We’re just over a week away from the Mustang’s 50th birthday, and Ford is finalizing its preparations for the celebration. The Mustang officially turns 50 on April 17, and as you may have guessed Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] has a lineup of events planned. These include a repeat of the 1964 stunt where a Mustang was taken to the roof of the Empire State Building in New York, as well as two week-long events starting April 16 and to be held simultaneously at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The events are being hosted by Ford in partnership with the Mustang Club of America, and they will be attended by Ford execs Bill Ford and Mark Fields. Thousands of Mustang owners and fans are also expected to attend the events, which will include product ride-and-drives, track time, and special displays showcasing a model from each year of the Mustang’s 50-year run as well as special editions and the all-new 2015 Mustang.

A special highlight for fans will be appearances by some of the people who contributed to the development of various Mustang models, and no doubt they’ll have a few inside stories to tell. Just some of the names include Gale Halderman, the designer credited with the shape of the first-generation Mustang, and Jack Telnack, who was Ford vice president of design during the early days of the Mustang. Also in attendance will be Dave Pericak, current Mustang chief engineer; Moray Callum, current vice president of design and brother to Jaguar design boss Ian Callum; Hau Thai-Tang, former Mustang chief engineer; and Henry Ford III.

For more information on the events, visit the official Mustang birthday website (www.mustang50thbirthdaycelebration.com) or the website of the Mustang Club of America (www.mustang.org).

As the world honors 50 years of Ford Mustang, what better way to celebrate one of the most iconic car brands than putting one back on top of one of the most iconic buildings? Getting a 2015 Ford Mustang convertible to the narrow observation deck of the Empire State Building 1,000 feet above the streets of Manhattan is no easy task. Here's how the crew got ready.

If you haven't put 8 and 2 together yet, what Carscoops reader Ervin Mezey believes he heard from the two engineers in the 2015/2016 Ford Mustang prototype with the big quad pipes when he pulled up next to it and they said, "It's a 10 not an 8", is the engine cylinder number.

But could Ford really be working on a V10 Mustang? It sounds highly unlikely, but not entirely impossible with a stretch of the imagination and it would seriously turn a new page on performance Mustangs – wouldn't you agree?

Since there's no way of telling what the engineers meant other than speaking to them directly and that doesn't seem like a plausible scenario (unless they happen to read this and chip in the comments), we'll have to look at what else this heavily camouflaged tester could be hiding under its hood.

Another special edition aside, it may be one of the upcoming performance Shelby models with a GT350 or GT500 moniker wearing a replacement or further tuned version of the latter's brutal 5.8-liter V8 with 662 ponies and 631 lb-ft of torque.

Before you tell us your theory, do check out Ervin's account of the encounter with the Mustang prototype:

"I saw this Mustang earlier today and took some pictures," said Ervin. "The driver wasn’t talkative and neither was his support guy (the Chevy parked behind the Mustang was a support vehicle). I gave them space because, after all, they have a job to do."

"From what I could see, it has dual exhausts on both sides riding on 22” Michelin tires. I couldn’t detect any side scoops or a hood scoop, but maybe you have a better eye about these things then I do. What I could see (that doesn’t show in the pictures) is there are sweeping LED lights below the headlights in the shape of a soft J (similar to what you see on a new Lexus but without the sharp angle). The car also takes premium fuel."

"I assume there may be a V10 under the hood. I mention V10 because I thought I heard one of the guys say while they were discussing a graph or spreadsheet placed on a clipboard (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘it’s a 10 not an 8’. I’m assuming he meant V10 and not V8 and also assuming he’s referencing the engine in the car. But I can’t be sure of this"

"Any green you see in the pictures is glare off the front windshield. These are pictures from a cell phone on a hot day near San Vicente Blvd. in Los Angeles (one block east of Beverly Hills)," said Ervin.

By John Halas

Big thanks to Ervin Mezey of Reatta Rally fame for the pics – if you own one or are a fan of Buick's pop-up headlight model from the late 1980s, the guys at the Reatta club are holding their annual gathering at the Woodley Park in Van Nuys California on July 13.

How do you get a 2015 Ford Mustang to the top of the Empire State Building? For its ongoing celebration of the Mustang's 50th birthday, Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] decided to recreate a classic 1964 publicity stunt and hoist a shiny new pony car to the building's 86th-floor observation deck. That took some creative thinking, and some creative destruction.

Ford worked with Romulus, Michigan-based DST Industries--the same company it collaborated with on that original 1965 attempt--on the project. The team determined that the lift would be too high for a portable crane, and that the Empire State's spire would make a helicopter delivery impossible. That's why Ford and DST decided to employ the same method used to get that original Mustang to the top of the building: chop it up.

The team measured elevators and doors in the building, then used a scale-model Mustang to plan cut lines. Two leftover prototypes were used, one acting as a donor so technicians could determine where to make the cuts. Carts were then custom built for the body sections, then loaded up and placed in a mockup of the smallest of the three elevators the car bits would have to ride in. The sections were then weighed, and crews practiced assembling them, pit crew style.

Speed was needed, as the Empire State Building's observation deck is only closed for six hours a day, from 2:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. After crews finish assembling it, the Triple Yellow Mustang will be on display April 16-17, coinciding with the 2014 New York Auto Show. At 2:00 a.m. April 18, it will be disassembled and removed.