In the seventies, Ford tried to reimagine the Mustang as a smart and sporty coupe that put style and economy over performance substance, but soon realized their error. The resulting attempts to shift the Mustang back to genuine American sports car-slash-hairy-chested muscle car people expected were the absolute embodiment of misguided malaise-era baloney.
The magnum opus of Ford’s baffling pony-car punch-up attempts was the Mustang II King Cobra. If you’ve ever scoffed at a six-cylinder Mustang or even the current turbo-four as less-than offerings for poseurs, well, they’re fire-breathers compared to the “appearance package” shenanigans Ford was getting up to with the stickerfest that was the King Cobra.
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Let’s face the facts, and the inconvenient truth: the much-lambasted Mustang II was easily one of the most successful Ford products of the seventies (of any decade, really) and also easily one of the most popular Mustangs in terms of production numbers, despite current opinions.
Ford
As I wrote some time back:
This maligned machine might be forever seen as a failure in enthusiasts’ eyes, but it certainly failed upwardly back in the day. Introduced right in the teeth of the 1973-74 energy crisis, you couldn’t have asked for a better car for the times. Replacing the larger, gas-guzzling previous generation with a Pinto-based four- or six-cylinder powered version that was a foot and a half shorter than the earlier car might have irked Mustang faithful, but 386,000 other buyers didn’t care and bought a Mustang II in the first year of production alone (not that much less than the 418,000 of the initial year of “OG” 1964 1/2 ‘Stang).
Indeed, the sales figures for the first-year Mustang IIs was the fourth best-selling year ever for the Mustang, right after the 1965-67 models.
Everyone complains that the Mustang II isn’t a “real” Mustang, and there’s a reason for that: it was never meant to be a “real Mustang.” Ford President Lee Iacocca and product planner Hal Sperlich felt that the market was changing, and with increased fuel costs and emissions controls, the days of the old-school pony car were done. With the death of the AMC Javelin, Dodge Challenger, and Plymouth Barracuda in 1974, it would seem they were right. The fact that Ford didn’t even offer a V8 option in the first year of the Mustang II must have made that direction clear. The buying public didn’t seem to mind, since those stratospheric sales numbers dwarfed the figures of the Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, the only remaining “real” pony cars.
With the rise of new imported products like the Toyota Celica, Opel Manta, VW Scirocco, and Mazda RX-3 coupe, Iacocca and Sperlich were aware that the future of the industry was in small sport coupes based on more volume compacts. Using the popular Pinto’s underpinnings with its four-cylinder and V6 engines combined with a rack-and-pinion steering front end, the Mustang II was also poised to hit the challenge of the upcoming Chevy Vega-based Monza 2+2.
Using the Mustang name was a double-edged sword for Ford, however, since capitalizing on the pedigree probably helped sales as much as it disappointed fans of the icon. This seems to have come back to bite them, as I mentioned in a post from a while back:
Despite the incredible 1974 sales numbers for the Mustang II, in the later model years Ford wasn’t able to move half as many cars. In 1977, when 153,000 units sold, the Camaro was able to beat the Mustang in the sales race for the first time. Sales rebounded slightly for the final year in 1978, but the GM rival continued to hammer the poor PintoStang.
Mustang II Sales:
1974 386,000
1975 188,500
1976 187,500
1977 153,000
1978 192,500
Clearly, Ford had to look at some options to deal with the drop in sales. They could simply let the Mustang become the “small personal car” (ugh) that the first 1974 ads called it. Or, the Blue Oval might try to make the Mustang II more sophisticated to emulate something like the Datsun 260Z.
Unfortunately, Ford decided that making a hawk out of a duck (or attempting to, at least) was the way to go. This is where things took a turn for the worse, and the Mustang went headlong into its lost weekend.
