If you’re into Fox and SN-95 Mustangs, then you know all about this one; the ’95 Mustang Cobra R, one of only 250 produced. Even to this day, this car has a little gem up its sleeve that no other Mustang has had since 1970 and will never have again.

That, of course, is its engine. You can go on and on about all the pushrod 5.0s, the two- and four-valve 4.6s, the four-valve 5.4s and 5.8s, the 5.0 Coyote and even the 5.2 Voodoo in the new Shelby GT350 and GT350R. But none of them are a good-old-fashioned pushrod 351 Windsor.

The ’95 Cobra R’s 17-inch wheels became a cult classic in Mustang enthusiast circles, where versions of them were installed on legions of Fox and SN-95 5.0s and 4.6s. They are still available today in several variations from such parts houses as Late-Model Restoration.

Yep, the 351W is a true favorite of ours in so many ways. And yet we’ve always lamented it wasn’t installed into so many other Mustangs that it had should’ve been equipped in for so many years.

But alas, it was only three years. And what three years they were! In the beginning, it was 1969. The standard 302 and Boss 302 engines were out and the Boss was in its first of a short two-year run. The FE 390 was on a sort of a swan song after coming to Mustangs for the ’67 model year and was clearly being overshadowed by the vaunted 428 Cobra Jet that was first available the previous year in the ’68 Mustang GTs.

What Ford needed was a middle-block of sorts. Something bigger than a 302, but not a 390 or a full-tilt 428CJ. Many GM cars had 350 cubic-inch variants from Pontiac, Olds, Buick and, of course, Chevrolet. In fact, by 1969, the 350 Chevy was so ubiquitous that it found its way into numerous models, including the Corvette (new and standard for ’69, replacing the 327), Camaro, Nova, Chevelle/Malibu, Impala and Caprice, just to name about the entire model line.

Ford’s answer was a new-size engine based on the new-for-’68 small-block 302 (replacing the 289) called the 351W. Although very similar to the 302, the 351W had one major difference, which was a one-inch taller deck height in the block at 9.2 inches compared to 8.2 inches for the 302. The 351W also has a 3.50-inch stroke, compared to the 302’s 3.00-inch stroke.

Sure the engines in today’s Mustangs, such as the Coyote 5.0 and supercharged 5.4 and 5.8s in S197 GT500s make way more power than the 351W in the ’95 R, but they haven’t yet become the classic that these Windsors now are. And furthermore, there are plenty of stroked Windsors out there now making the same power as many Coyotes and GT500 5.4s. Ford Performance’s own 575-horsepower, 460-cube crate engine is a good example of what we’re talking about.

Otherwise many of the parts are interchangeable including the valvetrain as the 289/302 and 351W use the exact same cylinder head design.

Anyway, that’s the basic history lesson the 351W, so now we’ll move on to the great Windsor small-block as it relates to Mustangs, which is to say a somewhat shortened legacy. That’s because (and this is almost never pointed out) the 351W was only installed in Mustangs for three short years; 1969, 1970, and…1995.

That’s right, these ’95 Cobra Rs were the first Mustangs to get a Windsor since 1970. And by then, the ’70s were also being equipped with 351 Clevelands and the 351Ws were already on the way to being phased out as all 351s were Clevelands from 1971-1973.

Why the 351W was utilized so little in Mustangs is baffling to this day, but at least these glorious ’95 Cobra Rs were so equipped and for that we are grateful.

But whatever the case, of the three Cobra R models produced for 1993, 1995, and 2000, the ’95s are a sentimental favorite to us because of the fact they were 351W-equipped rather than the standard ’93 Cobra 5.0 engine that was used in the ’93 Cobra Rs.

The 2000 R was also legend in its own right, with its naturally-aspirated 5.4-liter modular four-valve V8 making 385 horsepower—about the same as the 390 produced by the ’03-’04 Terminator supercharged Cobras, which many consider to be the best of the new-edge ’99-’04 Mustangs of all. But here we are paying tribute the ’95 R and that fact that 1995 was the final year Mustangs were equipped with a pushrod V8 engine.

As you can readily see, this example on eBay is a spectacular ’95 R and is an instant classic. Furthermore, it has less than 2,300 miles on it. And as the ad says, “In 1995, the only way you could have purchased this car was to provide a racing license to SVT that showed you intended to run the car in professional racing events.”

These cars were street-legal as any other Mustang but steps were taken to prove a point. With a slightly over $35,000 MSRP in 1995 (about $55,000 in 2016 money) the 300-horsepower 5.8-liter from the F150 Lightning made the R sprint to 0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds.

And as with all Cobra R’s, creature comforts were removed to save weight such as A/C, radio, the back seat and sound deadening materials. The ’95 Rs were also equipped with crank windows to save a few more pounds.

So of the 11 years of SN-95 Mustang production, there were the round-body ’94-’98s and the new-edge ’99-’04s. If the ’03-’04 Cobras are the best of the new-edge cars (along with the ’00 R), then we’ll go on record as saying these ’95 Rs are clearly the best of the ’94-’98s.

New, the ’95 R was a little over 35 grand. You can buy this basically new 2300-mile example now for about $1,500 less at $34k. Sounds like to fair deal to us.

In fact, if we had the choice of any Mustang made from 1979 to 2004, the somewhat old-school viewpoint of your humble writer would probably inspire him to have the ’95 R be his number one choice. With its abundant low- and mid- range pushrod Windsor torque always at the ready, it’s an easy decision to make.