Everybody wants to take credit for a good idea when a good idea crops up. Sometimes it may take years, even decades for that good idea to pan out though. Other times, success is immediate, like with the original Ford Mustang. Ford sold over 400,000 Mustangs in the first year alone, making it one of the most successful car launches ever. So who should get the credit for such a fantastic idea?

According to Automobile Magazine, Lee Iacocca or Donald Frey get a brunt of the credit. Rather, writer Robert Cumberford makes the convincing argument that it was advertising man Barney Clark who first conceived the idea of what was to become the Mustang…and that he pitched it to General Motors first.

Back in 1956, Clark worked for GM doing copy advertising for the Corvette. He approached head honcho Harley J. Early with an idea calling for a four-seat, sporty coupe that had a long hood, a short rear deck, and near-vertical rear window. The car would have to be sporty, with bucket seats up front and a big-enough back seat so two couples could go together on a double date.

Harley rejected the idea, though ironically enough GM was working on their own sporty coupe called the Mustang. Clark eventually wound up at Ford, where he managed to get in with Don Frey who first pushed through the Blue Oval’s own Mustang concept, based on the Falcon. When GM got wind that Ford was developing a concept car, which went on to be called the “Mustang I”, GM shelved its concept and did not return to it again until the advent of the Camaro. But by then, the Mustang had already surpassed a million units sold and had forever lodged itself into the American lexicon.

Automobile Magazine breaks down the design influences of the Mustang very well. It is interesting to see how a wide variety of cars, from the ’63 Pontiac Tempest to the MG TD, proving that the Mustang truly is a “world car”.