where I had attended a two-week horse camp program back in the summer of 1986. Just the summer before, I had my first summer camp experience there that wasn’t related to my elementary school, where I had shared a cabin with other kids from Genesee County, none of whom I had met beforehand and with whom I had eventually participated in all kinds of fun activities. Horse camp was a different animal, so to speak, and we kids would return home at the end of each day to our families, friends, and beds. My horse’s name was Fred.
We learned how to groom, feed, and ride these magnificent creatures, and once I was able somewhat to get over my awe of their size, power, and beauty, I gained a significant amount of comfort with being around them. I’ve always loved horses, and even as a young kid I had even had an imaginary horse friend for a while, which I realize I’m admitting to, in writing, on the internet. This is intentional. It was a long time ago, and this speaks to the sense of fun and imagination I possessed and cultivated when I was growing up. Maybe it was predestined that I would own a Ford Mustang one day.
When learning to ride the horses and after some experience, we kids were allowed to get them up to only a canter speed (more than a trot and less than a gallop – and yes, I had to look that up for the best description). Squeezing the spurs on either side of the horse acted as the accelerator, and lightly pulling the reins connected to the bit in the horse’s mouth was to apply the brakes. This was all done with kindness and respect for the animal. It was thrilling.
The leisurely pace of this green Mustang convertible was a reminder that not all classic Mustangs were firebreathers – and no less interesting or attractive for it. If I had to guess and based on this Mustang’s condition and existence into 2025, it probably has a garden-variety, 136 (net) horsepower 302 V8. It might just as likely have one of the 351s, but again, judging by the car’s unabused conditional and relaxed demeanor, it seems like just enough V8 might have been just that. Mustang convertible sales for ’73 were up sharply by 85% over the prior year, up from 6,400 units to almost 11,900. This was as compared to an uptick of only 7% in overall Mustang sales for ’73 from the year before, from 125,800 to 134,800 cars.
This increase was fueled undoubtedly by the pending arrival of the subcompact ’74 Mustang II, of which there would be no convertible offered. I had once ridden in the back seat of my friend Michelle’s Mustang II Ghia, and given the lack of space back there, I can’t imagine how much leg and hip room would have been left with the re-engineering that the folding-top mechanism would have necessitated. With that said, I do also think that the II-based, targa-roofed Sportiva II show car was exceptionally good looking, even if highly impractical.
I had owned a slow-but-pretty ’88 Mustang equipped with the 90-hp, fuel-injected version of the 2.3L “Pinto” four-cylinder and a five-speed. I loved that car because I had chosen it and it was all mine, and I took great care of it. It’s also true that while it would cruise comfortably at highway speeds, it would take a minute to get there. Almost literally. It could be said that my own pony could get only up to a canter, continuing this metaphor further, much like my rides on big Fred were also similarly speed-limited, if only by the camp counselors. Maybe it was for my own good and safety in my early adulthood that I didn’t drive a faster steed. I was a good, responsible driver, but I was also unaccustomed to having that much power on tap. Who knows? Does horsepower also corrupt?
As I watched the driver of this green Mustang ride off into the proverbial sunset (I’ll be honest… it was only mid-afternoon), it was the car’s beautiful condition and the man’s pleasant smile that remained with me as I reflected on what Keri and I had just witnessed. Was it my love of Ford Mustangs that had influenced my appreciation of horses and ponies, or was it perhaps the other way around? In the end, though, I’m not sure that it even matters.
Lexington, Michigan.
Monday, August 11, 2025.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
Horsepower corrupts absolutely. 🙂
I have whiplash from these cars. I was an adolescent when they were new, and I thought they were the coolest. As I (and the cars) got older, I found them to be just too much, preferring the taut purity of the older models. Now? I love them again. There is a brawny swagger to the lines of this car. It’s over-the-top styling is its charm.
I remember trying to talk my mother into looking at one in 1972. It seemed to me to be almost exactly the size of the 64 Cutlass she planned to replace. But I now know that I was not even close to right, and that back seat would have been torture.
Haha – JP, if my late high school Humanities teacher could have read this, he might have approved of my reference to power corrupting absolutely!
My trajectory with these Mustangs follows yours pretty closely. I’ve been solidly back in the fandom camp for about five years (?), if I had to guess. The big Mustangs look a little wonky from some angles, but to your point, I like their brawn and just their superlative nature. The biggest. The fastest-sloping fastback roofline. And so on.
