[Lee Stewart]

When Larry Shinoda came over to Ford, they were already working on a Trans Am Mustang to take on Chevy's Z/28. What he saw was a car with cladding along the rocker panel area and rear panel. He argued with the stylists that less is more. He would get rid of the cladding and use just black paint on the rear panel (and on the deck lid) saving Ford tons of money in parts and assembly time. The bean counters loved the ideas but were forced into a small tradeoff when he changed the rear quarter panels to remove the fake scoops, something that Larry did not like. As it turned out, the rear quarter panels sans scoops were less expensive and were made standard on the 1970 models.

Larry's styling cues carried over to the 1970 model along with a change in the stripe pattern.

But the stylists finally did get their way . . .