(first posted 5/17/2017) Ah, the early Fox body Mustang coupe. I don’t think there’s another ride around that gets me all giddy other than it’s platform cousin, the Fairmont Futura & Zephyr Z7 coupes that sold on the dealership lots at the same time. I am not sure what it is about these cars that I find so appealing, but I will admit that I can spot the front or rear fascia of the 1979-82s from a distance and with ease!
The all-new European flavored Mustang made it’s debut for the 1979 model year, riding the fresh Fox platform that Ford would use extensively throughout the product lines after it’s initial introduction with the 1978 Fairmont & Zephyr. While the 1979 Mustang was woefully underpowered by many standards (this was the height of the Malaise era, after all) it’s fresh styling was a hit in base, Ghia or Cobra trim levels, with plenty of buyers lining up for the new Pony car.
For 1980, in an effort to meet strict CAFE standards, Ford would replace the 5.0L V8 with a de-bored version of the same in the 4.2L (255 ci) V8. This weak engine would prove unsuccessful for Ford and by 1982, the 5.0L was back in the line up with modifications to boost output to 157 hp, improvements would see this number rise to 225 hp for the 1987 model year and beyond.
Engine choices were carried over from the previous model year, the 2.3L ‘Lima’ four, the Cologne 2.8L V6, and the 5.0L V8 churning out a paltry 140 hp at the top of the pile. Ford would also add a turbocharger to the 2.3L four and offer this as alternate ‘top-end’ power plant for those with performance AND fuel economy in mind… it didn’t really satisfy either, of course. Supply issues would see the 2.8L quickly depart during the model year, replaced by the trusty 3.3L ‘Falcon’ inline six.
This particular 1980 coupe happened to be sitting in the parking lot out front, having it’s occasional trip out of the garage on a cool March afternoon. The most striking feature, of course, was the white vinyl roof, optional for the model year and certainly something that I have rarely seen in the flesh over the years, or in such great condition as this one. While it’s not everyone’s style, certainly a coupe with a vinyl roof is an extremely rare find today and adds to the appeal of this find.
The owner was more than happy to offer up some details on his ride, only the second owner over it’s 37 years on the road. I noticed right away that it was missing both Ghia badges from the interior doors with just the holes for the badge pegs remaining in the material. The car had received a paint job at some point in the recent past and this was likely the reason for the loss of both the ‘Mustang’ and Ghia badges to be missing from the right side of the trunk lid.
As expected, the 3.3L six and automatic was powering this coupe, an extremely common engine and transmission pairing for 1980. I must point out though, the lack of a centre console, which normally would be found in the Ghia package, but could also be deleted at the time of ordering. This is an interesting package, was it always ordered as a console delete, vinyl roof add plus intermittent wipers thrown in as the prize?
I did find out that the 1984 Capri RS that I photographed in the same spot some months ago (and I promise that I will get it written up and submitted one of these days!) belongs to the same owner, another early Fox Mustang lover who actually has a pair of these rides in his collection. Always nice to see these in the flesh 30+ years after their introduction, especially in such original condition!
Call me a nerd, but I always liked the 2-door over the hatchback. It just looked more appealing to me.
If you’re a nerd then I’m one too 🙂 . I’ve always preferred the coupe as well, and have owned 2 (an ’84 3.8L and an ’89 5.0L).
The coupe was always far more appealing to me also. Just a well done design!
Cool car – a handsome survivor.
The last car owned by Bette Davis was a black 1980 Mustang, 3.3L It shows up at auctions on occasion. Unrestored, black with red interior. Several cigarette burns on the floor.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/LA0713-158395/1980-ford-mustang/
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
This is my favorite! I also remember having read that somewhere. Thank goodness she did ‘t look at the Fox Mustang and say, “Whaatt a DUMP…” like in that movie and as impersonated by Liz Taylor in the film adaptation of “Virginia Woolf”. LOL
This car reminds me a LOT of Bill Murray’s repo’d Mustang in Stripes. I think the vinyl roof was more of a honey/cinnamon color though.
