Foxbody's FTW!

"TheDutchTexan" (TheDutchTexan) 10/05/2019 at 15:19 • Filed to: TheDutchTexan, Foxbody, Mustang GT

1

21

I love my s197, but it would not exist without the foxbody. IMHO it is the car that saved the Mustang from front wheel drive extinction. I wanted to drive and review one, in part because a Foxbody is one of the cars that I would 100% entertain as a future channel project car for when my Channel gets big (not holding my breath).

I got a chance in this 1991 Mustang GT, owned by a 16 year old no less! Super cool that young drivers get the passion right from the start. I think the future generations will be fine. Just fine!

What do you all think of the Fox? Any other responses besides positive need not apply. No, on a more serious note; I would actually love to know if there are any OPPO’s that hate the Foxbody, and why.

vondon302 > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 15:33

2

Miss my old 89 in a way but the best thing about fox bodies is that they respond well to simple bolt ons and it was just about the perfect size.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 15:35

4

Whenever I get close to one I'm always surprised by how small they actually are.

TheDutchTexan > vondon302 10/05/2019 at 15:43

0

I always liked them, but after driving one I love them! Every time I see the car youtubers do their projects I go: MAAAAAAAN... I need to get to a fraction of that level and I can do the same thing with a FOX (or another classic for that matter, still have a huge weak spot for the 70-72 monte carlos).

TheDutchTexan > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/05/2019 at 15:44

0

They aren’t big, especially compared to the 2005, it dwarfs it! But there is plenty of space inside, more so actually. Safety cramped up cars pretty bad. Safety is good, don’t get me wrong, but all those older cars have seas of room usually.

Montalvo > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 15:48

4

Long live the foxbody.

Lowered a bit, mild cam, upgraded injectors, short throw shifter , H-pipe straight into flowmaster 40s, stripped interior, momo prototipo wheel, and recaro and Corbeau racing seats. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

TheDutchTexan > Montalvo 10/05/2019 at 15:56

0

SIIIIIICK!

I bet it surprises some people at the light too! Stock body Fox!

Montalvo > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 16:12

1

Not sure. Speed? Maybe, but it is so loud I don’t think it really is subtle. I just bought it to make myself giggle and have something to romp on. Driving it is EXACTLY like this chase scene from Jack Reacher. The shakes, noise and smells just feel old school. The foxbody is a s imple, cheap, fun and loud car.

Tristan > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 17:12

0

I’ve owned 5 of them and will never stop kicking myself for selling the crazy nice ‘85 GT/T5/t-top car I had for only a few months. I'll have another one day.

Urambo Tauro > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 17:22

0

I never liked the looks of the Fo xbody Mustang . I t bears hardly any aesthetic resemblance to previous Mustangs. And Ford’s neglecting to put the iconic pony emblem in the grille certainly did n’t help...

But I do have a LOT of respect for thes e cars , for their relatively light weight , the longevity and prevalence of the platform, and of course the aftermarket.

facw > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 17:26

0

I’ve always liked the foxbody. I think it’s too bad that every subsequent version has been wrapped up in retro-fetishism. This is not to say that the current-gen is inferior, but Mustang development has clearly been hindered by worrying about making a good Mustang rather than making a good car.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 20:51

0

I owned one once, an 88 LX 2.3 AOD hatchback. The slowest car in Ford’s catalog at the time it was sold... while the LX 5.0 5-speed and GT 5-speed were the fastest.

First car I bought while I was in high school. But not the first one I experienced. When I was a kid, my parents had a 79 Mercury Capri hatchaback in green, with tan vinyl interior. Good looking car, other than it peeling the skin off your legs in the summer, and freezing in the winter.

I wish the new mustangs came in that sort of color combo.

At the time, I enjoyed that car, but mostly because it was attainable. It was flexible, slow, and ventured off the pavement multiple times in the winter. It developed electrical problems, and the second time the transmission broke down, I sold it as a roller, and bought a 93 Probe GT instead.

