Ford Mustang – or Dingo?
Though Ford would have us associate these cars with horses, I think they’re designed more like dogs – their radiators are in the front. The faster you drive, the more convective cooling the radiator receives.
While horses do sweat; cars and dogs don’t. Dogs primarily cool through the mouth, by panting. That’s the same thing a car does while idling at rest: a fan is used to keep air flowing through the radiator. Another fact (which I learned from Kristin) is that dogs bear about 60% of their weight in the front. I don’t know whether this is true for horses, but the weight distribution sure sounds like a muscle car to me.
Well, after all the analogy, there’s still the problem of image. Dogs are seen as “loyal and friendly,” but horses are “elegant and powerful.” Also, I can’t think of anyone who has ridden on a dog. (Well, except for my brother when he was about 4…) The branding makes sense, but I could see a nerdy engineer suggesting a different image.
OK, this was a somewhat pointless post, but I know many people see the different faces cars have: formed by the headlights and grill. This random thought was just an analogy for function rather than form.