I, too, prefer the “hardtop” over the hatchback and when the colors chosen are a good match a vinyl roof is a real plus.
Of this era of Mustang (79-84), my favorite, and one I’d REALLY want to own is a Mustang hardtop with the carriage roof treatment. That was Ford’s “preview” of the return of the Mustang convertible. The vinyl roof nearly perfectly matched a “real” convertible top. I’m still kicking myself for passing up a triple white carriage roof Mustang with that goofy smaller, small block V8 and automatic.
I too like the original 79 front and rear treatments, lots of subtle callbacks of classic Mustangs if you stare at it long enough(70 style angled side markers, all red verticals bar taillights, 69 like egg crate grille), and I too am fond of the coupe over the hatch – which looks frumpy without the spoiler. These were the last sporty cars that could pull off the “tight” vinyl top, I should hate it but I just can’t, and it’s very unique. Now the wire wheel covers? Needs some reproduction TRXs STAT!
I’m with you on the original front and rear treatments. While I understand the ‘need’ for updates, especially when a car remains in production for so long, to me the later facelifts just seem bland and uninspired.
Still don’t like those thick window frames. They started out thinner…
Good point, especially considering Mustang’s door windows had traditionally been frameless.
Curiously they retained frameless doors for the T-Top bodystyle only(and later Convertible). Much more attractive, if only the quarter glass trim matched
In 1979, the diagonal trim behind the side windows matched the paint color, which looked very nice. It was changed to black in 1980.
Looks much better with thinner frames, especially with the plexi headlamp covers.
In true Mustang fasion, there was a bewildering array of possibilities for the early Foxes. My Mother’s ’79 was also equipped with a strange selection of options. It was a base 2.3/4-speed 2 door in white with chamois vinyl roof, chamois interior accent group, exterior accent group, bright rocker moldings, wire wheel covers, sunroof, console, air, stereo. Essentialy a build-it-yourself Ghia. I can’t imagine it offered much, if any savings versus just going for a Ghia outright.
I like the notchback with trunk styling of this Coupe too .
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Was there any way to wake up or power tune the V8’s that came in these and still remain smog compliant ? .
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-Nate
In addition to the reduced bore, the 255 head had smaller ports and used a revised intake to match the port size. It also had a short production run, so the potential market is too small to justify many aftermarket parts.
Because of these issues, most folks just drop in a 5.0 (or stroked 347), and view the 255 as a boat anchor.
Car & Driver did a “255 V8” modification car, with tweaks and a 4-speed auto.
The verdict was, it was a lot of money, a lightly tweaked 302 and 4speed was the better choice.
Keep in mind, the 255 had a 3-speed auto.
It was a dog, even when compared to a 1981 302, not the most powerful engine, lol
So the 255 was best viewed as a token V8 then?
We had a 1982 T-Bird with the 255 V8 and required 4 speed automatic and 3.08 rear gears which was the only way you could order that car in our second dealership back in the 1990’s. No 302 was offered for 1982 as a nod to cafe for either this or the Cougar XR7. It ran pretty well considering all the negativity this engine garners. Note that it did not have the VV carb or Ford’s 3 speed and 2.26 rear gears that the Mustang enjoyed so that may have helped quite a bit.
It was your proverbial 12 second 0-60 car which is slow as hell today but reasonable back then and far better than the 200 six or 232 2BBL Essex could run in these cars.
Much of the problem with these small and medium sized V8’s of this era was the crap gearing when tied to the mileage oriented 3 speed transmissions. 2.14, 2.26 and 2.29 were generally what was used by the big 3 in these motors to try and get highway mileage up. Then there was the very conservative tune with camshafts designed with loads of overlap to help with lowering emissions and hp suffered with numbers as low as 100 horses on the Olds 260 V8 during the early 1980’s. The Ford 255 made between 111-120 for 80-82. The Olds 260 ranged from 100-110. The Chevy 267 made between 115-125 and Pontiac’s 265 stayed around 120 for both 80 and 81.
