More than a Machine, An Immersive Experience

Some stories aren’t written on paper. They’re pressed into steel, fired in engine blocks, and live in the space between a driver’s hands on a steering wheel. They are the stories of who we wanted to be, on a Saturday night with a full tank of gas, radio up and windows down.

For sixty years, the Ford Mustang has held one of those stories. It was never just a car. It was a promise, a vibe. In 1964, it offered the rest of us a glimpse of freedom, a taste of the performance that was usually locked away in expensive European garages. It was a machine built for the working man’s dream, a primal shout made of metal, rubber, and pure aspiration.

We’ve come to believe that an object that holds so many of our stories—our first dates, our graduations, our own private rebellions—deserves to be explored in a new way. It has earned the right to be experienced, in the same way we line up to stand inside Van Gogh’s brushstrokes or to witness the silent gold of a boy king’s tomb.

That is why we are bringing its story to life. This November, in downtown Los Angeles, we are opening Mustang: An American Icon, an immersive experience built by the same minds that resurrected the worlds of Jurassic Park and the Titanic. Next year, the experience will head to other American cities.

This is not a museum. You don’t look at this story from behind a velvet rope.

This is where you step inside of it. You won’t just see the blueprints; you’ll feel the nervous energy of the Dearborn design studio in 1963, a place humming with the hope of getting it right. You won’t just hear the sound of a V8; you’ll feel the rumble in your bones, the same vibration that has telegraphed freedom to generations. You will walk through the cultural moments that the Mustang didn’t just influence, but helped create.

Because the Mustang’s story was never truly ours to write. It was written by all of you, on the screen and in the streets. It became a character. That blur of Highland Green carving up the hills of San Francisco wasn’t just a prop; it was McQueen’s coiled, silent co-star. That impossibly white convertible in Goldfinger wasn’t just product placement; it was a signal to the world that something new and uniquely American had arrived.

That story is still being written, in the silent, immediate torque of the Mach-E and the raw, visceral howl of the seventh generation. The soul of the thing -- that restless need to push forward -- remains unbroken.

This is our invitation to you. Whether you had a poster of one on your wall, or your dad had one in the driveway, or you’ve just always wondered what all the fuss was about, we want you to come and feel it for yourself.

Come feel what we’ve felt for sixty years.

We’ll see you in Los Angeles.

Click here to learn more about Mustang: An American Icon

Mark Truby is chief communications officer at Ford Motor Company.