007 Relations

Allieds/friends vehicle

Thunderball - 1965

Villain/henchmens vehicle

Vehicle Bond is passenger in

Notes

In 'Goldfinger' is Tilly Masterson's car a Ford Mustang convertible.
This Ford Mustang has the doubtful honour to come in close contact with the Aston Martin DB5's wheel mounted tyre cutters.

In 'Thunderball' it is Fiona Volpes car in Nassau.
She drives Bond to the hotel after his nightly inspection of 'Disco Volante'. And Bond recognizes it when he comes to visit Emilio Largo at 'Palmyra'.

The Mustang was introduced in the middle of 1964 with cars built that year classed as "1964 1/2" (not 65) as they have some different specifications. The 2300cc (144 CID) in-line 6 cylinder was not offered in the Mustang and had been eliminated from the Ford Falcon line up by the end of 1963. The smallest engine offered would have been the 170 CID in-line 6 cylinder (about 3.0L).

Other engines would have been a 200 CID I-6 cylinder, 260 CID V8 and 289 CID V8. The latter engine was available on later 65 model cars, so was unlikely in the car of Goldfinger. The 6's were economy engines, not noted for any great performance or speed characteristics without major work (in fact, suffered valve damage if really pushed, from personal experience). US performance buyers of the day were mainly either into muscle cars with large displacement V8 engines or small British sports cars of under 2.0L.

The 64-66 V8 cars were all marked on the side of the front wings just behind the headlamps with a "V" beneath the engine size. 6 cylinders carried no markings throughout the first series (1964 1/2-1973) run. I could not see any markings (or verify the lack of them), but would expect the movie makers to have used the 260 V8 version, if just to keep up with DB5.

Technical Data

• Manufacturer: Ford
• Model: Mustang Convertible
• Year: 1965
• Engine: 2300cc 6-cyl inline
• Power: 150 bhp at 4600 rpm bhp
• Transmission: 4-speed manual
• Suspension: Independent 'MacPherson' struts front and rear
• Brakes: Solid discs front, drum rear
• Max. speed: 154 km/h (96 m.p.h.)
• Colour: Wimbledon White/Caribbean Turquoise (Thunderball)
• Number plate: HLO 9738 (Goldfinger)

Gadgets

• None

Sources and Links

Thanks to Art for the Mustang history
The book of Sports Cars

• Ford Motor Company
• Vintage Mustang