I’m Curious —-Why a Fox?

Baseball practice, 1993, 13 years old. One of my teammates dads drove up in one to drop his son off. Blue and silver two tone GT. I had seen them before, but that’s when I knew I would have one, one day. I had friends in high school that had some and got my first one in 1999. I’m on my 5th now, no plans to get rid of this one.

My story....

I've been turning wrenches for over 32 yrs now. Everything from RC cars and go karts to semi truck.

I was always a GM fan when I was younger. I didnt like Ford back then. I had a 1969 Pontiac GTO I pulled out of an alley and fixed up. A friend of mine had a 70.

Then one day he bought an 88 GT hatchback. I spent many hours working on it with him and saw a lot of things I liked about Ford.

That led to my first fox, a black 86 LX, 5 speed with T tops. That was a nice car that I do miss.

Sold that and bought a black 89 LX convertible 4 cylinder auto and a wrecked 88 GT and swapped the 4 cylinder to V8 and 5 speed under a carport, outside in the winter. This was in my mid to late 20s when I could do that kind of crazy stuff.

I sold the 89 and had a green 93 4 cylinder hatch for awhile. Sold it and bought an 83 convertible, V6, auto. Swapped that over to a 351 Windsor and 5 speed.

Eventually sold it and the GTO and had no performance cars for awhile.

Then after several years after we got settled in a new home, I wanted another project car. Wanted another convertible as my motorcycle riding days are done.

I orginally wanted a 60s convertible, but then got to thinking about my 20s and all the fun times wrenching and street racing and figured I'd relive my youth with another foxbody.

Wanted an lx, but found my 87 GT convertible. 60k original miles, all original. What sold me on it was that it's a factory 5 speed convertible, and is factory ac delete and manual crank windows..a combo I've never seen on a GT. It reminded me of the GTO, old school, no ac, manual windows.

When I drive the 87, I don't feel any different than I did in my 20s ...but I am. . These cars just have such personality and you really feel connected to them compared to modern vehicles. My boys love it. They are not used to loud V8 performance cars and get a kick out of how fast it accelerates, spinning tires, etc. My car is not a race car at all and slow by today's standards, but I love it and wouldn't give it up for a new GT. I have history with these cars that cannot be duplicated with new iron. It still runs strong for what it is.

I agree, legitimately the last of the true muscle cars from Dearborn. I hope to keep this one and pass it onto my son someday.

Growing up all the women loved the guys with clean fox mustangs. Especially, the gt convertibles. They were the car to have. I remember gazing at them at the park with hammer wheels, sheep skin seat covers, and custom sound systems. I was more into pre fast and the furious imports and chevy's. Really liked chevy trucks, Monte Carlos, and 80s Camaros

I didn't buy one until I rode to the track with my neighbor, Charles. We left our apartment complex and headed to Capitol Raceway in MD about 45 mins away. I had no idea who he was at the track or the legend of his car " Country Time ".

The first pass out was a 9.80 quarter mile. Car caught on fire in the staging lanes. I think it was running rich dumping fueI and caught at the dumps. I stopped people from spraying his engine and sprayed under the car putting the fire out after shutting the car down and covering the carb. Second run was an 8.90. That might not seem like a lot now but back in 2000 that was hell of fast. Fast enough to have him as the fastest street car fox on the east coast. I can remember running outside every time he fired it up to go to work. Yes, he drove a big block full racecar to work almost every day. One morning he let it idle for about an hour while we talked bs. At the end of our conversation he told me to put my hand on the intake. I was hesitant expecting to burn my hand. That thing was barely luke warm. He was the guy that made the biggest mustang impression on me. We lost touch when we both moved but he introduced me to a huge mustang family including Hurricane Racing Tours.

Charles enticed me to buy my first fox. It was a 1987 LX 4 banger 5 speed for $750. That car got a 460 JY engine and was a complete death trap, but it was the most fun I ever had trying to kill myself. Since then I've owned a 86 gt convertible, 91 gt convertible, 89 gt convertible, 84 v6 notch back, 93 lx hatch 5.0, countless parts cars, flip cars, and my 88 331 turbo notch back. Most of my friends have high power mustangs. The running trend is that the lowest horsepower one is 1200hp. No...nope...not right... I'm the lowest horsepower one...just me...with my non racecar street car. Just my little turbo 331.

Dang !!! I'm not the lowest anymore. Now it's my Ol' Ladies bone stock 86. LMAO. I'm movin' up in the world. SMH

I got mine on a trade. The original owner had it in the yard, and I painted his house. I loved Foxes, and he said how about trading the Mustang. Three hundred in paint, and three days and the car was mine. He later said he misses it every day.

My first car in '86 was a '65 with a sprint 6 & 5-lugs axles, so a 289 got dropped in that. Sadly slid it off the road in the rain very undramatically on bald tires...
Wanted a convertible so found a '72 LTD (Land Shark), then my aunt let me drive her '86 GT 5-spd vert (she just wanted a vert & that's all they had on the lot) to graduation. I went to a little private school about an hour away and had great back roads to drive.
That was it - I realized how much I enjoyed driving a car I could get sideways at any time by moving just my right foot.
Took until 2005 when I refinanced the house to find my '93 LX 5.0 5-spd w/91k miles for the (to me at the time) princely sum of $6500.

Mustang5L5 said:

Even an SN95 rear seat is better than a fox. More legroom, and headroom.

It's been 20 years since i've ridden in the rear seat of a Fox driving down the road and I can tell you that I don't miss having the seatback of the front seat in my crotch and banging my head off the metal roof trim over the back seat.


Actually. That is something that grinds my gears. Why the hell did ford put a METAL trim plate directly over the heads of the rear seat passengers?

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So although they look smaller and the roof more rounded and are an update on the Fox Mustang platform, how’s headroom in an SN 95’s rear seat? I did not want to get in the ones we saw during shopping recently.

If I recall, when my sister bought the 83 ( in 1984) I am working on, it was the first convertible produced with V8 manual transmission produced in 10 years... After growing up with cars from the late 60's/early 70's, the late 70's were some sad times...

The first Mustang I ever rode in was an early 90s Fox. I didn’t know anything about it other than that it was a Mustang and it was “cool”.

When I really got into cars, shortly after high school, I ended up with a Honda that I dumped way too much money into. I made friends with some guys that had Fox Mustangs and riding with them when they would go racing really got me into the platform. I eventually ended up buying an LS1 TransAm for my first real “fast” car but I never lost my interest in the Fox Mustangs and always told myself I would have one of my own eventually. It took almost 20 years but I eventually got my Fox.

Now I just need to get it back from the gear shop, lol. The ice storm this week didn’t help things.

DudeStang said:

, I ended up with a Honda that I dumped way too much money into.

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Did you put a fart pipe on it?