As principal engineer for the 2005 Mustang , Hau Thai - Tang was at the epicenter of the projection from its commencement . He managed the technological team that designed , developed , and tested the gondola ’s every mechanically skillful look . And he was responsible for reconcile its engineering with the diverse demand of styling , assembly , and cost . Born in Saigon , Vietnam , Thai - Tang grew up in New York City and joined Ford as a Ford College Graduate trainee in 1988 . He spent time on Ford ’s CART racing crew , was engineering manager for the Lincoln LS , chief railroad engineer for the Thunderbird , and result exploitation and launching of the 2001 Mustang GT , V-6 , Cobra , and Bullitt models . He holds technology grade form Carnegie - Mellon University and the University of Michigan . In 2006 , Thai - Tang was named Director of Advanced Product Creation & SVT ( Special Vehicle Team ) Ford ’s functioning fomite sectionalization . Here , in his own words , is a noteworthy journey that result from Vietnam to the gist of American high operation .
It ’s a nifty privilege for me to work on this 5th - generation Mustang . For me , as a minor grow up in Vietnam , my breathing in were to some day own a car .
I have one brother , and my parents are both college educated . My mother knead for Chase Manhattan Bank in Saigon . My father was a school teacher . At the oddment of the war , when we recognized that the Communists were going to win and the U.S. had pulled out all its scout group , the citizenry from Chase Manhattan Bank told us , " We ’re cash in one’s chips to help oneself emigrate some of our employees to America . "
They went through a choice cognitive operation and I think what helped us was both my parent were college educated , and they talk the language – really they were more fluent in French because we were a French colony – but we had a modest kin and I think Chase limit that we could probably take in over here pretty well . I was nine . We were tell , " You ’re going to America . heed to this radio and when you hear " White Christmas " by Bing Crosby , you ’ll have an hour to get to the airlift destination . "
We were allowed one carry - on bag each . So we had four bag lined up by the door . One daytime in April 1975 , we get word " White Christmas " and my parents obtain us into a car , sped over to my grandparents ' family , said au revoir , and drive to this group meeting place . They took us by bus to the airport . We got put on an American military plane . We vanish to Guam . The next day Saigon fell to the Communists .
In America , Hau Thai - Tang looked back to his first showdown with a Mustang as inspiration for an automotive career . Find out on the next varlet where that retention moderate him .
For even more on the Ford Mustang of yesterday and today, check out the following articles.
Discovering the Mustang
Hau Thai - Tang fled wartorn Vietnam as a male child and could n’t have have a go at it that some day he ’d help bring to reality the new reading of the car that to him symbolized America . He stay on the story , in his own words .
In Vietnam , to have a car was a pretty practiced matter and we had one , a Citröen Deux Chevaux . My grandfather also had a French car , and he had an old landrover . He was pretty well off . He rented some rooms to American military officer . As kids , we were always hanging around with them . They gave us ice pick . One of the thing they forget laying around were machine magazines . You ’d look at them and see all these American cars . And part of the morale - construction at the meter was they would bring over Mustang raceway cars as part of the USO tours . That was when I image my first Mustang . It was a raceway car . And it was fast . So my connectedness with America and with car was forged on those prototype .
My parents stressed teaching . Vietnamese culture , you know . They wanted us to be a Dr. or a dentist . I decided to be an technologist because I was good in maths . Could n’t stand the good deal of blood . I graduated from school and came to the auto industry . What attract me was my love for cars and the fact that [ the field ] is so dynamical , constantly changing , so private-enterprise .
The skillful thing is , it ’s touchable . You know , you’re able to mold for NASA , but they ’re not go to let you try the space shuttle . Here , you could bring it home , you could show it to your friends , you could show it to your better half , you could show it to your parents , and you could say " I helped do some factor of this . " That was the attraction .
For me , Mustang has such universal appeal . It place upright for , in my mind , everything that ’s good about America . It ’s gravid , herculean , bold . It ’s accessible . It embodies exemption . I mean , that ’s the joy of driving a Mustang . That ’s the American success story . So my perspective may be unlike from , say , the Midwestern farm boy who acquire up playing with his dada ’s tractor when he was eight . His context with the Mustang is different than mine . But we both have the same love for the car , and for the same reasons .
It has been a noteworthy journey . I was take over in ' 66 , and under the Chinese zodiac , which in Vietnam we used , that was the year of the horse . So my female parent is convert that this is all fate and destiny . " You were support in the yr of the sawhorse . Now you ’re work on the Horse Car . " She thinks it ’s all enlace . But I tell her , " Hey , tomorrow I could be working on the Freestar . "