This gentleman is living the dream: sun up, top down, perhaps cruising just for the sake of taking a ride (and if not, getting there is half the fun, right?). Very fitting that he is doing it in a Mustang, which in my mind still conjures images of adventure and freedom
And horsepower definitely corrupts. Whatever you have, you want more and when you have more, it is not enough.
He was absolutely living the dream, and it was apparent on the August day I got these photos. Once Main Street leaves Lexington heading west, a lot of that road is through wide-open spaces – a perfect place to take one’s Mustang out for a ride.
Cool memories. I had my first experience with horses just a few years prior to your summer camp. Beautiful, graceful, but also ridiculously strong. One frisky colt came up behind me, stuck his nose between my legs, and threw me into the air like a sack of potatoes. And mind you, at 10 years old I was no lightweight, probably about 125.
I, too, have always been torn on these. I like the 64-66 as much as anyone, but the 67-68 and 69-70 fastbacks are my preference. At the right angle and in the right color and trim, these ‘71-73s can look bold and muscular. They can just as easily be as ungainly and chunky as 10-year-old me.
Answer me this: why is the ‘71-73 considered a first gen Mustang, while the same year Cougars are considered second gen?
You may not believe this but what decides which generation the car is happens to be the manufacturer. Ford says 65-73 is 1st Generation while Mercury said 67-70 is 1st Gen and 71-73 is 2nd Gen. This question goes back decades.
I’ve often wondered this too, and years ago, someone here (Paul I think) explained that the whole generation from ’65 to ’73 was based on the same Falcon underpinnings, thus why they are one.
I proposed breaking the first generation Mustangs in to sub-generations like this:
1a. 1965 & 1966
1b. 1967 & 1968
1c. 1969 & 1970
1d. 1971 thru 1973
I think this makes sense, visually at least.
I get similarly confused by the ’62 Corvette. It’s a C1, but damn if it doesn’t look like a C2 when viewed from behind.
Thanks, Brian. My all-time favorite Mustang fastback is probably the 1967 – ’68. That colt experience you described probably would have put the kibosh on my love for horses, at least for a while.
I also completely agree with you about the confusing nature of all 1965 – ’73 Mustangs being considered one generation. The 1971 – ’73 cars even had a one-inch-longer wheelbase! Never mind that between the segments described by RetroStang Rick, none of the body panels interchanged.
Considering all of them “first generation Mustangs” is something I learned to force myself to accept.
Excellent photos and connections. Right around the time that green Mustang convertible came out, I built a scale model of its coupe version…and went to horse camp. I guess horse camp must have been a thing back then as mine was formatted just like yours and was in contrast to “sleep away camp” which seemed to be something that some other kids did. Mine even had us wearing red tshirts like yours. In addition, we had to wear those black velvet-covered helmets…and had the “english” saddle (which somehow was portrayed by the organizers of this camp to be “better” than the “western” saddle). The ultimate activity was learning how to get the horses to jump over those rails/fences. Or rather, for us to learn how to not fall off when the horses (who I suspect knew quite well how to jump) would stop short solely so that the kid-rider would then tumble over the horse’s head and wind up on the ground while Mr. Ed just stood there and laughed at you.
Let’s just say that I did my 2 summers at horse camp and never looked back.
My Mustang model turned out a little better than horse camp. I recall that I painted it bright yellow…although given my painting skills I might have been better off leaving it unpainted.
OK… that’s one of things that annoy me about horses. I’ve seen quite a few tumbles off horses (like I commented below, my daughter takes weekly riding lessons)… and when someone falls, the horse just stands there aloof. At best. They’re like giant cats – magnificent, graceful, but socially awkward.
Speaking of “Horse Fails”, I Wasn’t gonna comment on the “off topic”, but here we are.
When I was about 8-10 ish, went to visit a cousin that Had a horse. Three of us scrawny kids My 9 yo cousin was in front, my 9 yo self behind her, and my 10 yo brother behind me, riding this horse. My Uncles ‘DEAF’ GF, was walking in front, leading the Horse around the big yard.
