Posted on 11/22/2004 12:19:23 PM PST by frankenMonkey
Ford Motor Co. said Friday that its head of advanced product development Chris Theodore will retire December 1, to be succeeded in the job by Hua Thai-Tang who led the development of the 2005 Mustang.
Hau Thai-Tang, 38, consolidates Theodore's job with that of the Special Vehicle Team (SVT). Thai-Tang will report to Martens. John Coletti continues as director of the Special Vehicle Team and will report to Thai-Tang. Besides the new Mustang, Thai-Tang developed the special edition Bullitt Mustang off the previous vehicle.
It was a white Mustang fastback with racing decals, probably a 1968 or 1969, that captured the imagination of the man who would become the 2005 Ford Mustang's chief engineer. Hau Thai-Tang had never seen a Mustang before, even though it was the early 1970s and he was maybe six or seven years old. "It was big, powerful, accessible," Thai-Tang says. "In that context, it stands for everything that's great in America."
Thai-Tang saw that first Mustang when his grandfather, a prominent Vietnamese businessman, arranged a private tour of a U.S. military base for him. But he didn't go home from the tour dreaming of working on Mustangs. He didn't know then that his family would someday escape Saigon as it fell to the Communist north. "My aspiration was to own a car."
In Saigon, Vietnam, where Thai-Tang spent his early years, most cars on the road in the former French colony were French. Thai-Tang's knowledge of big, powerful American cars came from Life and Time magazines his mother brought home from her job with the Saigon branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank.
Thai-Tang's family came to the U.S. in 1975, eventually settling in Staten Island, New York. The move to the U.S. raised Thai-Tang's aspirations, and he went after a job in the auto industry. He earned his engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University (for which he recruits graduates for Ford Motor Co.) and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Thai-Tang has worked for the automaker for more than 16 years, including a stint in 1993 on Nigel Mansell's CART team and a tour in Europe from 1995-1997 working on the Scorpio.
I think that's exactly the challenge and the risk that Ford faces every time it remodels the Mustang. Somehow they must come out with a fresh design BUT one that retains the essential 'Stang quality of the original. If they came out with something so original that it was unrecognizable as a Mustang all the Pony fans would scream bloody murder. If it looks too retro they get criticized for being unoriginal. Finding the sweet spot is the exceedingly difficult task the designer faces - mush more difficult than starting with a clean slate.
I, for one, think they have succeeded brilliantly with the 2005. In addition to a refined muscle car look it gets a whole new chassis (shared with the Lincoln LS, I think) plus a lot of new mechanicals while keeping the car AFFORDABLE! They have also worked closely with aftermarket accessory suppliers to have lots of custom accessories available right out of the chute.
Does it come in BOSS yellow with black stripes?
Me too. I love that new body(which is the old one).
It still can't touch the 4th Gen Trans AM body. But I own a 2002 TA, so I'm biased.. heheh.
Lsat night I had my TA parked by the pay phone at a gas station so I could run in to buy smokes. A guy in the old Smokey & the Bandit remake (full black with gold bird) was parked next to it getting air in his tires. It was amazing how much different the body's looked between a few generations of change.
I'm kinda glad Ford took it back to old-school unlike Pontiac with their joke of a GTO remake.
However as much as I do like the original Trans Am's, I'm still head over heels when I look at my 2002. It screams Trans Am but looks nothing like it. Strange indeed.
Apparently not all freepers see the humor. Cheers.
LOL. You're not the only one!
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I guess Mustangs just sorta run in the Family..?
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
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(See Last Photo)
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer
Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965, Landing Zone Falcon
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VAN TRAN for State Assembly Campaign-Little Saigon
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I vote we dub it the Tang'tang in his honor
I don't know who designed it, but it is UGLY. I have only seen one on the road. I see most of them at the dealer with dust on them. If you paint a pile of dog poop electric blue, it's still a pile of dog poop.
I am a very sensitive guy! Ask my wife.
Stay strong, PC'ness is boring!
I looked over one of the '05's yesterday. Not bad... it looks a LOT like a bobbed, chunkier '70 Mustang fastback.
0.500 batting average ain't so bad!
I was playing. The 05 is great. After the Mustang II days or Stang Blight as it was called, all Mustangs have been better. The 05 raised the bar.
Tang'Stang.
Yeah, the original. It was not originally designed to be a muscle car either.
I have mexican roots, and if I took offense about every slam on hispanics on FR, I'd need a shrink. I enjoy equal opportunity stereotyping.
Right. The question is why it takes them so long to learn?
Thank God they have interesting stuff to fall back on, huh? "Creativity" (and a corporate willingness to let the beancounters call all the shots) almost resulted in the Ford Probe wearing the "Mustang" nameplate, y'know. Only a deluge of poison-pen letters prevented that debacle.
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JOHN HIGGINS
Designer-Chevy Metro-Truck Chassis
JOHN HIGGINS
Veteran-Battle of IA DRANG-1965, Landing Zone Falcon
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
(See 2nd Photo)
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He's just happy to get away from those French cars.
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