Quartermile:

That magical moment you see a new car model driving in the world for the first time.

The Sighting!

The process of a new car being released in an interesting one. There is first the concept car, usually shown years ahead of time. Is it an accurate representation of the new car? Maybe? Maybe it’s just market hype. Often the cooler aspects of the concept car are removed to make the car more cost effective. For this article I will be focusing on the 2015 Mustang since from what I understand you could begin taking orders September 9th 2014. How did we come to this car? First there was the concept, the Evos, released around 2011 (3 years before production). While it wasn’t directly a mustang those who were thinking ahead and looking deeper could see the gears turning in the minds of the designers at Ford.

Evos – Autoviva – Flickr

Next came the spy photos. For the 2015 mustang these were around June 2013, so a year before production at the factory. These often tell you less than the concept since it’s a car but completely covered with leather and canvas to hide the true shape of the vehicle.

photos – Karen Roe Flicker

After that came the first release to magazines. This is our first view of a new vehicle and we can begin to get a feel what it’s like, but we’re still not really sure. Pictures often can make a vehicle look better or worse, depending on the angles. For the Mustang this official unveiling was around January 2014 (9 months before production).

Shortly after that the Mustang was debuted at motor shows around the world. This allows people to look at and touch the car for the first time. It’s a magical time. You can determine if you were right or wrong about the looks of the new car.

Then it’s months of magazine comparisons and hype.

Depending on how much you pay attention to a new vehicle, you’ll know the exact day it was made available to the public to buy, or not.

But one day you will be sitting in traffic and that car you’ve been hearing about for so long will go driving by unassumingly. You might even miss it!

You’ll question, was that a new X.

photos – Kyle Harris -Flicker

It then becomes a game (at least for me) of if and when I can spot a new model.

The most recent time this happened for me was the new Corvette. A co-worker bought one, but was pretty low key about it. So I kept my ears and eyes open. Eventually I bumped into him outside of work and got a peek at his beautiful new car! What a treat!

Since that time I’ve seen a few more new Corvettes around town. They are all exciting, especially keeping a mental tally of each new one by color. There’s now a red one, white one, blue one etc.

So the next new car I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for is a new Mustang, which I should be seeing in the next month or so.

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What is the next new car you’re looking forward to seeing?

What was the most exciting new car you saw for the first time in the wild?