She leads the horse through some trees, Walks UNDER a branch, that was High enough for her on foot, High enough for the Horse to walk under with no issue, but NOT High enough to avoid knocking 3 young children OFF of said horse.
Oh, we saw the branch coming. Keep in mind, she was DEAF. as we’re yelling “hey , stop, wait lookout.. Low BRANCH!”, the Horse just followed her lead, walking gracefully UNDER said branch, as we, one by one HIT the low branch falling to earth. (OK, it was more of a Group Fall, than a “one By One” event, but you get the idea).
Nobody got injured, maybe a bruise or two from the branch or the plummeting to Earth.
Good times.
Terry, I write my essays almost so as to encourage “off topic” tangents. In fact, I’m sometimes slightly disappointed when such discussions and recounting of memories doesn’t happen. And nothing is really “off topic” when the format is less on the factual and more on just our experiences of whatever that sort-of relates to the subject car.
So thank you for the entertaining story you shared! What I’m curious to know is what the expression on your uncle’s girlfriend’s face looked like once she realized what had happened.!
Eric, it’s that magnificent, graceful, socially awkward thing about horses that you described so perfectly that has somehow endeared them to be even more.
Thanks, Jeff. It sounds like in your camp experience, they were all-in on the patrician connotations of the equestrian sport, what with the velvet helmets and special saddles. I don’t know that I would have been brave enough to try to jump over anything while riding that horse. And we all know the horse was laughing as we all heard “neeeeigh”.
I was going through boxes in my closet a couple of weeks ago and rediscovered a 1:18-scale 1973 Mustang SportsRoof fastback diecast in a box that I had never put together. It was a gift from one of my brothers, but am I glad I didn’t try to put it together then (around the turn of the millennium), because I now actually have the patience to attempt doing so now.
Very enjoyable article, and I read it this morning with my daughter, who is a horse enthusiast, and rides every week. She loved your cantering analogy and your horse camp stories, and after reading this, she said, “Hey, I like that guy.”
I’ve ridden a few times, and I admit I don’t share my daughter’s enthusiasm. I think horseback riding is like riding a motorcycle… it’s thrilling, for sure, but just isn’t everyone’s thing. I’ll stick to cars.
This generation of Mustang is one of those cars that’s grown on me as they’ve become rarer. I used to view them as somewhat of an abomination, but now I look at pictures like yours and think that it would be a fun car to canter around in. Also, I think this convertible looks great with wire wheel covers.
Eric, thank you for this, and I immediately smiled when I read what you had said about sharing this article with your daughter. That was probably my favorite thing I had read all day (and today was basically my Monday, with lots of reading and processing of information).
I’ll pass on the motorcycle riding. I think I’d be more comfortable on a horse than on a bike. Nothing against motorcycles, but it just seems like in the event something goes wrong, and regardless of that probability, it would go really wrong.
Glad to make your day a bit better!
I had a friend in high school who had a ’71 coupe in that green with matching interior. We took it for granted and it wasn’t a fastback, but now I appreciate it more than I did than. Peppy even with the 302.
I’m sure many of us took the 1971 – ’73 Mustangs for granted to a certain extent. Maybe that’s why they seem so much cooler to me now than they ever had before, even if I had liked them well enough.
Man, I love those 1971-73 Mustang Convertibles. Horses? I’m more afraid of them than anything. I don’t want to be around anything that can bite or kick harder than I can. 🙂
Ya need to face and eliminate that fear.
No, Aaron, I hear you. Large beasts with muscle and not as much brain as humans… certainly something to consider. It was why I was trying to pay attention to every word the camp counselors were telling us about how to be around the horse. Enjoy them, but act right.
In 1971 I was looking to trade out of my ’68 Mustang which was my first new car. Since I had a great ownership experience I was motivated to re-up. But knowing there was a generational change coming I decided to wait and bought a 1974. Mistake.
You know, Curt, it’s interesting to think about us now having access to so much information on our phones with just a few seconds of typing and swiping. In the early / mid ’70s, one would have to stand at the magazine section of a book store and scour magazines (that didn’t actually get purchased) in order to find out certain pieces of information. I could see how individuals of a certain demographic at the time – those who may not have had time to spend at bookstores – might have wanted to wait for what the news had said was “the new Mustang” on the way and then seen the II.
Personally, I like the II, but I could see how one could be sorely disappointed with mismanaged expectations.
