Page 202 - Carini AFFORDABLE CLASSICS Volume I

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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