Fifteen years before the Ford Mustang made its debut, a totally different kind of Mustang was introduced to the public in Seattle, Washington.

Roy C. McCarty of Seattle, Washington had a better idea. As the service manager in a Lincoln dealership, he’d developed his own theories about automotive engineering. These took shape in a vehicle of his own design, the 1949 Mustang, a full 15 years before the Ford Motor Co. rolled out its new Mustang at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

As we can see, the two Mustangs shared nothing beyond their name. McCarty’s Mustang was nearly a pure teardrop shape with a four-cylinder engine in the rear and seating for six or seven passengers, two in the front row. The general layout was not unlike, say,  Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion, or the Scarabs of William B. Stout. The wheelbase was 102 inches, overall length 182 inches, and the overall body profile recalled a familiar marine mammal. “It’s a whale of a car,” the Mustang brochure boasted. Horse? Whale? Both? Sure, why not.

Built on a simple chassis of round steel tubing, the Mustang employed a transverse leaf spring in the front, two long cantilever leaf springs in the rear, and a separate subframe for the drivetrain to create a convenient service module. The 59-hp engine was by Hercules, the transmission was a Warner three-speed, and the rear axle was Dana-Spicer, as McCarty aimed to use as many off-the-shelf components as possible. The distinctive aluminum body was fabricated by Pacific Car & Foundry, the company known today as PACCAR.

The Mustang prototype made its debut at the Masonic Temple in Seattle on October 7, 1948, and it was also displayed at other prominent locations around the Seattle area, including the Fisher Department Store (above). Colorful promotional gimmicks included a western swing band called the Mustang Riders, and the car received a half-page feature in the February, 1949 issue of Popular Science (below).

Tentative plans were made to produce the Mustang in a plant in northwest Washington,  selling directly to the public (no dealers) at a base price of $1235. Ultimately, McCarty hoped to get the price down below $1000. But the efforts to raise capital, including via a public sale of common stock, failed to gain traction and the project never got beyond the prototype stage, apparently. When the Ford Mustang was introduced some years later, McCarty attempted to assert his legal right to the name with the Dearborn automaker but that never went anywhere either, it seems. What eventually became of the lone Mustang prototype remains unknown.