Ford's "New Coke" bungle.....But they recovered!!

In late 1973 some genius at Ford ( It wasn't Iaccoca, he'd already left after having a pissing match with Hank the Deuce-i.e.-Henry Ford II ) decided that the public would like the Mustang a lot better if it was more like a Pinto or a Capri. The 1973 Mustang was the last of the performance ponys. A 266 hp 351 "Cleveland" with 8:1 compression was a far cry from the days of the 428CJ and the Boss 429, but it was a helluva lot better than the all-new for 1974 "Mustang II" that was Pinto chassis based and had 2.3 liter 4-banger with about 95 hp or a 2.8 liter German V6 with about 130 hp. Just like when Coke changed their formula, the public was not amused. In 1975 they tried to inject some performance by making the 302 V8 an option, but it had a 2bbl carb,single exhaust,wheezed out about 135 hp, and couldn't break out of the 17s in the 1/4. They tried gallantly to promote this piece of junk-Farrah Fawcett-Majors drove one on "Charlie's Angels" and Lee Purcell and Al Leitteiri of "The Getaway" and "Godfather" fame drove one in the Charles Bronson revenge flick "Mr. Makestyk", but the vehicular star of that one was the '68 Ford F100 pickup piloted ( an apt term, if you see the flick) by Linda Cristal in the big chase scene. Ford even used the footage for years in their early "Built Ford Tough" ads. The Mustang II was a flop. Meanwhile, GM was selling Pontiac Trans-Ams and the resurrected Z/28 Camaro in record numbers. Mercifully, the "II" moniker was dropped and the Mustang was completely redesigned for 1979, and it was an instant hit. The V8 models were actually decent performers and could smoke the tires even with an automatic, which a Mustang hadn't been able to do since 1973. Yet, again, they shot themselves in the foot. With Camaros and Firebirds selling in record numbers, the 302 was dropped for 2 1/2 years!!  In 1980 and 81, the biggest motor available in a Mustang was a 255 inch "Economy" V8 that had nothing in common with the old 289 / 302, and was outperformed by the V6 model! In mid-year 1982, they brought back the 302, still only with a 2bbl carb, and they actually advertised that it had 157 hp like that was supposed to be impressive. In 1983,they put an aluminum manifold and a 600 Holley 4bbl on it, and replaced the crappy shifting old German-made 4-speed out of the old Capri with the much cleaner shifting and closer ratio'd BW T5 5-speed. For the first time in ten years you could buy a Mustang that could cut a 15 second 1/4 right off the showroom floor!! 1985 brought a roller cam and hp bump to 210. 1987 brought fuel injection and another bump in horsepower to 225. This configuration would last until 1993. The "5.0" as it was affectionately called in the buff magazines and by enmthusiasts would become THE performance car to have. L69, L98, and LT1 Camaros and Firebirds offered just as much ( or more in the case of the LT1) performance, but they cost several thousand dollars more. While GM priced the Camaro and Firebird into oblivion-a loaded Z/28 was nearly 40K in 2002 dollars when they were discontinued-Ford sold twice as many Mustangs every year as GM sold Camaros and Firebirds combined-probably because a V8 Mustang was around 25 grand-a figure young males-your primary target could afford. The middle-aged guys who could afford a $40,000 toy were buying BMWs and Porsche Boxsters, and Corvettes. They damn sure didn't want a Camaro. The Mustang's continued success has reaped great benfits for enthusiasts even if your not a Ford guy. It caused GM to bring back the Camaro with stunning success, and Chrysler to resurrect the Hemi Challenger. If it weren't for the Fox-Bodied Mustang and that torquey little 302 Windsor,defiantly deilivering high performance for low-bucks while everyone else was going front-drive and 4-banger, and "green", we wouldn't have all the awesome performance cars that we do today.  They certainly recovered, but for a few years in the '70's and early '80's, Ford really shot themselves in the foot, performance-wise. Mastermind