Similar to the 200-inch mirror in the Hale Telescope, David Haymond's Concept 3 project took 11 years to build. Again, like the 200-inch mirror, he needed to take a nearly four-year break from construction, but finished with a concentrated four-year run of daily activity. David estimates he has 15,000 hours in the Concept 3. Stunning good looks have a habit of standing up to time, and the Mach III underscores the point. Dating from the Fox Mustang era, the Concept 3's lines are still mistaken for the next-generation Mustang or Ford sports car every time David takes it out. People can't believe it's a '92 design, with a school bus driver yelling down to him, "That's an '08, right?"
Horse Sense: While his largest automotive project, the Concept 3 isn't car-holic David Haymond's first shop job. He has restored or modified a '29 Model A roadster (when he was 13 years old), a '57 T-bird, four '65 Mustangs, and a Lambo Countach-just for something different.
It doesn't take long to figure out that David Haymond is an extremely intelligent individual. Only a few minutes after meeting him and circling his magnum opus Concept 3 roadster, we were self-consciously in the presence of an exceptional human being. Relative to the usual human fodder, David is excruciatingly creative, approaching obsessive in his drive, and clearly skilled with his hands. He manifests an eye for beauty, function, and an understanding of historic precedent. His car is cool, too.
That made it all the more fun to ask him the unfair and unanswerable, "Why?" when viewing his magnificently rendered re-creation of Ford's Mach III show car. "I've asked myself so many times," was his fading reply, an entirely full and honest response considering his accomplishment.
Let there be no mistake: What David has finished is an accomplishment, not the hollow diploma of merely having enough money to buy a well-crafted automobile or the vacuous pomp afforded those with bolt-on horsepower and some vinyl skull appliqus. But he knows the deep satisfaction won only by those who have really tried and succeeded.
What David has achieved is building his own Mach III concept car, arguably at the production level had Ford taken it that far. That he did it in his home shop for his own amusement is the truly bewildering part, but that's talent for you.
There's a hint of Thunderbird proportions in the Concept 3 bodywork, especially in the generous rear overhang. Some of this is simply a 2+2 chassis working as a two-seater, but the styling tactic gives generous interior volume for the fuel tank, stereo gear, and IRS. David placed the fuel tank where the rear seat used to be and fitted custom exhaust pipes around the later-model Cobra IRS.
What is a Mach III? Actually, there were two of them built in 1993 in anticipation of the upcoming SN-95 Mustang introduction in 1994. Commissioned by John Coletti, the SN-95 program manager, the two-off Mach IIIs were handbuilt with borrowed funds from the Mustang's launch budget. Intended strictly as show cars, the pair was to foreshadow the new Mustang's rounded body lines and highlight the Four-Valve modular power that was still three years distant.
The Mach IIIs did their job, making the magazine and car show rounds. I drove the red one for the June '93 issue of Super Ford magazine, but it was ultimately destroyed in a 1994 transporter fire while returning from a Canadian show. The green car is still extant, but it's shuttered away these days. Forget any ideas about owning one-the car never saw serial production (even if we poised the possibility 14 years ago) and the survivor is Ford and Mustang history.
It's difficult, even in retrospect, to say what single theme or item highlighted the Mach III, but if forced to choose, the voluptuous exterior styling would be our pick. If you like them rounded, the Mach III is your gal. The details, from the LED taillights to the cleavage-bearing windshield, were well ahead of their time. Some of the curves and cutlines would've been tough-or impossible-for a production car, and the windshield, so curved and so low you had to look under or over the header, was obviously a designer's folly. The overall shape was exciting and has carried a classic timelessness of proportion.
Hidden under the roadster body is a '96 Cobra platform and modified suspension. Because of the Mach III's 1.5-inch wider body, the Mustang Cobra track has grown by almost 4 inches, necessitating custom-fabbed wider front control arms. Custom offsets in the huge wheels make up the rest of the track gain. Adjustable KYB coilover units are anchored by custom camber plates in front; Bilsteins do the honor in back with the IRS. All four corners are augmented by airbags for variable ride height.
The powertrain was also impressive. Again, three years ahead of its production intro in the Mustang Cobra, the Four-Valve was the stuff of dreams in 1993. Internally it was a stock Lincoln Mark VIII mill, but the Mach III sported an Eaton supercharger and a fussy-but-effective liquid charge cooler. Closely resembling a modern water-to-air cooler, the Mach III's system used glycol-why not water, we don't know-and in addition to the usual front-mounted radiator, the glycol passed through a special tank filled with the working fluid from the air-conditioning system. This chilled the 225-degree blower discharge air to 80 degrees for up to 30 seconds at wide-open throttle, allowing advanced ignition timing and high power under all but extended wide-open bursts.
Behind the engine, the Mach III was competent, but not revolutionary. Built off the '94 Mustang GT engineering hack chassis, the Mach IIIs wore a then-novel T56 manual six-speed gearbox and the standard 8.8-inch live-axle rearend. The chassis and suspension were pure production SN-95, and in all, the two cars were never fully finished with details such as a top, side windows, or working instruments. In truth, they weren't designed for real driving. We were allowed to motor the red car for photography purposes and get a hint of the power, but were casually informed that 35 mph was the limit.
The car's handlers on our day graciously let us loose solo on the EVOC test track, and soon everyone was winging the experimental engines to who knows what rpm to revel in the then-unique sensation of the gloriously smooth blown Four-Valve power rush. I recall letting it rip all the way through Third gear-triple-digit fun-and wondering if something was wrong with my Taurus SHO when I drove home. It felt so anemic that I scanned the instrument cluster in alarm, convinced something was wrong with the 8,000-rpm V-6. There wasn't; the Mach III had simply recalibrated my Levi's-clad thrust meter.
Let's also recall the Mach IIIs had nothing more than a slap-dash show car interior. The rearview mirrors were bits of flat glass, the blue suede interior highlights quickly glued in place, and the instruments as faux as Paris Hilton's respect for the law. It was hard not to keep glancing at the phony gauges to check the rpm, only to find the overly ornate needles stuck in the same position. It was like trying to gain meaningful information from prom night decorations.