To celebrate the iconic pony car's 50th anniversary, a couple of Ford officials and enthusiasts became the first people to launch a Stang out of the Earth's atmosphere. Well, not quite a full-size Mustang, but a toy model of the American muscle car.
“We wanted to celebrate 50 years of Mustang and the impending arrival of the all-new 2015 Mustang by doing something really special,” said Michael Sego, San Francisco-area Ford sales manager. “Mustang has always been about getting behind the wheel and hitting the open road, but we decided to take to the open sky.”
So why did these guys do this zero gravity stunt? As it happens, when development of the original Ford Mustang began in 1961, astronauts were taking their first steps into space around the same time.
Taking inspiration from Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner who used a custom helium-filled balloon to ride a capsule up to nearly 128,000 feet (39 clicks) above ground level before diving back to Earth, Sego and the Big Valley Ford team attached the die-cast Mustang to a high-altitude weather balloon.
A metal rod was added to the side instrumentation box below the balloon, on which a GoPro Hero HD3 action camera was attached to film the whole adventure. The toy car used is a Revell 2015 Ford Mustang, which was given away for free at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
An hour and 14 minutes after the balloon was released, the die-cast 2015 Ford Mustang reached a maximum height of 110,000 feet (approximately 21 miles/33.8 kilometers) according to the GPS transmitter.
Watch the toy car take off and fall back to Earth by playing the video below.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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