Ford Already Made A Four-Door V8 Mustang With The Rare Fox LTD/LX

Nothing seems to get the Mustang faithful more fired up than the mention of adding a sedan to the mix of body styles. Sure, there’s the Mach-E which they can sort of turn a blind eye to, but a rear-drive, V8-powered four-door hits a bit too close to home.

I get where the execs in Dearborn might be coming from; with sagging sales, that might the only way to possibly save Ford’s last remaining normal car. Maybe it’s not a bad idea, and it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. For a few brief years, Ford offered what was essentially a Mustang sedan in all but name that very few people remember. It’s time to revisit the rare LTD/LX.

The Fox And The Pony

Arguably, the second favorite Mustang of all time after the original 1965 model was the one that pulled the fabled pony car out of the malaise doldrums: the 1979-93 “Fox” body Mustang.

Trim looking and lightweight, the “Foxstang” was one of Ford’s bright spots of the seventies that rapidly improved over the ensuring years that it was built. More sophisticated than pony cars from days of yore but still simple enough to easily upgrade and turn into something quite tractable, it’s remained popular with enthusiasts for generations.

However, the Mustang was not the first “Fox” body car. That program was a sweeping change for Ford and ushered in a new era of more efficient and better-driving cars, even if it didn’t fulfill its initial goal. You see, many people think the 1981 front-drive Escort was Ford’s first “world car” failure, but it wasn’t. During the 1973 energy crisis, Ford launched a program to build a global platform to replace not only the American offerings like the Maverick and Torino but also the European Cortina and Taunus. Ford planned to have at least two sizes to make a one-car-fits-all solution. It took barely a year for Ford to realize that the wants and needs of the different continents would make such a program unfeasible.

Ultimately, US Ford took the ball and ran with it, developing a unibody design with a layout and boxy look that seemed almost like Dearborn’s interpretation of a Volvo 2-Series. A live axle on coil springs in back was paired with Macpherson strut front suspension and rack and pinion steering, allowing for a wide engine bay that could accommodate a vast array of motors from a Pinto four up to a 302 V8. The Ford Fairmont and its Mercury twin, the Zephyr, were introduced in 1978 and available in a bunch of body styles including two- and four-door sedans:

Despite the optional woodgrain trim, the Fairmont also offered what was about as close as an American car got to the benchmark Volvo 245DL wagon:

There was also the basket-handle-topped coupe called the Futura that was a bit of a mini-T-Bird:

Several wheelbases and lengths were to be offered with the “Fox” platform, including a shorter one to be used for an “upcoming sport coupe” – gee, I wonder what that could have been? No, it wasn’t an exciting car, but the Fairmont was a strong seller and was flat-out European compared to the barges that Ford had foisted on Americans throughout the disco era.

The Fairmont soldiered on until 1983, when the new front-drive Tempo came in to replace it as the now-much-smaller “mid-sized” Ford. The plan was almost certainly to discontinue the big Panther-bodied “full-sized” LTD, but dropping fuel prices meant that it sold too well for them to kill it (though I think few people likely imagined that the Panther would survive for another twenty years). Ford’s backup solution was to kick the old Panther “upstairs” to make the “super full-sized” Ford LTD Crown Victoria; the old Fairmont would now take on the “full-sized” car role as the new LTD.

To make the new LTD, Ford basically kept the center section of the Fairmont but added a more laid-back nose and angled tail, along with a more raked backlight. Apparently, this improved aerodynamics drastically, Ford touting that it only took 6.7 horsepower to push the LTD along at 50 mph.

The end result was handsome but hardly earth-shaking, a look that did a good job of belying the platform’s age. Ford could have been content to sell this LTD to rental car agencies and people who generally wanted no-nonsense transportation; however, somebody must have seen the same-chassis Mustang, put two and two together, and realized there was an opportunity for something a little different.

Grab Some Wrenches, I Have An Idea

Actually, the idea for the LTD/LX might have also been inspired by modified examples of Ford’s Fox sedan being used by race driving instructor Bob Bondurant. Bondurant had made tweaks to stock LTDs used at his driving school, resulting in something that was deceptively fast and with rather decent road manners.

For 1984, Ford dug into the parts bin to make a factory version of the Bondurant track car, starting with the 165 horsepower High Output five-liter engine from the same-year Mustang GT (Ford’s own literature claims 175 HP), hooked up to a mandatory four-speed automatic.