More, More, More
Ford 1975, Ford addressed the lack of a V8 option in the Mustang, something it wasn’t designed for in the first place, and a spec that required some changes to the engine compartment. The two-barrel 302’s 140 horsepower was certainly more than the 105 provided by the 2.8-liter V6, but the bigger engine came with more weight. Consumer Guide found that the added heft negatively affected handling, and the still-rather-sluggish performance wasn’t worth the drastic drop in fuel economy. In fact, the magazine ranked it dead last in their Low-Priced Sport Cars category. After this roasting by the press, Ford decided that to make a proper enthusiast’s coupe, they needed to ditch the old and heavy small block in favor of a lightweight turbocharged V6 or a twin-cam four, and the rest is history as we still enjoy these fantastic Mustangs today.
No! Just kidding! This was the heart of the malaise era, so you can bet that Ford just went all-out on half-assing it by simply sticking “performance appearance” garbage all over the same molasses-slow Mustang II. Initially, Ford farmed out the job of plastic-and-tape-stripe customizing to a firm called Motortown, the firm that was also responsible for the Pontiac Can Am I wrote about some time back.
The end result of this work was the redundantly titled “Mustang II Cobra II” appearance package. Yes, that’s right: it was an “appearance package,” so that meant the “competition suspension” or other chassis upgrades were not part of the program unless you ticked the right boxes. You basically got the blacked-out grille, fake hood scoop, front and rear spoilers, quarter window louvers, and racing stripes mimicking the first-generation Shelbys.
As superficial as these additions were, the polyester-bell-bottom-wearing disco fans of the day loved the thing. The popularity was driven not by success on the track – heavens no – but more by its appearance in the TV show Charlie’s Angels. I felt so bad for Kate Jackson’s character, who was stuck with a Creamsicle Pinto, while Jaclyn Smith got a Band-Aid color Mustang II, and Farah (need I even give her last name?) climbed into a Cobra each week. Ford is talking about their upcoming “universal platform” car, but it looks like they were already doing that fifty years ago:
There were pictures of Farrah Fawcett (there’s her last name, in case you needed it) reclining on the hood of her white Mustang II Cobra II that gave me funny feelings down below, and Farah herself probably should have thought more about what was below her Cobra – looks like she took out a few parking blocks with that spoiler up front:
For mid-1977, Ford made changes to the “appearance” package, but it was still called Cobra II. We know this because there were graphics down the side of the car that said COBRA in nine-inch-tall letters visible from satellites. Yes, people really signed up to make four years’ worth of payments on something with lurid stickers your twelve-year-old would be embarrassed by.
Notice how they dramatically improved the aerodynamics of the revised Cobra II by turning the fake hood scoop around 180 degrees. For reference, the Porsche 928 was released in 1978, and this Pinto-based sports coupe was the best one of the top three car makers in the Western free world could do.
Unfortunately, Ford was still getting caught in the shadow of the GM coupes that copied them a decade earlier. Things got worse in 1977 when Burt Reynolds appeared behind the wheel of a black-and-gold Trans Am that took seventies automotive “supergraphics” to an all-time high.
Now Ford had a problem. With Smokey and the Bandit cleaning up at the box office, what was Ford to do?
Eastbound And Down
Could the Mustang II find some way to avoid total embarrassment despite not having anything to combat the great Screaming Chicken? Of course it could; black paint is available to everyone. Ford’s answer to the Bandit for 1978 was the King Cobra, now available in a black-and-gold color scheme with hood-smothering decal to show GM that Dearborn wasn’t backing down.
With a deep air-dam type spoiler, color-coded lacy spoke wheels, Trans Am-style wheel flares, no quarter louvers, and a reverse hood scoop, the King Cobra actually did look better than the garish Cobra II. Honestly, to me, the only really objectionable part of the fastback Mustang II is the front end; the rest of it is rather nicely resolved (and yes, Jason, it has amber rear turn signals).
I’m guessing that black was a popular color, though red, silver, blue, white, or a very-seventies brown were also available. The red is actually quite fetching, and the T-Top roof with a black targa bar was available as an option to match the Pontiac F-body for lack of water tightness.
Graphics were far more subtle on the King Cobra than on the Cobra II, except for the hood. Here, you can just imagine the design brief for the art department at Ford saying, “Give us a screaming chicken, but make it a snake.” Note also that the King Cobra was the first Mustang to use the metric Vanilla Ice-checked “5.0” description of the Windsor’s engine displacement in the graphics, again in a nod to Pontiac’s “6.6” nomenclature.
