Great story...especially for the 'Stang fans.
Mustang engineer lives American dream
Inspired by auto icon as a boy in Vietnam, he drives 2005 launch
By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News
DEARBORN — Like many thirtysomethings, Hau Thai-Tang has whimsical boyhood memories of the first time he saw a Ford Mustang. But they don’t involve moonlit drive-ins or Main Street cruising.
His mental images of the muscle car icon are set in war-torn Vietnam, where Mustangs served as a backdrop to raucous USO shows staged for homesick American troops.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” said Thai-Tang, who was accustomed to cars like his family’s two-cylinder Citroen.
“Just seeing the proportions — it left such a lasting effect,” he said of the Mustang. “It stood for everything that was great about America.”
Forty-eight hours before democracy crumbled in Vietnam on April 30, 1975, Thai-Tang and his family fled Saigon, eventually making their way to the United States.
He left most of his belongings in Vietnam, but carried with him a dream that started with the first time he laid eyes on a Mustang.
Today, Thai-Tang, 37, is chief engineer responsible for bringing to market the fifth generation of America’s top-selling sports coupe and convertible for 18 consecutive years.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0401/14/a01-35456.htm
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