While we were in Bowling Green, Kentucky, last month for the NMRA World Finals and Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, we could not help but keep our eye out for our favorite Fox-body Mustangs. As usual, the show did not disappoint, with dozens of Fox-bodies to choose from with all the drag cars, auto cross cars, and show cars on the property. Spotting some wicked cool Foxes was easy! Picking out our top five? Not so easy! Check out what we came up with below!
#5- A Rare SAAC Sighting
Arguably the most rare Foxbody Mustang of them all is the SAAC. Short for Shelby American Automobile Club, these cars were commissioned by the club, a first for any car club. With production numbers of right around 100, these are definitely rare Foxes. The cars basically took full advantage of the Ford Motorsports parts catalog, making them very nicely modified cars right off the showroom floor. They came in three options: MK1, MKII, and The Snake. Seemingly even more rare than these cars is the information on them. There is not a ton of online info out there, and sadly we could never catch up with owner Mark Merrick in Bowling Green. A quick chat and a look under the hood could have easily pushed this car toward number one on the list! We did run across this awesome throwback review of the SAAC cars on YouTube during our research. Check it out!
#4- 8,000 Mile Coupe
Thanks in large part to popular collector car auctions like Barrett-Jackson and collectors like Dennis Collins, the low-mile Fox-body Mustang has blown up in value and popularity. With the past few years bringing us record high sales, it’s no shocker to run across a Fox-body with a price on the window that was once unheard of. At NMRA Bowling Green, it was this 8,800-mile Fox-body coupe. The low-mile time capsule carried a price tag of $27,900. Other than modern tires and a new battery, the car appeared to be factory correct. So is it worth it? You can restore them all day long, but you can’t make another original!
When you see a car years later that was ordered with strange options, you often wonder what people were thinking. Did someone special order the car that way for good reason? Was it random? Was someone at a dealership just marking blocks on the order form? This coupe definitely falls under the strange category. Power windows and locks were checked, but they went with manual mirrors. The biggest oddity is the radio delete. This was something commonly seen on the hot-rods of old, but not something nearly as common on more modern cars like the Fox-body. Maybe whoever ordered this car wanted something uniquely optioned to put up and keep? Was this $27,500 price tag the goal from day one? Whatever this car's story, the new owner is going to have one cool Fox-body coupe.
#3-Titanium Frost ‘Vert
Let’s ignore the rare color combo on this Fox for a moment. What we have here is a very original, unmolested, simply gorgeous Fox-body Mustang GT. It was complete with tons of paperwork and documentation, right down to the original dealership vanity plate on the front bumper. Now, add in the fact that it is 1 of 424 cars finished in beautiful Titanium Frost and Titanium lower accent paint, and it makes this for a pretty neat little convertible! Owner Steve Goodman of Park City, Kentucky, sure has something to be proud of here!
Originality, documentation, cool dealership items - it's all part of what adds to the cool factor of this Fox-body convertible. Just think, how many dealer tags were chunked in the trash over the years? How many people (even today) toss away the paper dealer plates and other paperwork that come with a new Mustang? Maybe you should think twice when you toss that dealer tag on your new 2020 GT Mustang into the trash. Who knows? We might just write about your car in 20 years or so!
Honorable Mention: Holley had this sweet little red Fox-body coupe in front of their vendor booth, featuring their new Terminator X Powertrain Management System. Finally we can throw those old ECU's away in favor of a more modern, self-tuning system!
#2- Dominator GT350 Fox-body
Let’s face it. Today we live in a world of special packages. From retro to new, there is a little something unique out there for everyone. However, back in the ’80s, with the muscle car all but six feet under from the gas crunch in the ’70s, there wasn’t much to choose from. The Fox-body Mustang was quickly breathing life back into the hot-rod segment on the Ford Motor Company side, with both stock and special editions. But it was still the early ’80s, and there just was not much there. Ford offered the GT350 name plate, but it was not much more than just that – a few decals. That is where the folks at Summit Ford in Missouri stepped in with their “Dominator” Package. They added a functional ram-air air cleaner, long-tube Hooker headers, upgraded ignition, and a re-jetted carburetor to help wake up the 5.0-liter and add some life into the GT350. While the car will probably never be on the level of a Shelby, Saleen, or other big-name special edition, it’s certainly a unique piece and definitely grabs your attention on the car show field!
We're not really sure if it's the car itself or all the cool documentation and displays with it that make this thing so neat. Brent Hunter's Dominator Mustang has about every ounce of paperwork you could ever want to see, including original advertising pieces for the car and a photo of the car in front of the dealership sign.
While most of our pictures came from the car show field, let's not overlook all those Fox-body Mustangs doing work on the quarter-mile. This silver four-eyed hatchback had to be our favorite Fox-body drag car of the weekend. Clean and simple, yet all business when it pulled up to the Christmas tree!
#1- Wide-Body Fox
Maybe it’s the Saleen-like throwback paint scheme, maybe it’s the wide-body kit that screams ’80s Trans-Am racer, or maybe it’s the fact that this car is an absolute beast on the autocross track? Whatever the reason, pick one and it is why this car went to number one on our list. Owned and driven by husband and wife combo Mike Trenkle and Kelly Jaeger, this 1982 Mustang was a threat on the autocross course all weekend. When it was not on-course, this beauty was sitting in the pits just begging to be photographed. We must have taken 200 shots of this car over the weekend between sitting and action, but hey, who’s really counting?
Got grip? Mike and Kelly's 1982 Foxbody Mustang does! The car ran its best time of the weekend on the autocross course with Mike behind the wheel at 35.601. Kelly put down an equally impressive 35.942. Of course, this was thanks in part to that Ford power plant under the hood! No cross-breeding here!
Check out our album below for tons more Fox-body action from Bowling Green!