As with the Trans Am hood, the King Cobra’s art is over the top and silly but admirably done – those stylized flames have to make you smile. And man, look at those blue wheels!
Unlike the Cobra II “appearance package,” all King Cobras thankfully had the performance suspension as standard, as well as the V8 with either a four-speed manual or the more popular automatic. For this top-level offering, Ford took the still-140-horsepower V8 available in all Mustangs and hopped it up by doing absolutely nothing. No, really: they didn’t do squat to pump it up at all for the King Cobra.
Single exhaust, two-barrel carb. Zero to 60 mph took around 10.5 seconds, and this gilded chariot topped out at around 106 mph. That’s a few tenths of a second faster than, well, a VW Rabbit. Yeah, Burt’s Trans Am might get knocked for its 200- horsepower 6.6-liter Pontiac motor, but it was a rocket sled next to this Mustang.
Worse than that, the Mustang II got a bad rap from publications like Road & Track and Consumer Guide for its subpar ride, sketchy handling, and poor seating position. At least the interior was rather simple and functional, with a full set of gauges in an aluminum-finish dash without the flashy “engine-turned finish” of the Trans Am.
Like it or loathe it, the King Cobra was a short-lived one-year offering. Sources vary, but anywhere from a mere 4,313 and 4,971 King Cobras were produced in the last year the Mustang II was made. Considering what the team at Ford had to work with on this lame duck Mustang, they could have done a lot worse.
Fox On The Run
If nothing else, the Mustang II kept the famous Ford nameplate alive during a time when other pony car legends vanished. The “puny car” initiated a much-needed reset for Ford’s sport coupe that helped pave the way for the much-lauded Fox-body model that premiered the year after the King Cobra and Mustang II were discontinued. That was the start of the second coming of the Mustang, and subsequent offerings ultimately ended up pushing the rivals from GM out of existence not once, but twice.
To fault the Mustang II for not being a convincing Camaro fighter might be like calling Sofia Coppola a bad actress; it’s not what either one was supposed to be in the first place. In retrospect, the Cobra II and back-in-black King Cobra actually worked a lot better than they had any right to.
As much as I’m not a fan of it, I sometimes feel like all of the hatred heaped onto the Mustang II is uncalled for. Can something that’s a runaway sales success really be considered a “failure” or “worst ever”? That’s a conundrum for the ages, and one that the Mustang II will always be the perfect case study for.
Top graphic image: Ford
This car and its successors would have been a lot more interesting had Ford used an IRS rather than a solid rear axle.
They probably would have handled even worse.
Perhaps. But bad handling can make a car a lot more interesting.
The IRS was always going to push the Mustang into a price point they didn’t want to be in (though I know they offered it on some top models for a time).
Maybe on the first gen. By a decade later when this 2nd gen came out Datsun, Triumph and others had been putting IRS in their cheap cars for years. Ford might have wanted to save a buck but that put them behind the times suspension wise.
Ford decided to keep the Pinto’s 13-inch wheels. I guess 14- or 15-inch wheels wouldn’t fit in the wheel wells. Ford really phoned this one in.
The Mustang II lives on today, or at least part of it does. One can buy new and improved versions of the Mustang II front suspension from Summit Racing among other places.
The Mustang II independent front suspension is the go-to for street rod builders because the handling and ride are okay, the aftermarket is chock block full of parts, the suspension is easy to mod and the prices are relatively low.
I definitely remember the Mustang II front end in a lot of hot rod builds.
Is it dramatically different than the Pinto front end? Is it just more marketable as a Mustang II front suspension?
It seemed every hot rod aspired for a Mustang II front suspension in the 90s, but remember they were replacing solid (beam) axles on that 1932 high boy – so the bar was pretty low. Anything with a rack and pinion was so advanced hot rodders could hardly wrap their mind around it.
The fact that anyone would still use a Mustang II front suspension 50 years later when there are so many other fantastic designs to copy (how about a Miata front and rear independent suspension clone for that 32 high boy today) speaks to the inertia and laziness of the firms printing money with these ancient designs more than its inherent goodness.
