Page 203 - Wayne Carini's Guide to Affordable Classics

THE BACKSTORY
There are few cars that typify the 1980s more than the Ford Mustang, commonly known as the Fox Body after the internal project name for a rear-wheel-drive compact sedan platform shared between Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury in the era. By 1993, Ford was transitioning to front-wheel-drive throughout its lineup, and only the Mustang was left on the Fox platform. While the 1994-2004 Mustangs were still made on a modified Fox platform, and were the last Ford products to use that platform, they are not generally included as part of the “Fox body” generation.
What the Heck is a Fox Body, Anyway?
The Fox platform is a Ford-developed unibody chassis designed to be scalable for use in compact to mid-size rear-wheel-drive vehicles. It’s very much a product of the 1970s, with development starting about 1976 to create a successor to the Mustang II that could be leveraged into other vehicles for cost-efficient production. Eventually, the Fox platform was used in a variety of related vehicles of the period such as the Mercury Cougar, Ford Thunderbird, Lincoln Continental, and even Medicare-mobiles like the Ford LTD and Mercury Zephyr. It was even adapted to a pseudo-pickup body for the short-lived Ford Durango replacement for the Ranchero.
The Mustang and its badge-engineered Mercury Capri stablemate got the short end of Fox body production, literally. With a wheelbase of 100.5 inches, these were the smallest vehicles made on the Fox platform. But all Fox vehicles share a few common traits. The Fox platform uses a MacPherson strut front suspension, changing up from the dual wishbones of the Mustang II era. All Fox-based vehicles use a solid rear axle suspended on coil springs in the back, but could be built with rear drums or rear disc brakes.
The First of the Foxes 1979-1986
In the late 1970s, Ford needed a replacement for the Pinto-based Mustang II. With the development of the scalable Fox platform, this was the perfect opportunity to upsize the Mustang a little bit. The 1979 Mustang rode on a wheelbase that was four inches longer than the outgoing Mustang II.
ABOVE (ALL): Various styling treatments for what would appear
in 1979 as the latest version of the Ford Mustang. All of these examples appeared in 1976.
BELOW: Ford sold 369,936 Mustangs during the initial model year in 1979. In total, 2.6 million examples were built.
Ford Mustang (Fox Body)
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