(car engine revving)
(tires squealing)
- It's the tire smoking, drag strip ripping,
unofficial top muscle car of the 80's.
It's got a reputation for leaving skid marks
not only on the pavement but also
on your passenger's tighty whities.
(car engine revving)
This European influenced looking sportster
rebirthed the American pony car
and ushered in a new generation of drivers
slamming Bernie's in front of
the local Foster's Dairy Freeze.
(car engine revving)
(tires squealing)
Buckle up buckaroos, 'cause this is everything
you need to know to get up to speed on the Fox body Mustang.
(horse neighs) Whoa!
Whoa, whoa big fella, whoa big fella.
Let's ride!
(electricity crackles)
(old video game music)
Oh hi, I'm glad you're here.
Donut just crossed three million subscribers.
Thank you to every single one of you
that have subscribed to our YouTube channel.
To commemorate this moment we're making a special edition
three million subscribers sticker.
It's only gonna be available for the next 72 hours,
it's proof that you were here with us in this moment.
If you come in 78 hours, sorry pal, you're late to the game.
This is for you guys, we have no plans of stopping
anytime soon, now back to work.
This is how we make videos.
Back when we did our up to speed on the Mustang
we gave the Fox body less than a minute of love.
We thought for a car with such a huge following,
and honestly such an interesting story,
it deserved its own episode.
So we're gonna look at how the Fox body Mustang came about,
how it brought muscle back into the American pony car scene,
and why it has a cult following like virtually no other car.
(car engine revving)
Now before the Fox body came out,
Ford was selling the unimpressive yet
confusingly successful Mustang two.
Ford took away the V8 of the original Mustang,
made it smaller, and used the Pinto platform
to build the new Mustang two upon.
Now the infamous oil crisis of 73 put a
hurt on people's wallets, and gas guzzling V8's
were thrown to the wayside.
(jazzy music)
In 1974 gas only cost 55 cents a gallon,
that's 2.87 in today's monies.
Everybody freakin' pays that now!
Although it lacked the sexiness of it's older brother,
the Mustang deuce was a huge success
as buyers wanted more fuel efficient, lower priced,
less extravagant cars, okay, boo, no thanks.
Luckily the oil crisis ended,
and by the mid 70's people were back to buying
full sized honkers that drank gas like no one drinks milk.
But the people over at Ford, they were smart,
and they knew that all that gulping couldn't last forever.
And they moved to build smaller, more fuel efficient cars,
'cause they thought that that would be
the name of the game in the futs.
So Ford engineers went to work building a new platform
for their fleet of cars to build upon.
They called it the Fox platform.
Just to be clear, this is not the Fox body Mustang.
We're getting to the Fox body, don't you worry.
Ford wanted their new multi car platform
to be smaller, weigh less, have a wider engine bay
than the Falcon chassis predecessor,
and be versatile enough to put a bunch
of different models on so you could drive around fast,
or you could tote your boring family around.
Ford's vice president of product planning and research,
Hal Sperlich, came up with the idea of a world car,
a Ford product that appealed to
both Americans and Europeans.
Now with Lee Iacocca's blessing in 1973,
Hal started the Fox platform.
There were to be two wheel bases,
a long wheel base, that the Fairmont would be built on,
and a short version for the Pinto, Cortina, and Mustang.
There's a ton of cars built on the Fox platform,
Mercury Zephyr, Ford Durango, Mercury Cougar,
Lincoln Continental, Ford Thunderbird,
and now that Ford was in the works on the new
multi platform chassis, we could start working on
what the Mustang was gonna look like.
It took three different design teams,
a bunch of concept images were drawn up,
even one based on a wagon, but in the end,
Ford went with the stylings of Jack Telnack.
He was the vice president of design for Ford Europe,
and knew that the smaller, more Euro looking cars
of the East might do well on the American market.
The all new third gen Mustang debuted in 1979,
the first Fox body Mustang.
(car engine revving)
The new 'Stang got square, bucketed headlights,
inside a slanted grill.
Had freaking louvers on the quarter windows,
and a wedge style hood.
It was lighter, safer, more aerodynamic,
it was a complete departure from
the looks of its predecessor.
You got five different engine options
from an 88 horsepower 2.3 liter four cylinder,
to the most coveted and beloved Mustang engine
of all time, the freaking five oh.
(car engine revving)
Although this early version of the five liter V8
only puts out 140 horsepowers.
But there was a beast inside, it just needed some massaging.
We're gonna talk about that in just a bit.
The Fox body also got three different trim levels
during its first initial year.
The first one was called the basic (beep),
not really, it was just pretty basic.
Then there was the more luxurious Ghia trim,
which after some research doesn't seem very luxurious.
