Mustang Heroes Banquet 2014 - Dearborn, MI

I was privileged to attend this amazing gathering of over 60 people of all ages who had a hand in the design, engineering, production, marketing and promotion of the Ford Mustang over the past 50 years. It was held on Ford Motor Company grounds at the Event and Conference Center in Dearborn, MI, on Friday, August 15. The local MCA club MOCSEM (Mustang Owners Club of Southeastern Michigan) organized and hosted the event.

The list of attendees included people who were actively involved in the development of the S550. There was a video presentation from Lee Iacocca to kick off the evening. He reflected on how the Mustang came to be, ending his presentation with a shot of him in the Iacocca Mustang from 2009 after the car was done doing burnouts. The window rolled down, and he quipped "Who'd you think it was?"

There were several presenters - John Clor from the Ford Performance Group (part of Ford Racing), Mike Rey from MOCSEM, and Dave Pericak from Team Mustang of Ford. Dave and Mike in particular jumped into the RHD white convertible GT to give the audience a demonstration of line lock, with Dave jumping out of the right side of the car after the smoke cleared The demonstration was shown on the screen in the event, broadcast via Skype connection with a camera outside the building.

After the meal, John and Mike reconigzed each of the 60+ "Mustang Heroes" and then asked them to take their places at the horseshow-shaped table arrangement outside in the main lobby. All of the attendees were given the chance to meet with each person, get autographs, and take in the significance of this event. Never had there been so many people from Ford, from engineers, designers, marketers, senior management, and other key Mustang supporters in one place at one time.

Here are photos of some of the sights of the evening. It really felt like going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with all of your favorite rock stars in one place, talking to you. We thanked them, and they thanked us. I have a program full of signatures, and plan to keep this for a lifetime.

Happy 50th birthday, Mustang!

Mustangs on display inside the conference center...

One of the Mustangs on display is a 1965 car with unrestored exterior paint and interior owned by Joseph Errante. He was one of the charter member of MOCSEM. I got to talk to this very active and sharp 87-year old Mustang woner. What a treat to see such an amazingly preserved vehicle that is 50 years old.

Every table had a cake commemorating each of the 50 years of Mustang...I got these 3 because they were close to me.

Tom Barnes, Mustang Engineering Manager, and Shawn Carney, NVH Engineer, both have worked on Mustang for the past 10 years, including the S550.

Beautiful ice sculpture...

Ralph Arning, who works at Flat Rock Assembly...he finds problems, so we don't have to.

One the right is Doyle Letson, Chief Interior Designer on the S550, who some of you might recall seeing in Ford's videos and in interviews. Unfortunately, Kemal Curic, who was the S550 Exterior Design Manager sketching the car was not present.

Kevin Marti (Marti Reports) is on the left.

Prakash Patel, S550 Program Manager...

You are a lucky man Tony. Great coverage of all the events!

The one person I missed was Dave Pericak. When I talked to him briefly the next day, I asked him to sign my program. He didn't understand why after signing for 3 hours I didn't have his signature. I said to him that I think he went to pee at one point. He smiled and recalled he did have to go to the little boy's room

By the way, it was open to anyone who had entered up for the Mustang Memories show. There was a fee to attend, which was easy for me to justify paying because how many times will it be the Mustang's 50th birthday?

Very nice photos - Thanks for them and the report!

I forgot to mention - it ain't easy developing a 50th anniversary Mustang...

Lol at that list. Always wondered how they react when a spy photo gets leaked.

Tony Alonso said:

There was a video presentation from Lee Iacocca to kick off the evening. He reflected on how the Mustang came to be, ending his presentation with a shot of him in the Iacocca Mustang from 2009 after the car was done doing burnouts. The window rolled down, and he quipped "Who'd you think it was?"

Click to expand...

Now that is cool. How did he look? Hopefully stronger than last time we saw him in the Leno video?

Dave and Mike in particular jumped into the RHD white convertible GT to give the audience a demonstration of line lock, with Dave jumping out of the right side of the car after the smoke cleared The demonstration was shown on the screen in the event, broadcast via Skype connection with a camera outside the building.

Click to expand...

Too bad they didn't give a live demonstration but I guess safety was one reason Damn, wish I could find a video of this banquet. Thanks for reporting it tho, second best thing to being there.