That would a been a good year to get one as the next year ushered in the “Mustang II”. This one is a stunner!
I really liked the look of the “70”, version bit more.
I like both the ’70 and the ’71. The only thing I’m not crazy about with the 1970 model is that in the switch back to dual headlamps, the front end looks slightly pudgy and unfinished with those twin vents where the outboard pair of lamps had used to be. They’re still great-looking cars, and perhaps just as importantly, recognizable as Mustangs.
While the subject car is from my least-liked generation of Mustangs, this was a wonderful write up and the pictures very much set the mood. The lighting and angles really accentuate the rear haunches..
Well done.
Thanks so much, Dave. It’s funny to think how much shorter the days are just two mere months later.
Know someone who is the original owner of a 73 Mach 1. Usually see it and him every Friday morning. The car is a survivor in that it has never been restored at all and is parked outside. He now has arthritis issues with his hands making it hard to even change the oil much less any car work. I am tempted to write up a COAL, for him, on this car. Oh, it is a stick with the biggest engine for that year. He has a cool story how he got it brand new.
I, for one, would like to read about this gentleman and his ’73 Mach I.
Canter vs. Gallop… I like that Joseph. Now that my own Mustang has 189,000 on the clock, that and the fact I’m ’65 and should also be taking it easy, I drive mine at more of a canter than a gallop. I felt like this guy over the past weekend driving the old girl around. The weather was beautiful, the windows were down, and I was on the back roads taking it easy.
And similar to the 302 vs 351 (or bigger) thing, my 4.0L V6 is plenty fast enough for this old man.
As to real horsepower? I’ve only ridden a couple of times, and have never really felt comfortable in the saddle, but once in Aruba, I had a really stubborn horse on one of these group rides that you can go on down there. So our guide, seeing the trouble, gave me his horse and got on the stubborn one, and continued the tour. We were mostly at a walking pace, occasionally going into a trot.
But as we got back to nearing the stables, the guide warned us to hold on, as the horses will know that they’re almost home and break into a run. Maybe it was just a canter, but I think my horse went into full gallop mode. I was in the back of the pack, the guide was in the front. With roughly a quarter mile to go, all the horses take off. I passed everyone, and even beat the guide back to the stables.
The guide asked if I was ok, and I said, “That was awesome!”. He said, normally, he didn’t like to give this particular palomino to guests, as he’s the fastest horse they have, which is why he rides it. He was happy I was able to hang on!
RS Rick, I’m sure the insurance underwriter for that particular horse operation was also happy that you were able to hang on! LOL – Not being able to adequately control a large, muscular animal could make things go sideways really quickly, it seems. Actually, if I was that horse at the end of a long workday (as we have all had), I might be tempted to bust into a jog just to be back inside my house with my TV and dinner.
That echoes my experience on riding a horse. His name was Jerry, and the whole tour was at walking pace. However, nearing the end of the ride he broke into a good canter or faster, and I held on for dear life. That may have been the last time in the saddle for this kid.
73 Mustangs are one of my favourite model years. One of them was one of the first cars i ever drove.
Very enjoyable, Joseph.
That is a beautiful Mustang, a great color combination and unmolested to boot. I have always been unimpressed by these. They can look great if well equipped, but that applies to most cars in my view. I’m just not much of a ponycar fan. I would buy one if the stars lined up right, but I would probably play with it awhile and then move on to something else.
I like your thought that the gentleman had a good reason to be smiling, and want to carry it a bit further. In the background of the second image is a late model GMC towing an Imagine RV. It is too far away for any details, but I feel sure that rig cost into the six figure range. So I could not help comparing an older man enjoying a 50+ year old car against someone with a very nice new rig that could only ‘Imagine’.
I am not a horse rider having done it once in my life many many years ago. It is just not my thing, plus growing up in Alaska there was not much opportunity. However, all of my six grandchildren are or were riders. I guess that can happen when you marry a Texas girl, even though she is not a rider.
Thank you, Patrick. On the Imagine RV, I could absolutely see the appeal, just having returned from a multi-family vacation. A camper trailer would be like a mobile hotel room for two small families or a family and a plus-one, and you could go where you want.
