AW: What inspired the development of the Forty-Nine?
Mays: The Forty-Nine was designed by a group of people that love hot rods. I love the 1949 Ford. It's one of my favorites because of not only the original car, but what a host of Americans have done to it in terms of chopping, channeling, and hot-rodding them - personalizing them for their own use. That's where a product like that takes on iconic status and meaning far beyond the shape of the sheet metal and becomes a part of the American culture. Hopefully we're setting off little bombs, visual callbacks in your brain that make you think of those cars.

AW: How does emotion factor in?
Mays: Customers need something to participate in. If you allow your customers to parti-cipate in the brand, you have a much better chance of making an emotional connection that will have some sustainability. Both [the Beetle and Thunderbird] bring back "Gee, I remember when...," and "My dad had one of those," and "I know a guy who ..." A 1961 Lincoln Continental would never have been as popular as it was had John F. Kennedy not used that car while he was in office. With the Bullitt Mustang, there is the connection to the film Bullitt with Steve McQueen. People can participate in the Bullitt Mustang. They can talk about the movie. They can talk about Steve McQueen. They can talk about Jacqueline Bisset. All these things are on the periphery of the movie Bullitt and also on the periphery of the nameplate Mustang, and this creates a very interesting focal point for customers. These other elements are just as important to the emotional connection. On the other hand, if you show [consumers] a neat car but such a pure design that it's rather sterile, that it leaves them slightly cold, they may rationalize and appreciate the design from an aesthetic standpoint, but they never emotionally connect with it.