Ford Went to Great Lengths to Hide the 2015 Mustang from Annoying Spy Photographers

If you follow the automotive world, you should be very familiar with the popularity of spy photographs that show cars like the 2015 Ford Mustang before they have been formally introduced. In some cases (including nearly all of the spy photography here on TorqueNews.com), those quick glimpses of a future vehicle captured out in the real world are caught by people who happen to be in the right place at the right time with some sort of recording device. However, there are a handful of companies which exist merely to figure out innovative new ways to invade what little privacy the automakers have and this Ford video affectionately refers to these people as “paparazzi”. Ford representatives talk about how these prying photographers go to great lengths to get a look at prohibited areas, doing things like climbing into trees, flying over testing facilities or simply hiding in the wooded areas around company facilities.

Considering the huge level of global interest around the 2015 Ford Mustang, the Motor Company knew that they had to go to incredible lengths to make sure that these automotive photogs didn’t get a full look at the S550 Mustang ahead of the December 5th debut. The video below walks us through the basic procedures of the camouflaging process while also giving us a look at what exactly makes up the 2015 Mustang’s thick clothing. While most readers will quickly recognize the black cloth cladding that wraps almost every test car in their early testing stages, this 2015 Mustang video offers us a look at what is under that black cloth with a series of hard plastic panels and specially formed foam pads helping to make the actual look of the test car indistinguishable.

Finally, once the Mustang team gets to the unspecified testing facility, some of the cladding is removed and we see that under the bulky clothing of the S550 is a masking paint scheme in contrasting black and white. This radical paint scheme makes it harder to see the fine lines of a vehicle so even if a photographer gets a short of a test car without the cloth cladding, the photog still isn’t getting a crystal clear shot of the exterior design. I also believe that automakers use this hard-to-miss look on test cars to help draw attention as even people who aren’t familiar with cars that aren’t available to the masses yet are drawn to the eye catching checked design.

While many readers might find this process to be excessive and – to some extent – useless, Ford put a great deal of effort into the global launch of the 2015 Mustang and having someone catch a shot of the new Mustang completely unmasked could have spoiled some of the anticipation leading up to the December 5th debut in the US, Australia, China and Spain. More importantly, having a rival automaker get a glimpse of a future product before the Mustang was ready for its debut may have given the competition a chance to prepare to counter the new Mustang before the car was even introduced so while Ford didn’t want me or you to see the 2015 Mustang ahead of its launch – they REALLY didn’t want General Motors or the Chrysler Group to see it ahead of time.

Image: Ford Motor Company