These would probably look more balanced with maybe a staggered16x8/16×9 wheel set up, but that was probably a bit too high dollar for this era of American car.
Too high dollar as in didn’t exist?
16″ Wheels / tires were still rare-ish and high end in the 90s.
I’m also not sure if those would fit in the wells
Anything will fit if you go donk style.
Yeah, the wheel wells are a bit puny and tires were quite beefy back then too. Even if I revise my thought based on my comment above, even a 928 was using 16×7/16×8 (not 8s and 9s). Even that may be too large for a 70s Mustang II.
Nah, surely they existed back then, a Porsche 928 had 16″ wheels way back then. Those flat ones with the slotted holes or even teledials came in 16″. But I agree, certainly high end. A 928 was pushing $30k in the late 70s, compared to a Mustang II King Cobra II being something like a $6-7k vehicle.
Also agree with Bishop, may not fit in the wheel wells. They definitely didn’t have the low profile technology yet for tires, so 16s would still have some meat on them which definitely would not fit the dinky wheel wells on the Mustang II.
I guess this scenario only works in a modern restomod.
Cobra you say? Hold my (Aussie) Beer… https://www.streetmachine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ford-falcon-xc-cobra-1.jpg
Was considering that one for a future post
Actually reading more about it and this HAS to be a future Ford Friday
Awesome Mr The Bishop! Suggest looking up Allan Moffat (recently passed) and the famous 1-2 at Bathurst in 77 as part of this. They only made 400 of these, but to 8 year old me, they were from another planet. Still have a wagon version (see username) to this day!
The Ford Bird Snake
Thundercougarfalconbird?
I’ve always had a hard on for a Cobra II for some unnatural reason, even if I knew the rest of the car was crap. The shape of the hatchbacks rear side window, like the 911’s is just pure sex. Don’t even get me going about the tail lights…
On a side note, who did Kate Jackson piss off to get stuck with the Pinto?
You say “Pinto” like its a bad thing.
It was a bad thing.
My best buddy’s sister bought a new Pinto in 77′. As she was exiting the cross town freeway at Mt. Vernon Ave while it was still new car fresh on her way to classes at BC the GD steering wheel came off the shaft into her hands.
Her replacement car was a first gen Prelude.
BC as in British Columbia, Before Common (Era), or Boston College?
Bakersfield College. They had a great auto body shop class where you could paint your own car any shade of brown you wanted.
I have a manual station wagon I haven’t driven in over a year.
I keep it because it is brown.
My family had two, both 4Cyl/4MT shooting brakes, one a Country Squire. We had them for well over a decade.
The first had a Cologne 2.0, the CS had the Lima 2.3. Both were reasonably reliable for 1970s American cars. I think if I knew then what I know now and had I had the resources I could have made them as reliable as a much more modern car with not a lot of effort. Electronic ignition, better gaskets, HVAC manifold and vacuum pump, better carburetor, that sort of thing. As it was my Dad treated them like a rented Toyota and those Pintos handled the abuse admirably.
They were comfortable for what they were. We kids could happily roll around blissfully seatbelt free in the cargo area till we passed out from the heat, dehydration, tobacco smoke, blaring AM radio and wafting emissions.
Handling was OK for a 1970s shooting brake with a live rear axle. They were no BMW 2002 but probably as good as any other small wagon like a Datsun 510. Acceleration? I never felt it was overly lacking, again no Ferrari but it could keep up just fine from sea level to at least 8,000′. Again like a bone ass stock Datsun 510 they were intended to compete with.
Other people I knew with Pintos seemed to like them well enough. They even liked the early 1.6 hatchbacks and the Cruzin’ wagon. Pintos got a bad rep from the scandal and the movie Cujo didn’t help when they showed a family trapped in a Pinto with a bad carb threatened by a rabid dog but in my experience Pintos were fine.
So IMO “Pinto” isn’t a bad thing but later Pintos might have been a different story.
