Photo: Instagram/@wb.artist20
The third-generation Ford Mustang, introduced in 1978 as the 1979 model year and kept in production until late 1993, is the longest-running version of the nameplate. It is also the second best-selling, with more than 2.6 million units sold in the United States, according to Automobiel.
The Mustang is probably the best-known Ford product in the automotive universe. The Model T and F-Series pickups may be far above it in sales figures – and probably in importance, too. The pony car would be the first answer a non-American with a passing knowledge of cars would give to the unlikely question, “Can you name an American car?”
The first generation Mustang debuted in April 1964. It lasted a decade and left a trail of nearly three million units in its wake, undoubtedly a hit for the Blue Oval. At the height of the Malaise, the third iteration of the name was released, the famous Fox-body generation, which lasted a whopping 15 years.
It proved to be a hugely popular decision, not just for the Mustang, but for all other Fox-body Fords: the platform remained in production for 26 years, the second in Ford’s history, following the 33-year-old Panther platform, which came out in 1979. But that’s all history now, save for the eponymous line of pony cars that have rolled out of Ford factories continuously since the very first Mustang.
While the first generation is an outright demigod of the automotive industry, the Fox body is definitely a mythical hero – and one that is still beloved to this day (and likely will become even more so as time goes on). Of course, with humanity quickly collapsing into the age of digital chaos, the Fox body Mustang became a popular canvas for pixel wranglers.
The big news from Ford these days is the new Capri – another Blue Oval icon getting trampled in a SUV. As if the misery wasn’t unbearable enough, the Capri of the third millennium is also electric. Cypher was right when he told Agent Smith: ‘Ignorance is bliss‘ – that’s where I want to go now, in a world where computers shape reality.
Hold that thought – I believe we’re halfway there, only I don’t have anywhere to go – the hex invasion is upon us. It’s bringing goodies far juicier than that non-existent steak in the Matrix. Like a 2024 Fox-bodied Mustang with all the bells and whistles of both eras – and nothing wrong with either.
Thanks to Oscar Vargas of Houston, Texas, an auto designer identifiable by his wb.artist20 license plate on social media, the Fox-body Mustang lives – in the reverse of Computer-Generated Images. It’s got retro 1993 SVT Cobra vibes that end rather dramatically at the end of the slanted rear window, right at the decklid. The trunk makes it a bit too long to fall into the compact category of the traditional Fox-body Ford Mustang, and it might remind some nostalgics of the Honda/Acura Legend.
The 20-inch wheels with 255/35 Pirellis leave little to the imagination. The widebody kit, low-rider stance, Skyline sidelines and rear spoiler would have us believe you could smoke tires in fantasy land. The hood vents and quad pipes on the other hand would make the oil-producing and exporting nations roll with joy – and why wouldn’t they? The Mustang is a wild horse, and it always should be.
The inside is a 2024 Mustang GT graft – at least, that runs in the family – and the manual transmission is the last consolation before Ford’s bosses come up with who-knows-what nightmarish ideas. Rather than bring back the past, they seem to prefer to dig up the dead and turn them into electric zombies, with the Mach-E Mustang and Capri as the archangels of the apocalypse.