The spring rates were changed to 600 lb-in front and 270 lb-in rear coil springs, and gas-filled shocks and struts replaced the standard LTD fare. Bigger front and rear sway bars were combined with 10-inch front disc and 10-inch rear drum brakes, and a 3.27:1 rear with a Traction-Lok differential. Sure, 205/70HR14 Goodyear Eagles don’t sound like much, but for a late Malaise era sedan, that’s impressive standard rubber- just to have an LTD without whitewalls was an accomplishment!

It really was as if someone took a Mustang GT that an overzealous driver on the test track had written off and just bolted all mechanical bits onto an insurance salesman’s sedan. What a great idea.

On the outside, if you wanted glitz to show this newfound road prowess off, you were out of luck. First, you can see from the sell sheet above that it was only available in a few colors that were barely even colors at all. The chrome was blacked out and sportier, but still painfully subdued “road” wheels replaced the typical wire covers usually seen on LTDs; beyond that and dual chrome exhaust tips (but not true dual exhausts), there was little to give the LX’s mission away.

Inside, there was no tufty button-backed upholstery; bucket seats flanked a console featuring a floor shift for the slushbox.

When you hear “Ford LTD” you wouldn’t think of individual seats up front with some sense of lateral support and inflatable lumbar supports, would you?

Here’s the party trick: the spacious rear seat. If you drive the LTD/LX to some Mustang event with a few friends, you won’t have the fastest or slickest car there, but when it comes time for an off-site lunchtime run to a restaurant, I can guarantee whose car everyone is piling into. A big trunk is an added bonus. Yes, there was an LTD station wagon (basically a Fairmont with the new front clip and different taillight lenses) but sadly Ford did not make an LTD/LX long roof.

Good Lord, what is that in the gauge cluster? That big instrument next to the 85MPH speedometer? Is that an actual 7000RPM tachometer?

Out on the road, the LTD/LX was not going to beat a BMW 535i, but you can see in this Motorweek road test that John Davis is pleasantly surprised that it “makes a good run at rivaling Germany’s best in response and feel.” Wow, really John?

For 1985, the LX soldiered on for a while longer, but it wouldn’t last. As radical as Ford’s change to the “Fox” body was in 1978, for 1986, an even bigger revolution was on at the Blue Oval. The introduction of the new aerodynamic front-drive Taurus spelled the end of the “Fox” LTD, and with it the LX.

Unlike the offerings from the other Big Three, like the front-wheel drive Dodge 600ES or Pontiac 6000STE, the LTD/LX was the only one that offered a more traditional sport sedan experience free from torque steer, regardless of how much extra power you threw at it. Despite this, it didn’t really click with buyers. Sales for 1984 were a scant 1,920, and another 3,367 left dealerships for 1985.

You want really rare? In Canada, the LX was offered as the Mercury Marquis LTS; records indicate that a mere 134 of these LX twins were ever built!

Maybe the secret Mustang four-door was a bit too stealth for its own good.

And Just As They Were Getting Started

The LTD/LX was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s really not the fault of the car as much as it is the missed opportunities of the idea. Introduced just as the 302 V8 was starting to wake up from its slumber of the malaise era, the Fairmont-based LTD didn’t live long enough to get the real go-fast components which the Mustang GT (and LX 5.0) finally received in the late eighties.

Today, values of the LTD/LX are painfully low, despite the rarity. You never see Fox Fairmonts or LTDs on the road today, with most examples used up and thrown out long ago; in many cases, they were stripped for parts to keep mechanically identical Mustangs going.

This one below from an auction is imperfect, but a new headlight, rattle-canned black trim, and a run-over with a buffer wheel would do it wonders. The odometer read 20,000, which is likely 120,000 or 220,000, but this is one car and engine where such numbers are meaningless. It sold for under $8,000, which was actually higher than the estimate it was given:

Actually, I don’t see how the low values of the LTD/LX aren’t a good thing. With such rock-bottom prices and seemingly limited appreciation potential, there’s no point in keeping an example “numbers matching” to park with a framed sign in front of at a car show. You could feel free to make a junkyard dive and finish the job Ford began by bringing home a port-injected 225 horsepower 5.0 V8, five speed stick, rear disc brakes and whatever other later “Fox” Mustang, T-Bird Turbo and Mark VII LSC parts you could dredge up for dirt cheap to make an LTD/LX into the Q-ship that it had the true potential to be.

It’s got to be the least expensive way to get into a performance Fox body today. More importantly, you’ll realize maybe the idea of a “four-door Mustang” ain’t that bad after all.