“Her replacement car was a first gen Prelude”
A buddy of mine had one of those. It literally blew up and caught fire when the fuel pump over pressurized the carb, spraying gas over the hot engine. That might have had something to do with the fact the pump fuse kept blowing in a dark parking lot and we replaced the last fuse with a piece of aluminum foil just to try to get the car home. What can I say, the stores were closed, we were desperate and too poor for a tow truck.
Still we never figured out why the fuse kept blowing.
I had a ’68 Datsun 510 wagon for a few years in college and afterwards. When the exhaust system rotted out weeks into freshman year, I went to a muffler shop and had them replace the muffler with straight tubing and the resonator with a glass-pack. It sounded great around town but the drone on the freeway going 500+ miles home for quarter breaks, got pretty old pretty quickly.
A friend had a ’72 or ’73 Pinto with a stick and it was ok, but I liked the way my Datsun drove better. The Pinto felt just duller. Another friend had a ’74 Fiat 124 with a stick and that thing was awesome.
I’ve never driven a Fiat 124 sedan but I have driven its beefier and more sophisticated communist sibling; an early 80’s Lada 2101. It was not as *nice* as a Pinto, the interior was more on par with a Datsun 510 but it got the job done on a budget.
In fact I had the opportunity to use the Lada’s emergency handling capabilities and it performed very well even when overloaded with old people and auction winnings.
“We kids could happily roll around blissfully seatbelt free in the cargo area till we passed out from the heat, dehydration, tobacco smoke, blaring AM radio and wafting emissions.”
Yup, as uncle Walter used to say, “And that’s the way it is.”
My first car was a 5 year old ’80 Pinto hatch, and a friend had a ’78 wagon. We would have races in Northern IL – mine topped out at 86 mph, his at 85. The “winner” came down to a little bit of skill, and a lot of luck. They were decent, cheap little cars that did their jobs, but other friends parents were just getting into Japanese iron and everything about that experience was superior. At least it was better than the Vega, which another friend had and was disintegrating before our eyes.
I am with you. I knew they were garbage even when they were new, but I still love them and want one.
I would far prefer one of these to a Fox body. Fox bodies were not rare or interesting in any way to me in their time. It’s not like they were under-appreciated in their day, they were absolutely everywhere – mostly in I4 configuration with steel wheels and wire hubcaps.
If I’m buying a car from this period, it’s certainly not for the performance. Style is really all they have, and these things went all-in on style.
For realism’s sake they should’ve all has 4 door Mavericks if they all had new Fords, since they were company cars in-story.
Maybe Aaron Spelling? I always thought she was the most attractive of the three. Mainly because she seemed smarter than the other two.
I must be getting old, because I like the way it looks The 70’s ridiculousness works for me. Would be cool to see a resto mod one.
The Mustang II is the second best looking Mustang, after the 1st gen. All the ones after were worse, especially the butt ugly Fox body. The Camaro of that era was infinitely better looking.
The Mustang II has nice curves, an attractive interior and dash. Just needs a stick shift to be a fine car to drive, just not fast.
I had one fore about a year . 302 with the 4 speed. It turn into dust. . i hope someone bought the power trane. it was a great car.
The fastbacks were good looking. But those Cobra graphics are the same as tube tops, bleached hair, and dark blue eye shadow. The Ford Floozy. Back in the day it seemed that women preferred the notchbacks and guys preferred the fastbacks.
Absolutely.
Why is that bad? Do you go looking for devout (insert your preferred oppressive religion here) for a good time?
I get why Mustang 2s were disliked by enthusiasts at the time. But these days I’d love to build a sweet restomod type build of one into a Euro-style GT.
You mean like the Mercury Capri?
Which itself came in a “Le Chat Noir” edition, followed up by the Fox Capri in a “Black Magic” edition.
Yep pretty much! Probably easier to find a Mustang 2 these days than a Capri.
Hasn’t anyone made a car AND painted it black since the Malaise era? 911 Turbo cars look nice in Black. Pretty sure a Dark Horse can be ordered in the same color. Not mad at this story about the most bedazzled P’Tang of all, I just feel like the declaration of all black car stories for Buy Nothing Day got sidetracked a bit.