I long thought about what my perfect fox body would be.. a mix of various parts from all sorts of years... an T-Top Capri body, early hatch with a rear wiper (phased out after 80), SVO/Cobra tail lights, 93 Cobra rear bumper, Saleen side skirts and front splitter on an 86 Mustang GT nose. Volvo 16-valve head on a Lima block, with uprated fuel injection and turbo, or an Australian I6 engine, 6-speed manual, and an SN95 Cobra IRS subframe transplant, and Griggs front suspension upgrade.

Then, I realized that I was spending a lot of theoretical money to build a near-stock Mark III Supra. ;-)

The thing is, now that the Supra is so expensive, and not as good looking... Ford has announced the anti-muscle Mustang performer. the new 2020 EcoBoost High Performance Package, with the Focus RS engine, uprated turbo, and 350tq, and 330hp that doesn’t fall down near the redline. And it comes with a handling package that includes magneride, and a limited slip diff, and performance tires.

The reviews say that with 200 fewer pounds, and 150 of those removed from the nose of the car, and the handling package steering, it is a very good performer, and maybe more versatile than the GT on most roads.

Now I am thinking that an Oxford White one with added on blue and pewter silver/pale gold stripes, wheels and accents would do really well. Velocity Blue or Performance Blue main stripe on the door sills and over the center of the car, with the warm silver or pale gold pin stripes on either side, mirror caps, wheel centers, and maybe even the tail panel. Blue on the diffuser under the bumper.

To add to that, I would Roush grilles and fascia treatment. Shelby GT350 style hood and extractor fenders. Also the multi-piece aluminum-hat Shelby Brembo brakes, and some lightweight forged wheels, and maybe even a carbon roof skin. Not full Shelby, but with a bit of appearance and weight reduction, especially rolling and unsprung weight.

With the classic blue stripe on white classic ford theme, I would go with RS and Ford Performance badging... to go with the fact that Ford Performance created the HPP package by putting the Focus RS engine under the Mustang’s hood.

some inspiration bits that I have been finding (not my images, grabbed from Mustang6G forum, for the most part)

Still looking for some wheels that are both lightweight, and refer back to the SVO.

I wonder what a mid-wing above the rear window would look like, to get the biplane wing effect that SVO had.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 10/05/2019 at 20:56

0

for Fox body reference.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > TheDutchTexan 10/05/2019 at 21:01

0

Doors and panels are VERY thin, as are roof pillars on cars made before the late 1990s and 2000s.

Good for space efficiency... but a bit of a tin can in an accident.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Urambo Tauro 10/05/2019 at 21:20

0

One thing I miss about the 1980s... things were new, and ideas were fresh.

It didn’t have to rely on being retro.

69-70 Mustangs didn’t look like their predecessors, 71-73 Mustangs weren’t retro, either. Mustang II tried a little bit with the grille, headlights, and C-shape on the side.

Fox was a new design, but SN95, New Edge, S197 were all retro, with various ideas of updating the classic design. S550 has some of that, too.

65 Mustang was a hit by being a new thing, not a 50+ year old throw back thing, and it was mainstream affordable, but not compromised and toned down to cut costs.

I am still waiting on something new that is also affordable, without being cheap or under-delivered. Even if it has to wear a new nameplate.

Urambo Tauro > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 10/05/2019 at 21:48

0

T he S197 and its focused attempt to recall the original is the only Mustang I’d call “retro”. Carrying over design traits from one generation directly to the next isn’t retro; it’ s a n important part of upholding brand identity. And it’s a key factor in ensuring that cars are wo rthy “descendants” of the name borne by their previous generations. It’s important for a car to share as many similarities with its predecessor as possible. Things change, things improve, sure. But i f you change a car too much , the name becomes diluted and brand identity is lost . There’s a lot more to brand identity than aesthetics, but a Mustang should at least look like a Mustang. And I think the Fox dropped the ball a little in that respect.

TheDutchTexan > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 10/05/2019 at 22:27

0

I actually reviewed an earlier ‘16 ecoboost , shameless plug here:

It was quick, modded, has all the mustang styling and thus plenty of options to make it your own AND beef it up with GT stuff if you are so inclined. It really is a cool package sans the V8 soundtrack. But even without the soundtrack that ecoboost mopped the floor with my 3 valve S197 (bone stock).

