why is the 1971 through 73 mustang so big in 1966 the mustang weighed between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds
depending on the options that you chose in 1971 they added a full 650 pounds of weight to the car
it was a full eight inches longer and six inches wider how and why did this happen well believe
it or not the story starts in 1911 and i'll get into how that happened and why now stay tuned
in 1911 Henry Ford the henry ford purchases a company called Kiem Mills
a buffalo bicycle factory he did so because of the company's ability to make precise steel pressings
one of Kiem's Mill's employees at the time was William Knudsen Knudsen was recognized by ford
pretty quickly and he was called to Detroit in 1913 to expand Ford's national network of assembly
plants he directed ford's mass production of submarine chasers during world war one
and after the war ended he had control of foreign affairs in Europe now somewhere along the line
Henry Ford and Knudsen didn't see eye to eye and Knudson left ford in 1921. in 1922 Knudsen joined
General Motors and within a month became the vice president in charge of operations at Chevrolet
motor division now what does this have to do with the 1971 Mustang sit tight I'm getting there April
17th 1964 the mustang is released at the world's fair in Flushing Meadows New York is introduced
by Lee Iacocca he's the man who rose up the ranks in ford motor company started out the engineering
division but quickly moved into the sales division all the way up to vice president and general
manager of the Ford division it was in that role where he oversaw the development and marketing of
the Mustang after this success most people within ford felt that Lee Iacocca was destined to be the
company's next president most people included Lee Iacocca this was a position that only answered
to Henry Ford the second apparently Henry Ford the second didn't really like Lee Iacocca's style all that much
so in January 1968 after a series of secret meetings Henry Ford hired Bunkie Knudsen who was
the son of William Knudsen yeah yeah that William Knudsen from the beginning of the video he hired
him away from general motors Knudsen at the time was the head of the Pontiac division it's this
hiring that led to several design changes monkey newton was the kind of guy that wanted to put
his stamp on a company he would often tour the ford design center asking for changes to be made
that would clash with the desire of the designers and the demands of other Ford executives
one of those executives they clashed with was of course Lee Iacocca who felt that Knudsen was
forcing policy changes in parts of the company that fell under Iacocca's responsibility take a
look at the nose on the 1970 Thunderbird this was the design decision that Knudsen made that Iacocca
absolutely flipped over he went right up to henry ford the second and said you got to let this guy go or let
me go this thing is hideous but that hideous decision was pushed through so I got no words
for this design the nose of this thing to me it looks like a seagull and I apologize if
you own one of these cars and you love it but it looks to me like it's one of those faces that only
a mother could love Knudsen felt America wanted larger cars that was more value for their dollar
Henry Ford didn't feel that way henry ford the second was not really thrilled with Knudsen methods
so in September of 69 Bunkie Knudsen was fired from ford his termination was considered one of
the biggest shakeups of the year in detroit after newton's termination he was asked for his view of
why he was fired he stated that Henry Ford wanted to resume control of the company Lee Iacocca was
asked if he was sorry to see newton go he replied I've never said no comment to the press of my life
but I'll say it to that one Knudsen departure all but handed the job president over to lee
Iacocca at this point it was too late for Iacocca or really anyone to make changes to the 70 models
and they could only make minor changes to the 71 cars and especially the mustang so in 1971
we have the largest mustang ever produced and we have a lifelong Pontiac executive to thank for it
Bunkie Knudsen now a disclaimer here i really like the 71 and 72 Mach 1s and the 71 boss 350 ones for
me personally the stripes spoilers and blacked out hoods are required on those cars the 1973
mach ones and any year really of grande or the base 71 through 73 mustang yeah not so much for me
so that's how the mustangs got to be big cars and don't get me wrong the Knudsen's weren't bad
people William Knudsen was responsible for getting American business involved in the war effort
during World War 2 if not for him who knows where we would have been and obviously his son got a job
in the car industry due to his father and and what he had done but he wasn't a bad guy either
he was well liked at GM he brought Larry Shinoda into Ford and Larry Shinoda developed the Boss 302
the boss nameplate the Boss in Boss is Bunkie Knudsen so yeah
where would we be without Bunkie Knudsen we would probably have a smaller mustang but we wouldn't
have a Boss Mustang so we have to thank him for that if you enjoyed this episode please consider
subscribing it'd be appreciated and thanks for watching until next time we'll see you