Don’t look at me. I heard about the Black Friday thing halfway through the week and had to come up with a new Ford. I actually like the red King Cobra better but in black the ripoff response to Burt’s Trans Am was so painfully obvious. Glad you ain’t mad at least!
I have always unironically liked the Mustang II, and owned two of them in the mid 1990s. A blue 1977 coupe with the 2300 automatic that I bought from a buddy for $400, and a red ’76 Ghia (“Gotta Help It Along,” my buddy Tom used to say) with the 2.8 liter V8. The ’76 was a cream puff, with red velour upholstery that made me feel like I was driving a Turkish bordello down the street. I would have loved a King Cobra. Burt’s black Trans Am has been coveted by me for as long as Luke’s X-Wing has been, but I just find the Mustang II oddly charming. But the fastback desperately needs that spoiler, otherwise it really looks way too much like a Pinto.
When I started commuting to college, I had to give up my fun Meyers Manx for something with a roof and locking doors. (Boy! I wish I’d hung on to it!) What I wound up with was a ‘77 Mustang II. 4-cylinder, 4-speed manual tranny, coupe, in a nice, simple rust brown color.
I drove that car WAY longer than I should have. When I finally traded it in ($400) it had been on fire, the front suspension was so loose you could shake it with your bare hands, and the clutch required you to sssslliiiiide it into gear. It had been on fire once, and one time the trans disintegrated at the top of a long, steep highway on the side of a mountain between Shaver Lake and Fresno. I coasted it down to the bottom—absolutely terrifying my fiancée—and called for a tow at the bottom.
The cat had become clogged at one point, but instead of springing for a new one, I told the mechanic I’d bring back a part from a junk yard. What I did instead was take it home and chisel the guts out of it with a long, heavy rod. I took back the now-empty shell and the mechanic put it back in. As long as I ran a couple tankfuls of premium through it beforehand, it always passed smog. But it also had a nasty habit of collecting exhaust gases when I let off the pedal, creating a loud “bang!” when they ignited. My friends took to acting like they had been shot, when that happened.
Good times.
I laughed out loud at you eviscerating your catalytic converter with a metal rod. Thanks for sharing!
Punching out the cat is still a thing evidently. Pretty sure my Dad did this a couple of years ago to his wife’s 06 escape. No emissions check where they live. He could afford a new one but why spend the $$?
“As long as I ran a couple tankfuls of premium through it beforehand, it always passed smog.”
“ran a couple tankfuls of premium through it beforehand” is an interesting way of saying “slipped the tech a couple of twenties”.
When smog checks started back in 84′ my krewe collectively had a conniption fit. We’d yanked all the smog gear off our cars as a rite of passage and thrown it all in the trash with yesterday’s dreams. Passing smog checks then involved wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more say no more.
LOL—no, I’m afraid not. Back in the 80’s, the differential in price of two tankfuls of premium vs. two tankfuls of regular was about a dollar. So it was still more cost-effective if I did the fuel trick. Although I always wondered if I didn’t need to bother; would it have passed smog if I had just kept running regular gasoline, I wonder? All the other smog-mitigating gear was still in place and working. Hmmm.
I seriously doubt the premium did anything but cost you a bit more money, especially since the BAR 84 emissions test of the time consisted of a visual and functional inspection of various emission control components:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Smog_Check_Program
Since you passed despite having NO emissions equipment to eyeball I think the most likely reason is the whole test was nothing but theatre. You and your dirty, smelly krewe likely just got very, very lucky and stumbled on a cheating station.
I recently added a scale model to my model fleet exactly like that black king cobra lead photo. I never understood the hate these get. They were everywhere when I was young and I’ve always liked them. I had a red fastback one with a white interior for a while. Sharp looking little pony. Talk about diversity in a car, you could get a Ghia model with a landau top, velour seats, and an opera window, or a cobra ll or king cobra with window louvers and a T-top! These were some of the first American cars to have plastic finish body colored bumpers on all models and amber rear turn signals in those huge rear lighting cluster. Not to mention the exteriors and interiors were available in actual colors. These were the right cars at the right time. I can’t imagine anyone that lived through the 70s-80s hasn’t ridden in, owned, or knew someone that owned one of these.