And as far as a Fox goes, definitly an 1982 with the same airdam as the pace car, and mad max it out. Black, nice wheels, lowered but with a little musclecar rake . Maybe mold a roof spoiler in. Just go wild with it.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Urambo Tauro 10/05/2019 at 22:28

0

What about Gen-2 F-body, Gen-3, and Gen-4?

What about Corvette C8?

I get what you are saying, and there is merit to lineage. I am a fan of 911, which is the poster-child for maintaining lineage.

But hopefully not at the expense of fresh thinking and new ideas.

Urambo Tauro > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 10/05/2019 at 22:50

1

I don ’t want to see new ideas stifled . It’s just that if they’re too radical of a departure from a well-established brand identity, then the car really needs to be given a different name.

Like that FWD car that almost became the next “Mustang”. (Okay, so maybe “Probe” was an awful name choice. The point is- I’m just glad they didn’t ruin the Mustang’s identity by putting the badge on a wrong-wheel drive car.)

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Urambo Tauro 10/06/2019 at 00:00

0

Agreed to a point. As I mentioned, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation F-bodies, both Camaro and Firebird looked different from all of their predecessors respectively. Not until the 5th gen did it start to revisit previous designs, and now the aftermarket is trying to make a retro-1st-gen Camaro look like retro-2nd-gen Firebirds and TAs. taking branding traits maybe slightly too far.

I liked the Probe (although the name was primed for ridicule.) and I actually owned a ‘93. In many ways it was a better finished car than the Mustang of its day, but no, it wasn’t a Mustang. I lost interest in the Mustang in the later 90s, because although it was RWD, it otherwise languished compared to other sport coupes. The 2005 S197 was a BIG disappointment after it’s 2004 concept had IRS, and a liftback hatch, but the production car didn’t, and it was a squandered opportunity. I still wish S550 had a liftback like my Fox and Probe GT had. If my Subaru SVX had had a hatch, and a stick, I’d probably never sold it.

I am glad Mustang didn’t go the way of the Celica from A60 to ST160 . It would be long gone like the Celic a, Probe, Eagle Talon, Firebird, SVX, Stealth, RX7, Thunderbird, Cougar, Mark VIII, MR2, and many other coupe namplates now are, if it had.

Or otherwise, it would have suffered the same fate as the ill-named GTO (Holden Monaro) that should have been a Tempest or something other than a GTO.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > TheDutchTexan 10/06/2019 at 00:31

0

I think the Fox Mustangs had an appearance package that used the add-on air dam.

That was an interesting review of the EcoBoost S550. The car looked nice, drove well, and I liked your commentary and delivery, but I am not sure I could tolerate that exhaust for more than a few minutes.

I had a modified 2005 Legacy GT 2.5 turbo with an aftermarket MeganRacing/Magnaflow pieced-together cat-back, and it sounded only OK, but MUCH better than that aftermarket Mustang exhaust.

Maybe I am getting old... but quiet would be better than that. Artificial speaker sound would be better than that. I don’t get the appeal of blatty, flatulent exhaust tuning. It doesn’t even sound like it flows freely with that reverberation. it sounds like a sharper version of 90's era V6 GM exhaust tuning that sounds like pulsing backpressure.

Supposedly the new EcoBoost HPP has active exhaust for 2020, and reportedly sounds pretty good, even if not V8 good. The soundtrack and the transmission feel (seems like 6MT is still the way to go on Mustang, even over the 10-speed auto) are the big questions to answer on the appeal of the new S550 EB Mustang.

Urambo Tauro > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 10/06/2019 at 12:03

0

Y eah, Ford could have made the Mustang IRS a long time ago. I don’t think it would have hurt the car’s brand identity at all.

It bugs me, perhaps more than it should, that Ford put a blue oval on the front of the Foxbody instead of the running pony. Considering the body’s dull shape, you’d think that Ford would use things like the Mustang emblem to help convince buyers that the car really was a Mustang. I mean, look at how proud they were to reintroduce that emblem (along with the side scoops and tri-bar taillamps) on the SN95.

And the funny thing is, the SN95's body shape honestly did n’t look like a Mustang any more than the Foxbody did. They really needed those little elements to help sell the look. Without them, the car looks suspiciously like a T180 Celica (revenge for the Celica copying the Mustang back in t he day, maybe ? LOL ) .