I also love the idea of finding contentment without spending six figures and regardless of whether or not I’d be driving everyone else’s favorite Mustang. This car was beautiful, and if it was mine, I’m sure my heart would be selling this Mustang to me in all kinds of ways, every day.
One question comes to mind looking at this car that I’m surprised hasn’t occurred to me earlier: how did Ford get away with a bumper that looks like it belongs, where everything else got a park bench or big blobs of rubber for ’73? The rear got some little extensions, but that’s all, apparently. I want to say the bumper changed a little, but unlike the rest of the ’73 lineup, it’s hard to be sure.
Anyway, I feel like the ’71-73 generation gets more hate than it deserves. Yeah, it’s more overfed hobby horse than pony car, but the original was no thoroughbred. It’s got to be a heavier feeling and driving car than the original, but at least there were some options in the wheel/tire and suspension that would make it handle much better than the original (not that I’d call that a high bar). I will say that in some color and bodystyle combinations it does look off, but it can pull it off in others – as exemplified by this car. Maybe the sport-lux convertible is the ideal version of this sub-generation?
The bumper standard included a slower phase-in for coupes and sports cars, which the regulation defined fairly generously.
Ok, thanks for the explanation. That gives some insight into the double-whammy of the Mustang II; I don’t think skinnier bumpers would have made any difference to the final result, but it sure added fuel to the fire. It’s that much more jarring a transition on the likes of the LTD, Maverick, Torino, where there were minor changes for ’73, except for the glaring hunks of metal added to the front and back, spoiling an otherwise attractive car (Torino, in my opinion), or taking something so-so and making it worse. I’ve got thoughts – pro and con – on that, but I’ll save it until the topic itself comes up.
It’s been reported before that the federal government gave something of a pass to cars that were going to be discontinued or get a major model change after 1974. So, Ford was able to skate with the 1973 Mustang since it would be brand-new and on a completely different platform for 1974.
Other cars were exempt from some of the tougher bumper tests like, say, the offset ram test. That’s how Chrysler got away with using big rubber guard ‘boobs’ on the A-, B-, and E- bodies. They would pass a straight-on ‘bump’ but not one at an angle.
Remarkably, there was one of those Chrysler products in my family: a ’73 Dodge Coronet, and I remember those bumpers. Then my Great Grandpa’s last car was a ’78 Dodge Diplomat and what a contrast! They both had 318s, but the Coronet would get up and go where the Diplomat was just wheezy – so-so torque and it just had nothing above 3000 RPM or so. Had a lot more issues too. And of course, it had the park benches, but the rest of the car was so boxy that it didn’t affect things nearly as much as it would have on the Coronet (which was definitely a better-looking car).
I agree that in its best colors, this sub-generation can look stunning, and in its less flattering colors, just the opposite. I, for one, am glad that this class of car had gotten something of a free pass when it came to bumper regs. This probably contributed to there being one more year (’74) for traditional ponycars.
A friend of mine who died last year had a dark green ’71 Mustang with a 429. I didn’t like it much, and it had head gasket issues like my dad’s T-birds had, and was humilated at the Las Vegas drag strip by my ’74 360 Roadrunner (by just a little bit) and crushed by my ’79 much modded Trans Am with the supposedly dog 403. I can think back and remember the smell of the rear end lube that dripped onto my head when we replaced the messed up gears in the rear end of the Mustang. He had borrowed slicks at the track in a failed effort to beat my T/A, and knocked about a half dozen teeth off the gears. I don’t know how many times I washed my hair, first with shampoo, then with Palmolive dish soap, the green stuff, to try to get the smell out of my hair. My girlfriend said she could smell it for about 2 weeks. At least it didn’t hang on for a year like when my dog Gus got Skunked at point blank range right between the eyes. No matter what we did, when he got wet, you could smell it.
I’ve never been skunked and plan to do everything in my power to avoid it.
The ole boy looks happy as hell behind the wheel of that convertible!! May he have many more miles of pleasure with it.
For this series of Mustang, I’m partial to the fastbacks. Especially the Mach I driven by Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) in the movie “Diamonds are Forever.” Puberty has a strange effect on you!
I super love “Diamonds” and rewatch it from time to time, being the big Vegas fan I am. That epic chase scene set in downtown /Glitter Gulch only increases my love for this generation of SportsRoof fastback every time I see it. That movie is probably top-3 in the entire 007 film franchise for me.