Out of all these little V8’s I thought that the 265 in my 1981 Grand Prix ran the best for it’s time probably due to the fact I lucked out and got optional 2.93 trailer towing gears. It was surprising how much stronger that 265 ran than either my Olds 260 or any of my 231 V6’s or Ford 200 straight six’s.
It seemed like the 255 was a way to make the V8 fall on it’s sword to promote the troublesome Turbo 4.
Those early fox Mustangs had unbelievable number of options, 3 different interiors in many colours and different exterior trims.
Love these now. I was never a fan back then, but they look so trim and purposeful.
Quite like the first ones. Similar “build your own” quality.
In comparison the new one is a grotesque caricature. IMHO, of course.
I share the same opinion. Mustangs were do anything cars for everyone in 1965 and still in 1979. Mustangs in 2017 are one size fits all sports/muscle cars, nothing more or less.
Ford’s interpretation of the 450SLC.
+1.
An improvement over what came five years before:
The early fox body Mustang’s have been growing onto me a lot, I especially love the blue color with the white roof from this particular car, if I were to own an early fox body Mustang I would drop in a 302 (5.0) or possibly a 289 V8 under the hood.
I had one like that, Ghia, automatic, V8, mine was white with a black vinyl roof.
Liked that car a lot, but rust was a serious issue.
Mine may be a minority opinion, but as a teenager I hated the early Fox Mustangs when they came out, and I still hate them now. While the Fox platform is sound, the body they put on top of it was the most un-Mustang like ever made. Things improved as the 80s wore on, but Mustangs didn’t start looking like Mustangs again until the SN-95. I’d take a Mustang II before one of these, bugaboos and all.
Had a 79 Ghia hatchback. Nice looking car car but S-L-O-W with the straight 6.
A busy week so I have had little time to hang out at CC. Nice to see a feature on the early Fox Mustangs. I’ve had a few of them. The most enjoyable was an 81 Ghia with a few options and the 6 cyl under the hood. MrF is correct it was an engine not intended for quick get-a-ways at the stop lights.
I bought the car back but the previous two owners did not pamper it as I did. Really too bad white over yellow suited it quite well. The picture shows the Mustang just days before it went to the auto wrecker. Sigh….
If I was forced into buying the 1980 or 81 model year of this car it would for sure be with the 255 V8 as I have had plenty of time with the rude obnoxious 2.3 or the underpowered 200 wheesy 200 six. Avoiding the VV carb and ordering the best possible rear gears would help this mill quite a bit and when the warranty ran out you could easily swap in a 302. Would want no part of the 2.3 turbo in these years.
Thank you so much for posting, especially the interior, My very first car back in high
school and one year later circa 97-99 was an 1980 Ford Mustang, 2.3 4 cylinder, with
automatic. and it was the exact same color blue. but was a fastback with no vinyl top
and pure blue, apparently was a ghia because the interior was the exact same as the
one pictured, in the exact same color, the previous owners had light blue seat covers
and a dash cover and they looked good so we left em, Also had chrome 10 hole wheels, And they had put a sunroof put in, ( unfinished ) just sat in by weight, and had no headliner, but the half of the handle could prop it up about 2 inches which helped alot in the north Ga heat with no a.c.. and it had black rear window louvers, it was pretty sporty looking. though slow as Christmas up to about 45,mph, then it would produce enough power to operate and pass in traffic My folks bought it when i was 17, cause they needed a cheap car, with the plan to let me use whenever they didn’t need it and upon graduation, would sign it over to me as a grad gift. Nicknamed her smurfette cause she was little and blue. loved that car and had alot of fun in that car, First Date, Prom, Graduation, first job and um, other ” fun stuff” lol, she was ratty and smelled a little from the water leaking behind the dash, but had been such a good dependable car i had plans after school to restore her to new looking shape, and would either pep up the 4 banger or drop a 302 in, fix the crappy sunroof job right, and install an a,c, system and keep her forever. but it was not to be. about 9 months after graduating after taking my dad to work, was on the way home and waiting to turn left when a dumb kid a couple years younger than me, driving with his head up his behind slammed into me with a big f 350 flat bed, he tried to swerve but struck me with the left edge of his bumper in the right tail light and the bumper made a clean whole through the light and uni body, the insurance wouldn’t cover it and i offered to eat the repair cost, cause i was attached to the car, and cause it was just body damage that didn’t affect the car, but the fing insurance company totaled it and i had to give it up. If not for that i would still have her to this day, i only have the 2 surviving posted pics that where taken of it. thats me about 17 i think. no one had camera phones so if the folks hadn’t told me to park out in the cul de sac after pulling up from school to use up a couple last pics on a disposable, i wouldn’t even have these.I have no pics of the interior and seeing the same interior was a great drive down memory lane. Thanks again.
