CHARLOTTE, N.C. – After festivities put together by the Mustang Club of America and countless Mustang clubs and enthusiast groups from all over the world to mark the official 60^th birthday of Ford’s iconic pony car, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, served up yet another notable celebration. This time it was Ford Motor Company itself hosting a multi-faceted Mustang 60 Year anniversary gathering at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. With more than 2,700 Mustangs pre-registered for the event and countless spectators, it proved to be a spectacular 60^th birthday party for the Mustang.

Since its debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Mustang has been continuously produced for 60 years – which is something that no other American car can claim. That’s why Ford pulled out all the stops to have such a wide variety of new Mustang models on display at this event: Mustang EcoBoost, GT, Dark Horse, and the Mach E Rallye as well as the GTD, GT3 and an FP800. Everyone was able to get up close with them, check out each model in person, and take plenty of photos. The Carolina Regional Mustang Club provided Mustangs from Generation 1 through Generation 6 in the garage building just off to the side of the main stage at the speedway. The Mustang Club of America, Mustang Owner’s Museum, and Racing Simulators were all located in the same building. Fox News was also on hand doing live broadcasts during the event.

Activities for spectator participant included Hot Laps on the speedway in the Ford Performance Racing School Mustang Dark Horse race cars, the Mach E Experience, plus Mustang In-Car Drift Experiences in 2024 production Mustangs featuring the new Drift Brake. Attendees were able to sign up for one -- or all three. For drifting enthusiasts, Vaugh Gittin Jr. was on hand, and he took to the track to put on a spectacular drifting exhibition. Both the Mustang Hot Laps and Mustang In-Car Drift Experience were simply amazing to join in or even just watch -- and proved to be a must-do for spectators.

Ford also had a big Merchandise Trailer on hand with the newest 60^th Anniversary apparel and other Mustang merchandise available for purchase. If you were hoping to score some 60^th merch here, you had better have gotten to the track early because by mid-afternoon most of it was sold out!

To cap off the celebration there was a Facebook Live presentation from the Mustang 60^th Celebration that began at 5 p.m. on the speedway’s Main Stage. A few highlights we noted from that presentation included the following:

· The Ford Performance Racing School is building a new Road Course adjacent to the Speedway.

· All 2024 and up model-year Mustang owners are now invited to the new Road Course to learn from the Ford Performance Racing School team how to get the most out of their Mustang. This includes Mustang GT, EcoBoost and specialty model Mustangs. For the first time, all new Mustang owners can now take advantage of the Ford Performance Racing School.

· The Ford Mustang 60^th Appearance Package was unveiled. Key features of the 60^th Anniversary Package include:

o Exclusive 60^th Anniversary badges on the fenders and trunk lid -- a modern take on the 1965 Mustang GT badges.

o Unique 20-inch wheels finished in Dark Gravity Gray with bright machined details featuring a Vermillion Red, retro-themed stamped aluminum center cap inspired by the 1965 Mustang center caps.

o Exclusive side graphics which can be optioned in either Iconic Silver or Vermillion Red and are reminiscent of Mustang’s original rocker panel stripes.

o A new grille with a unique mesh design as a callback to the 1965 original made modern with silver-accented nostrils that are also functional air intakes for the 5.0-liter V8.

o Smoked housing of standard Mustang Nite Pony headlights allows silver-accented nostrils to stand out.

o Available in classic Wimbledon White, modern Race Red and Vapor Blue colors

o Iconic Silver mirror caps on Race Red, Vapor Blue cars callback to chrome mirrors of old, while Wimbledon White cars adopt body-color mirror caps.

o Serialized 60^th Anniversary instrument panel badge.

o Interior colors are available in Space Gray, Carmine Red, or Black Onyx.

o The Ford Mustang 60^th Anniversary Package is a limited-production model, with only 1,965 being made available as a nod to the official first model year of the car.

(For those who would like to revisit the full live presentation that was held at the track, it can be found on YouTube.)

For owners, club members and fans alike, it’s been a great start to Mustang’s 60^th Anniversary year -- with Ford’s big celebration at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Mustang Club of America kicking things off with its national show at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. But as great as these events were, the 60 Years celebrations are far from over. Many regional Mustang clubs and enthusiast groups from all around the country and even the world are holding their own celebration events for the Mustang all year long. So if you’re a Mustang enthusiast of any sort, you still have lots of chances to get out there and celebrate this iconic car’s historic milestone.

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY DENNIS HEALY & JOHN OLESUK