After 9 Months I'm Still Taken Aback By The Foxbody Popularity.

I've now had the 90 LX Foxbody for 9 months. I bought the car because it was a good deal and for the parts availability. It's also the first V8 sporty car I've owned.

I like the car and think it's a nice body style but at this point I'm not in love with it or have near the emotional attachment that I do to the Datsun.

As my single seater / open wheel lust subsides I am sure I will like the Mustang even more.

About 3 months ago my son mentioned that everywhere we go people always come up to us and say "Oh cool a Foxbody Mustang" or something similar.

Well in the last three autocrosses I've had two people tell me if I ever want to sell it let them know and Sunday a photographer came up to me and said "I love Foxbody Mustangs"

It's holligan fun to drive and makes great Mustangy V8 noises so I'm slowly liking it more and more but again I'm still blown away for how much people love these cars. 

A lot of us came of age when those came out/were popular new cars. It's easy to see why there is so much interest. I think as time progresses we will see more and more reproduction parts for them. Only problem really is so many of them rotted out in the front. But, that never stopped the 1960s Mustangs from getting restored.

In reply to ddavidv :

What you said. Back in the day, the cool kids drove Fox-body Mustangs. (I didn’t drive one.)

Which one would I take today? So many choices but I’m still partial to a tan, five-speed 5.0 LX notch on 10-holes.

I bought an '89 LX new in '89 and spent three years modifying it and drag racing it, lots of fun and easy to mod/work on.  That was the first of 7 of them and sadly, none of them are still around...they are just a few that got way that I wish I still had.

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to ddavidv :

What you said. Back in the day, the cool kids drove Fox-body Mustangs. (I didn’t drive one.)

Which one would I take today? So many choices but I’m still partial to a tan, five-speed 5.0 LX notch on 10-holes.

My buddy I got the car from had two he offered; the hatch I bought and a notch back.

A few months ago I decided I like the styling on the hatch better.

I've never liked the GT styling..........they look all plasticky tarted up to me.

My car has the Bullet wheels...........I really like them.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1992-ford-mustang-29/

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Ironically the Notch my friend offered up was an ex CHP car.

I was a kid in the '60's when real muscle cars were everyhwere. The '70's was a bleak time for car guys. Early '80's wasn't much better, but the  '82 Camaro/Firebird came out when I was in high school - they weren't that fast with the weak 305's, but they looked good and all the cool kids had 'em. Then, the Mustangs finally started getting some horsepower with EFI on the 5.0's, and they were cheaper than the Z/28's.

The notchback 5.0's just look RIGHT. Plus, it didn't hurt that DPS had Pursuit 5.0's, which added to the cool factor.

I owned and drove an '88 5.0 LX for many years and many miles - to work, autocross, drags, you name it. With an "off-road" H pipe and dual 40 series Flowmasters, GOD, it sounded good.

That was decades ago. Now I'm pushing 60 and seriously looking for an LX notch that hasn't been abused (good luck, I know) that I can slide an Roadster Shop chassis under, drop a baby 'Zilla and a Tremec 6 speed in, and just enjoy driving again.            

Tom1200 said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Ironically the Notch my friend offered up was an ex CHP car.

Some time ago a friend of mine had a black notchback.  He liked to go up to Tahoe, so he had a ski rack on the roof.  Strangely, every time he drove it at night, everyone in front of him was driving really slowly...

In reply to Tom1200 :

Have you taken a close look at a ’93 Cobra lately? It’s like a more subdued take on the GT. Anyway, just something I noticed recently.

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

H-piped 5.0s sound bitching. 

You're just here fishing for compliments aren't you! 
 

Yeah they were hot when I was growing up, that's probably why I like them. They look more retro than the SN95. And retro is cool. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

The Cobras do look good.

They're cool, but in a Vanilla Ice fashion. 

In reply to brandonsmash :

If that's your one data point, you're missing a lot of cool Mustangs.

32 Deuce

55 Chevy

69 Camaro

87 Mustang

At a given point, these cars were THE car.

They're way too easy to spend money on. I need deliverance lol

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

H-piped 5.0s sound bitching. 

The 302 in my Falcon with an H-pipe supports this. 

When I was a kid, I was a "Chevy guy" so I didn't really like the Foxbody. I was also turned off by how many there were on the road from the late 80s through late 90s. I have a clear memory of sitting with my wife in a fast food joint parking lot facing a busy intersection and counting Foxbody Mustangs. That would have been 1994 or 1995 and it seemed like every third car was a Mustang. 

I got over the silly brand thing and have really come to appreciate how good the Foxbody is. One of these days I'm going to check that box. 

Motojunky said:

When I was a kid, I was a "Chevy guy" so I didn't really like the Foxbody. I was also turned off by how many there were on the road from the late 80s through late 90s. I have a clear memory of sitting with my wife in a fast food joint parking lot facing a busy intersection and counting Foxbody Mustangs. That would have been 1994 or 1995 and it seemed like every third car was a Mustang. 

I got over the silly brand thing and have really come to appreciate how good the Foxbody is. One of these days I'm going to check that box. 

Back in the mid 90s when me and every other one of my friends had one, we called them "belly button cars" because everyone has one.

They aren't "good", per se. The chassis is quite awful, and the brakes aren't much better except on a few models like the SVO and Cobra. What they are is cheap, relatively light, good-looking (IMO), and they have all the aftermarket you could ask for.

ddavidv said:

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to earlybroncoguy1 :

H-piped 5.0s sound bitching. 

The 302 in my Falcon with an H-pipe supports this. 

There’s just something about that pairing. 

Yeah I definitely see the appeal (even though they are kind of inherently awful cars out of the factory). I think a lot of the appeal lies in the car being one of GenX's primary blank canvasses for automotive expression back in the day. The Fox cars of the late '80s and early '90s existed in a world with Camaros, Firebirds, turbo Dodges, 944s and 3 Series all competing for the same slice of the market. But just going by pure personal experience, I'd say the percentage of those cars that were modified by the owners for more performance was exponentially higher for the Mustangs than for anything else on that list. 

The aftermarket embraced them, they responded well to modifications (especially when you fixed the rear suspension), and they were a solid exmple of a legendary nameplate. All great ingredients for a nostalgia bomb a generation later.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

 What they are is cheap, relatively light, good-looking (IMO), and they have all the aftermarket you could ask for.

This in a nutshell explains why I bought it and what I appreciate about it.

It's also great hooligan fun to drive. 

In reply to Tom1200 :

How many foxbody threads have you made in the last 9 months? 

poking fun at you lol 

CooperTired got his minty Fox GT back recently and loves it.  Lots of cool bits and turns heads.  We're planning to hit one of the radwood events with me in the rabbit and him in the fox.

JG Pasterjak said:

The aftermarket embraced them, they responded well to modifications (especially when you fixed the rear suspension), and they were a solid exmple of a legendary nameplate. All great ingredients for a nostalgia bomb a generation later.

IIRC the front suspension is actually worse than the rear... :)