The date of this photo, May 2, 1966, corresponds with the management reveal of the mock-up. It shows how quickly the studio and Kar-Kraft responded to the March 22 request. The 1966 Mustang is recognizable by the front suspension, lower frame rails, front crossmember, rocker panel and rear fender. The bumpers are stock and in their stock Mustang locations. The cut-down, sloping profile of the aprons, from the spring to the radiator support, is obvious. Sheet-metal duct work reinforces the aprons and directs air to the repositioned radiator.

To this point in the project, no mention of Mach 2 or Mustang as a name has been made. Available documents refer only to the Road Sports Car. The Mach 2 (or, alternately, Mach II) designation appears sometime between January 20 and June 30 of 1967. The 2A designation came even later. Who came up with the name is uncertain. Gene Bordinat, Ford’s Vice President and Director of Styling, created the original rendering of the car and could have named it then. Since the project was now in one of the Design Center’s styling studios, the name could also have originated there.Rumors have circulated saying the project was developed secretly in a hidden studio in the basement of the Design Center. In light of the documents, and photographs in an open studio, it’s clear the program was hardly secret and management was certainly not kept in the dark. Jerry Morrison was the studio lead on the Mach 2A. Bud Magaldi, a few other designers and a studio engineer named Bob Huzzard did the bulk of the body design work on the feasibility car. Magaldi went on to create the Shelby Cobra body illustrations, and also designed the stillborn Mustang station wagon proposal. Magaldi, a designer trainee at the time, recalls the usual steps for such a project began with concept art -- in this case, Bordinat’s work. Sketches based on the art were made, then came discussions on how the prototype might be built. Full-size drawings and a clay model came next. Lofting drawings -- which showed body shape, curves and dimensions -- followed. When everything was settled, fiberglass panels were made from the clay.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------The engine and transaxle fit nicely in the former trunk, with room for a spare tire. The crossmember, with the top of the shock absorber showing, was an off-the-shelf piece from an unknown vehicle. It required only slight modifications. A half-shaft U-joint is just visible. Note the tidy sheet-metal work in the quarter panels and the integral roll bar/window frame.

Fiberglass body shells were usually mounted on rectangular studio frames made of square tubing. The simple flat frames, similar to the lumber carts at home-supply stores, supported and stabilized the body shells, and casters enabled moving them around the studio. The frames were somewhat universal and could serve multiple projects. These frames may have given rise to erroneous reports that the Mach 2 cars had square-tube frames. In reality, neither the 1966 feasibility chassis nor the 1967 Mach 2 prototypes had square-tube frames.

The studio did not have the capability of constructing the underbody, so that work was farmed out to Kar-Kraft. How Kar-Kraft actually became involved in the program is not exactly clear. Roy Lunn was the Ford executive responsible for Kar-Kraft, which was a privately held engineering company contracted exclusively to Ford (but it was not owned by Ford). Some speculations have Lunn in on the program from its inception; another says he found out about the project and then promoted Kar-Kraft as the builder of the car. Since Kar-Kraft had a broad contract with Ford, the most likely scenario has the studio approaching Lunn with a work order for Kar-Kraft to engineer and build a chassis.The body in the far background, with the blacked-out hood, is believed to be an early clay model of the Mach 2. This belief is supported by the side scoop barely visible in front of the rear-wheel opening. The modified front apron and stock rear fender of the feasibility car are well defined. The body behind the chassis is the fiberglass shell for the finished prototype car. That body was never installed on the feasibility chassis.When the Mach 2 drawings arrived at Kar-Kraft, Lunn gave the project to Ed Hull, an engineer extraordinaire who was a Ford employee assigned to Kar-Kraft. It was said that Gwen, Roy Lunn’s secretary, “knew everyone and could do anything.” She got the ball rolling by arranging for the Ford Rouge Plant to provide a bare metal -- or body-in-white -- convertible body shell for the program. Larry Elliott, one of the top fabricators at Kar-Kraft, picked up the body from Ford and brought it back to Kar-Kraft’s Haggerty Street shop in Brighton. He recalls that the line foreman was not very happy about his assembly line routine being interrupted. Elliott painted the body light blue and set it up on a steel surface plate. This was to become the feasibility car.