I think I built a Mustang 2+2 (Fastback) AMT kit back in the day! It was pre-King Cobra of course.
My folks bought a brand new 74′ notchback in metallic brown with the 2.8 and auto. Dad wanted to save gas and traded the 66′ Galaxie 7 litre. (Yeah, I know)
I learned to drive in the Stang. It was a hit with both my friends and the folks friends and neighbors, everyone liked it. Positive buzz.
The little Stang was a gutless wonder compared to the Galaxie, but mom was happy cuz she no longer got embarrassed burning rubber on launch. (The gas pedal was an on/off switch for her)
Just don’t hit the brakes on a slick road. Mom did that once on the overpass in Bakersfield coming down to the light and we did a perfect Hoonigan 360. Woo-hoo!
I lusted for the later Cobra models, we all thought they were the bees knees. Farrah had a lot to do with that I suppose, looking back.
Saw a brown notchback for sale down the street last year for 5k. Kinda rough but not bad. Was tempted for 0.68 seconds, an eternity for an android.
Yeah, as very little kid I thought the Mustang II was so much cooler than our by-then faded Ivy Green ’65 289 4bbl convertible with a ripped top. Hindsight is 20/20.
The 1978 Cobra looked okay in black. I remember it looking okay in the day.
Granted, I was 12, but I thought it looked okay.
Man, I had a thing for these Cobra IIs. After I graduated high school in 1999, my parents agreed to help me buy a vehicle. They didn’t want to look outside of town even though there was a huge market 2.5 hours away, which really limited the choices.
We looked at a:
1976 Chevy pickup shortbed 2wd for $700 – good shape but got told no because it had no radio and wasn’t 4wd.
1994 S10 Blazer 4 door for $1200 – was 4wd but was super rusty; no go.
1969 Chevy Blazer for $4500- found on local corner car lot. Was in great shape and had new orange paint and billet wheels. Had 350 and was 4wd but dad didn’t like how it drove. Nope
1966 Datsun 1600 for $4500 – was at same car lot. Was immediately shot down because “small cars aren’t safe” and no 4wd. It was a beautiful bright red and was in great shape.
1987 Ford Cobra for $4500 – was at same corner lot. 302/4spd white with red stripes. Slimy salesman told us “you don’t want this car because it’s a Mustang II and those suck.” I wanted to build the 302 and make it fun. It was in great shape.
Ended up buying a 1986 Bronco II for $4500. Dad worked with the brother-in-law of the seller. The truck had 160k on it, had a fresh $800 Maaco black paint job and was in good shape. It was 4wd with the 2.9L and 5 speed manual. It had the porno red velour interior and no options. At all. No tach, A/C, or tilt wheel.
I drove it for a few years until I joined the Air Force. The 2.9L leaked oil from every gasketed surface. It had the power of a 4 cylinder with the gas mileage of a V8. I rarely broke 14mpg. The clearcote flaked off a year after we bought it. The exhaust system rusted off. I only used 4wd once and it was in town. It started having a cold start issue. Oh and it melted the battery when the starter solenoid welded itself closed. That thing was a turd.
All I thought about was that Datsun 1600 and Cobra II 🙁
Maybe you should have started showing a strong interest in motorcycles. Suddenly that 1600 is looking pretty safe.
Also owned a 1986 Bronco II . . . sounds like you got one of the more reliable ones. Someone should have told Ralph Nader to save a chapter for them.
Since it’s Black Friday – And Farah was a big deal in the 70’s, before, during and after Charlies Angels as the Mercury Cougar girl – Have a look at her introducing the new for ’77 Cougar XR7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NrLU4qGmI
And while we’re at it – Cheryl Ladd piloted the new ’77 Thunderbird for Ford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnYTLsCqH0E
(Bosley got a jade green ’77 Thunderbird Town Landau for good measure)
Toward the end of the show, I recall Kate Jackson actually briefly driving a Fox body Mustang!
I love the entirely unambitious captures of the speedo at 25, then 50 mph.
The cultural impact of Charlie’s Angels was massive. If you didn’t live through it you won’t understand.
