When Is a Ford Mustang, Not a Mustang? When It’s a Ford T5

In addition to the usual changes like new headlights to meet local regulations, Ford Mustangs destined for the German market between 1964 and 1979 also got one more change – they were rebadged as Ford T5.

The removal of the Mustang branding came because German truck manufacturer Krupp owned the Mustang trademark in Germany and sold trucks with that branding for many years. Rather than fight over the rights to the name, Ford opted to re-badge the pony car as T5, which had been used as the internal project code during development of Mustang.

The soon-to-be iconic galloping horse emblems were retained, but the fender badges, rear gas cap and steering wheel branding were all replaced with T5 emblems.

Other than the branding, the mechanical changes to T5, as well as to Mustangs for other countries, were mostly limited to replacing the exterior lighting to meet European regulations, as well as some suspension tuning changes and installation of the shock tower brace from the Shelby GT350 to better suit continental roads.

Mustang was sold in Germany with T5 badging from 1964 through introduction of the third-generation 1979 model.