I have one in my yard now. My aunt bought it off the showroom floor in Chattanooga, she passed, my grandmother got it, then handed it down to my brother. Him, our dad, and his best friend put a 289 in it. His best friend passed in a wreck, Travis went into the Marines, now the car just sets here. It’s a 2 door, white, with white vinyl roof. Cute little cars.
My first car was a ’66 Mustang, After a year, I got rid of it and got an old Cadillac, which set my world straight, and set the course for the next twenty years. My favorite Mustangs had been the ’69 and ’70 fastbacks which I remember from when they were new.
It was the 2005 Mustang that caught my interest again. In ’07 I bought a new V6 coupe, finally a fastback for everyone! After I accepted the Mustang for what it was, ( not a Cadillac!) I began to want an older model. I liked the ’88 and later GT convertibles, but couldn’t find a nice one in my price range. I ended up with a ’96 GT convertible which I’ve had since. This car really made me a Mustang fan.
In my opinion, the ’79 Mustang was a rebirth of the “concept” of the original Mustang without the heritage design cues.Unlike the Mustang II. The ’94 to 2004 was a modern streamlined interpretation of the heritage design. The 2005-2009 was the best re-creation of a Classic ’60’s Mustang. I’ll admit that I love this design and have an ’06 GT convertible also. The 2015 and newer Mustangs are a lot like the SN95s, they are another modern interpretation of classic Mustang design.
It’s true that the Mustang has gotten bigger and more complicated, but the base cars offer a lot of performance with pretty good fuel economy. Ford has been improving the base models since after the Fox cars, and you can find just the right car on the used car market.
I completely agree with your descriptions of the 94-04 and the 05-09 iterations. I think if I bought a Mustang today it would have to be one of the latter range.
The Fox bodies did nothing for me when new; and still don’t. You are correct that the 1979 brought back the “concept” of the originals; albeit in a brand new package that was completely contemporary, which is to say all boxes and angles, in line with the times. I think my problem is that I remember the original at the 1964 World’s Fair; a car which i thought was truly a genius design; topped only by the beautiful fastback a few months later. Having that as the benchmark probably doomed whatever chance the Fox bodies had to impress me.
I have fond memories of a ’79 Mustang Pace Car Edition 2.3 Turbo, because it was my first car that wasn’t a family hand-me-down, and was my first car with a manual transmission. The early Fox bodies were really light and extremely tossable around corners – kind of a Miata before Mazda thought of the idea, or a latter-day English roadster with a fixed roof. Not all that fast in a straight line, but still tons of fun. I did get caught once on a mountain pass in Colorado with vapor lock in the two-barrel carb after a hard uphill drive, but other than that it was a good ride. Ahhhh, to be 25 again …
This look left me cold on the early Fox Mustang. All the utilitarian charm of a Fairmont – an ageing design at this point.
The tweaks that made it sportier and less utilitarian grew on me over time, and I came close to pulling the trigger on a 5.0 LX coupe – fun tossible car!
Thankfully the optional vinyl top was gone by 1983, and the fake convertible top was replaced with a……convertible top!
Boxy cars had become the norm, and the Mustang was like what a sporty Falcon or Fairlane was to the 1960s.