It got deluxe seatbelts, map pockets,
and a carpeted luggage compartment.
Which I guess would be a nice gesture
to all the people that you kidnap,
because anyone who spent more money on these options
is probably a psychopath.
The third and final trim was the Cobra.
(thunder cracks)
It's not the kind of cobra that
you're probably thinking of.
The first Fox body Cobra was another appearance package
that got a center mounted, non functional hood scoop,
pinstripes and slightly different bumpers.
If we had to rank Cobras, this one is about
a one out of five hisser.
A year later, the 80's were upon us,
and with it came a McLaren built Mustang?
You heard me right, there are Fox body
M81 McLaren Mustangs out there,
10 production versions, to be exact.
Sketched out while in a Mexican restaurant
in California, the story goes like this,
okay so this dude Gary Kohs of
Marketing Corporation of America
went to his buddy Roger Bailey who worked at McLaren.
And he was like, we wanna build a McLaren Mustang.
Nice mate, rock and roll.
But first, we'll build some race cars
and with your guys' name attached,
they'll sell like freaking hot cakes, man.
Sounds great (burps).
True story, that's how it happened.
Racing in the IMSA series, the McLaren 'Stang got a
four cylinder Cosworth BDA engine,
Ford four speed manual transmission,
and a quick change rear end.
Of the two race cars built,
the number two chassis raced in the GTX Class
in the 1981 24 hours of Daytona.
The car finished 21st overall which isn't that good,
and eighth in it's class, which also isn't that good.
But they did get in a wreck, so,
I mean, I guess they did pretty good.
From those race cars came the production McLaren Mustangs.
McLaren took the 2.3 liter turbo engines
and gave them a good old hot rod boy tune up
with some head porting and blue printing
for durability and performance.
They put out a respectable 190 horsepowers
when you cranked the dash mounted
boost control all the way up.
M81's got BBS wheels, a WayScape hood,
it got all sorts of suspension goodies
and front rear sway bars, and inside, even got a roll bar.
There's only 10 of the hand built M81's ever sold,
and at a price of 25K, which is about 70K
in today's money, they were not cheap.
- Pressure is building again in Washington
for a new look at gas rationing.
- In 1979 a second oil crisis hit the United States,
and playing a bit of catch up,
Ford ditched the five liter V8 to
conserve fuel and meet consumer demands.
And it was replaced with the
255 cubic inch V8 for 1980 and 1981.
The sole V8 option for the Mustang made
120 little tiny horse boys,
the lowest horsepower ever for a V8 Mustang.
Ford also dropped the 2.3 liter turbo,
so if you wanted a true performance engine in your 'Stang
in the early 80's, you were SOL,
unless you were the cops.
(engine revving)
(tires squealing)
In 1982, Ford produced some SSP models.
SSP stands for special service package.
The California Highway Patrol asked for some Mustangs
to test as fleet vehicles after they tested
some 79 Chevy Camaros for 18 months
and they weren't a good fit.
The five liter four speed must have ticked off some boxes
because the CHP bought 406.
- Y'all buckle up now.
- And a year later, Ford opened the SSP up
to other law enforcement agencies.
And these cars were made up until the Fox body was retired.
Police car Fox bodies are so sick.
- The boss is back.
(tires squealing)
- After a 13 year hiatus,
Ford finally brought back the GT in 1982.
Ford marketed the new GT as the boss is back.
An homage to the Boss 302 of the 70's.
The new boss 5.0 got a bump in power
with new valves, cams, exhaust, and intake.
The popular five liter was back and here to stay, baby.
(car engine revving)
The five year old Fox body got some cosmetic upgrades
a year later with a restyled front face shelf
that was more rounded, and a new front grill.
If you change the front you gotta change the back, duh,
plastic surgery freaking 101.
And the rear end got new tail lights
and a new blue oval Ford emblem slapped on its boot.
After nine years of not being able to
let your hair flap in the wind,
you can finally get your little pony in convertible trim.
(car engine revving)
1984 marked the 20th anniversary of the Mustang,
and to bring some attention to 20 years of the 'Stang,
Ford brought back the GT 350 namesake.
Now if you were an 80's dude or duette
and heard that Ford was bringing back
the beloved GT 350 from the 70's,
you probably clenched your little
butt cheeks with excitement, well relax those buns bud,
'cause again, it was just basically
another cosmetics package.
It did get some upgraded suspension components,
but overall it really didn't do that much
to match the legacy of the original GT 350.
That same year, a familiar name in the Mustang scene
hit the road running.
Saleen.
Ford Saleen went off and built their own American supercars.
They were hopping up Fox body Mustangs.
Steve Saleen was looking to take all that potential
that the Fox body had, and turn it into race car gold.
