The mystery of Ford's forgotten mid-engine Mustang may have been solved.

Last week, Ford asked the general public for help in identifying mid-engine Mustangs produced in 1966.

The answer seems to have been answered.

But first, a little background. The only evidence of this car's existence are four photos dug up by Dean Weber five years ago while he was tending to the official Ford archives.

Weber originally thought the car might have been the Mustang Mach 2 concept car unveiled by Ford at the 1967 Chicago Auto Show. However, industry historian Wayne Ference refuted this theory. In a 2016 interview on the origins of the Mach 2 concept, he described a design that contradicted the design shown in photos of the enigmatic mid-engine Mustang.

Jalopnik has learned from Ted Ryan, the current head of Ford's archives, that the old photos are what Ford calls "styling negatives", essentially photos of unfinished projects that were traditionally stored as negatives. Ford had been storing these negatives since the early 1950s.

After circulating the photos among former designers who worked at Ford in the 1960s, Ryan and the designers agreed that the mysterious mid-engine Mustang was likely related to the Mach 2 concept introduced in 1967. (A second Mach 2 concept was introduced in 1970 and is believed to have been based on the De Tomaso Pantera chassis!) .

However, the mysterious mid-engine Mustang is not a Mach 2 concept. Rather, it is most likely a mockup created by the engineering department to determine the layout of the mid-engine Mustang. Ford designers probably used this mockup to determine the Mach 2 concept's hard points. This mockup may have been the basis for the original clay model of the Mach 2 Concept.

Anyone with information about this vehicle should contact Ford at [email protected]. The automaker is offering a cash reward to anyone who provides information that will help identify this car.