It’s hard to imagine an ad like that happening now. I say this without judgement, only an observation that 30 seconds of hard funk running over a model making as many double entendres for vaginas as she can breathe out in a lusty gust of sibilant and pointed purrs as cars are shown parked in their natural habitats which are apparently carpet or maybe catskins?, still lifes of American iron land barges swallowing a woman whole with room to spare in a single seat, hairspray enough to water your eyes through the screen.
You say that as if it’s a bad thing. I don’t understand.
I really don’t! I tried to disclaim that notion at the beginning and give myself an excuse to wax lyrical about it. I might be describing things that sound negative but I was trying to frame them in a silly way, and delight in that.
You are technically correct, the best kind of correct your explanations though are a bit questionable.
1. Great sales of the II in the 1st year then 50% the remaining years tells me it succeeded on the reputation and then when the truth was out failed.
2. I feel the long term success is based of gearheads but sales are based on the normal public. That is why many niche cars don’t make it.
3. Was Mustang really a performance car when it first came out? I head it was designed as a female secretary car that got performance added later, only to become a Mustang model pinto.
4. And as for Farrah, back when we used to date, in my dreams she was the best looking in the best car, Kate second best looking in the second best car, then Sabrina the smart one in the smart car. I never noticed it back then but Sabrina was quite a looker as well but was quite good looking as well.
There were two King Cobras that would regularly show up to a street racing spot on the west side of Houston (Brittmoore) back in the pre-Fast & Furious days. One was black and gold and the other was white and blue. Both sounded great but even modded were hilariously slow. They did, however, look as good as a Mustang II possibly could, so everybody would cheer when they rolled up. I still love the wheels on them, especially the blue inlayed ones.
You laugh, but I think the sea of grayscale that the modern automotive landscape has become would benefit from some appearance packages. And frankly, the kind of douches that drive those kinds of Mustangs probably should be limited to something that puts out less than 200 horsepower.
I’m actually looking at doing a piece shortly that, in part, deals with modern fun appearance packages
Nice!
Would that be the granite mica fog schist over stone metallic, or the moon slate gneiss over hematite metallic packages?
Oooh ooh I’m hoping it’s wet concrete over rich clay, with taupe accents.
I choose to believe that Carroll Shelby’s greatest regret to his dying day was selling the “Cobra” name to FoMoCo.
As long as he didn’t sell the Shelby name, fans knew the difference.
I had too many pics to show, but one was of an ad with ol’ Shel in it. Money is money.
14 year old neighbor said she was only going to marry somebody who drove one of these-
Well now she can move into the local trailer park, get a job at the local Waffle House, and Marry the man of her prepubescent dreams all while learning dreams aren’t as good as they seem to be.
Surprisingly she is a corporate lawyer in Vancouver living in essentially a mansion
A 14 year old corporate lawyer in Vancouver living in essentially a mansion?
That’s quite impressive! Way to beat the law of averages kid!
I bet the 3.0L Ecoboost from the Ranger/Bronco raptor would fit in that engine bay and give that snake some real venom.
Years ago one of the automotive blogs featured a Mustang II with a built 2.3L Ecoboost swap. It seemed like a best-of-both-worlds setup because the light weight didn’t mess with the handling but it still put out 400+HP at the rear wheels.
Help a buddy build a street strip mustang ii. We crammed a 460/c6 with a narrowed 9” diff. The engine was mildly hot rodded. Thing was scary fast and handled as expected.
Like a cow on ice?
After liberal application of a cattle prod.
We also stuffed a SBC, 4 spd and narrowed diff into a 70’s Corolla. Handled better than the mustang. The job rrquired a fair bit of fabricobbling and application of large hammers.
We were a bunch of hooligans back then.
That had to be a fairly low bar to clear – but I would take that for a flog. With a helmet and a Nomex suit on. <eek>
It was a cool little car excepting the fact that it refused to run cool with the hood on, so stealth mode was not possible. We sacrificed many a car to the god of cheap speed.
And b/c automotive hilarousiness, I believe this was one of the exhibits cited in Ford’s defense in the Ford – Carroll Shelby legal spat over who really owned the Cobra name.