He took the cars to various SCCA races,
winning along the way.
His success on the track gave his new Mustang
some street cred, and if you had the dough,
you too could buy your own Saleen equipped Fox body.
So what made his Saleen conversion so special?
Well, he worked on the stuff that makes a race car better,
the chassis, the suspension, the brakes.
He didn't even touch the engine, for two reasons,
one, he didn't want any trouble with the EPA,
they were still pretty strict
at the time regarding emissions,
and two, it allowed him to sell his conversions
while maintaining the Ford factory warranty.
Smart.
(car engine revving)
He used Racecraft suspension, custom wheels,
and a body kit that was very period correct.
And in the early 90's, Saleen released the Saleen SSC
and SC, their first crack at their very own
Fox body with a modified engine.
Saleen worked 290 horsepowers out
of the beloved 5.0 for the SSC,
and got even more power baby out of the SC
with 304 buff horses.
While Saleen was off modifying Mustangs,
in house, Ford was looking to put some muscle
back in their production pony.
The oil crisis was long gone and performance junkies wanted
more buff horses to put back into their four wheeled steed,
and Ford needed a division of their own to do it.
So they decided to form a division
that would oversee not only Ford's racing program,
but also spearhead the production
of high performance, street legal cars.
Ford came up with Special Vehicle Operations Department,
or SVO for short.
Their first task was turning the Mustang
into a more performance oriented car.
Surprisingly instead of going the conventional route
with the five liter small block,
the SVO team used the 2.3 liter turbo,
making 175 horsepower and 210 pound feet of torque.
The SVO 'Stang was the highest performer of the time.
Now remember when McLaren was making waves
with their own turbo four banger?
Well the newly formed SVO, they didn't like that.
So they killed it, they killed the McLaren Mustang
and said "We're not gonna do this".
Now it didn't take long for them to find
the errors of their ways, about a year and a half,
for Ford to make the switch to focusing on
the flagship V8, the five liter.
Gone were the days of the choked up 140 horsepower
versions of the infamous small block,
and here to stay were the 200 plus
buff horse, high output 5.0's.
(car engine revving)
Will go down as the power plan that brought
muscle back to the Mustang lineup.
By 1988 the success of the higher power motor
led to more than 200,000 Mustangs being sold annually.
One of the top American sports cars of the time.
Just look at the movies that featured a Fox body.
Caine's convertible GT sitting on 10 inch
gold Dayton's in Menace to Society.
Arnold Sshwarzenegger drove one in Twins.
Tim the freaking Tool Man Taylor bought his son Brad
a GT as his first car.
The Fox bodies were wildly popular from grandmas
rocking them to church to 16 year olds
ripping Bernie's in church parking lots.
Towns were filled with boxy 'Stangs.
But by 1990 the Fox body itself
was getting a little long in the tooth.
Ford continued to make special edition
Mustangs over the next few years.
You got the summer time edition, and the triple white,
but maybe the best Fox body of all
came with a three letter badge next to it, SVT.
(thunder rumbles)
SVT stands for Special Vehicle Team,
and they made some of Ford's sickest
performance cars throughout the years.
Like freaking Lightning, and the Focus,
but SVT started it all with the Fox body Cobra.
The 1993 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra was launched
during the 1992 Chicago Auto Show as a way to show off
Ford's new performance division.
The Cobra got an upgraded motor,
with 235 horsepowers, and 280 pound feet of twerks.
It could go from zero to 60 in 5.9 seconds
and run the quarter in 14.5,
this was a full five out of five hisser,
with an upgraded transmission, rear disk brakes,
and the best looking wheels ever to come on a Fox body.
(car engine revving)
The Cobra was a freaking beaut.
The only other Mustang that could best the Cobra
was the Cobra R, why?
Because R stands for racing.
(car engine revving)
The R was the swan song for the Fox body Mustang,
and it showed the world that the SVT crew
knew how to build performance cars.
It was a full on race car with no radio,
no speakers, no freaking air conditioning,
no sound deadening material, or rear seat.
Only 107 R's were built,
specifically for IMSA and SCCA class B racing.
Although the majority of them are
in the hands of collectors,
so they're just sitting in some old guy's garage.
The Fox body came to an end in 1993
but to this day it's still one of the best
and beloved Mustangs of all time.
It turned the Mustang back into the muscle machine
it once was and if you have a Calypso green notch back
five liter with a manual, hit me up in the comments below.
Hold on a second, you're a Donut fan,
but you don't even have any Donut merch?
How will the other d-holes know that
you've got more power, baby?
Head on over to donutmedia.com and show everyone
what a big d-hole you are.
Donutmedia.com, also if you wanna work for us,
that's where you do it, there's a join the team blink.
This could be you.
I love you.