over the Christmas "break" (one day of it) I got to visit with family. During conversation my dad asked if I was still playing with mustangs, and yes of course. They aren't antique (at least not by this state's standards) but I still play with em. 1992. I also have a 1975 Ford Maverick, and as of recently a 2022 Mustang ecoboost (definitely not antique). Brother was sitting there as dad and I were chatting and he mentioned that he has no use for the Mustang and that he prefers different cars. Fairlanes Torino, F-100, etc. So I asked him why he don't like Mustangs; he said "everyone's got one". It made me think way back when I had said the same things. I owned a 1983 Ford F100 pickup (not F150...it was the lighter duty F150). It was originally a 300-six, 3 speed column shift that I converted to floor shift with a junkyard-sourced shifter kit. It was junk. The engine had no power, no torque, wouldn't idle, knocked horribly, had zero oil pressure below 2500 RPM (and 3000 is all it would run flat footed in neutral) but I still drove it quite a bit back & forth to work. Picked up a 86 Merkur XR4Ti for a daily driver, give the guy $50 for it and put a fuel pump in it, then retired the truck to "repairs". I stuffed a junkyard 460/C6 in it, did some interior work (used XLT power windows, door panels, Bronco dash w/tach, etc). I don't think it made 300hp but it would pull a house. 2.47 rear gears. Oh, and it'd BOIL one tire. One tire fire! The 8.8 came out and 9" went in, with 3.50 gear. Much better. Pulling the race car home from the track one day and the 460 didn't like it....the old Powerhouse brand flat top pistons knocked some ring lands out and used all 6 quarts of oil in the last 15 miles. The front of the car on the trailer was covered up with oil! Rebuilt the 460 and drove it some more. Then hurt another piston. Parked it again, and picked up a used 4.300 stroke crankshaft, used pistons, but I had to buy rods. Made it a 514". D0VE-C heads, that I did some cleanup work on and did my own big valves, hard seats, guides, and milled to 74cc. It ran really good. Anyway, I kind of got burned out with the truck and put it up for sale. Nobody wanted it since gas prices were "sky high" (at $3/gal at the time) but it really didn't do all that bad on fuel. 15mpg on the highway. So a guy up the way called me out of the blue and asked me if I'd trade the blue truck for a 84 Mustang GT, 5 speed. I drove it, and immediately knew what "mustang" meant. It has a lot of history behind it. Yes I traded on the spot. 6 years later he called me up and said I'd like to trade that black 84 Mustang for a 85 Mustang LX (5.0L auto) AND an 86 Mustang SVO. I knew the SVO. It's a 4 cylinder. Did not really want either of them. I told him let me think on it. The 84, was worth maybe $2500 at the time. I was telling a friend about it, he said "SVO????" Yep SVO. He said you're stupid if you don't trade. So I did. Then I found out how special SVO's are. Turbo 2.3L. 5 speed. They were the best handling Mustang ever produced until I think 1993. I got it going, needed plug wires and a TPS. Thing drove like new. I got bit by the bug. The stock SVO engine made 225hp I think at the time. Remove the airbox and put an open filter on the end of the airflow meter, and they respond with another 20 hp or so, plus all of the sweet sounds that turbo engines make. That was great. Then I did a 3" exhaust, from the turbo to the bumper. That woke it up too. Bigger turbo. Mind you none of that required any tuning to the computer. 20 psi, ported head, exhaust intake, etc-all told I was making maybe 300hp--out of a FOUR cylinder. Surprised a lot of people; including a number of camaro's.
But yes the Mustang has a long history behind it and driving them, Ford designed them such that the history of the brand is apparent in a lot of ways. My 2022, you'd think as different as they are from the 1964.5 models that they have nothing in common, but it still does. It's still a pony car. It's still a Ford mustang through and through. It will not outrun a corvette. It won't put the hurting on a Hellcat Challenger. But it is, a great little car that has not had an interruption of production like the other brands have. Corvette is the exception, but the Mustang has been produced for a long, LONG, time. Challenger charger camaro firebird, all the other muscle and pony cars have not had that long of a production run. And I hear the camaro is going away again which is not surprising.
So yeah my brother can hate all he wants. I'll just drive and enjoy the history.
Only wish I could/ smart enough to have kept some of the ones I had back in the day
