Found in Translation

摘要

There wasn't a soul on the public highway dividing the grandstands from the pits at the old Reims road circuit when I pulled our '65 Mustang to a stop along the pit-side shoulder. Before I'd even switched off the ignition, the first excited passers-by on that highway had already spotted the tidy blue notchback, swerved to an abrupt halt up ahead, and scurried back with their camera phones primed and ready. It was a routine that would rapidly become very familiar. The simple fact is the French, and not just French car enthusiasts, absolutely love Ford Mustangs. Mustang lust strikes as many different kinds of people in France as it does back home in the States, and for as many different reasons. One episode in particular vaulted Ford's groundbreaking ponycar into the complete, collective French consciousness, and it started here at Reims, in northern France, in September 1964, when the brand-new Mustang took on the country's biggest motorsport event, the Tour de France Automobile.