MuscleCar: The Mythical Mustang Sportwagon
Even most Mustang folks don’t know about this wrinkle in the 65-66 Pony’s history. Originally considered by the design people at FoMoCo as a consumer prototype, in 1965 Barney Clark who was and Ad exec with J. Walter Thompson, got with designer Robert Cumberford and Jim Licata and mounted an effort to create a wagon version themselves, with the intent of offering a complete product to Henry Ford.
Consequently, once Cumberford and Licata finalized the paper drawings, rather than pitching the idea, Clark’s team exported a 1965 ‘Stang to Turin, where Automobili Intermeccanica took the car and built out an extended roof line, plus a bottom-hinge tailgate, a retractable rear window, relocated the fuel filler, and added folding rear seats.
When the car came off the boat in NY after its 11 month construction evolution, Ford still wasn’t interested in the opportunity, even Ford had his own clay models already in-hand. Nevertheless, for some reason Clark et. al. never set up production their own “Intermeccanica Mustang wagon” and ultimately the original car disappeared entirely.
Over the years various design shops have produced versions of the car, including a ’67 kit that allowed DIY’ers to do their own wagons in ‘just 15 minutes’ using an OEM Mustang ragtop as a baseline.
