1983 was a big year for Ford's Mustang for several reasons.
It received its first big styling refresh since the Fox body Third Generation pony car had debuted in 1979. In addition to revised taillights and other trim and interior details, the snout was revised, with a slimmer grille and better aero, giving a claimed ~2% reduction in drag.
Not content to cede the droptop renaissance to GM and Chrysler, the convertible Mustang returned after a decade-long hiatus. Ford performed the roof-ectomy in-house, rather than farming the work out to ASC. Initially only offered on the Mustang GLX, it was joined mid-year by a ragtop GT. Despite their high price premium over a hardtop 'Stang, convertible sales wildly exceeded the manufacturer's expectations. (GT hatchbacks started at $9,300 while base price for a GT convertible was $13,479, or the equivalent of $42,600 in 2024 dollars.)
Finally, the GT version saw big performance gains. The 302 Windsor V-8 under the hood saw the previous year's 2-barrel carb replaced by a genuine Holley 4-barrel, while the exhaust system was reworked for better flow, including a more efficient catalytic converter. As a bonus, the previous 4-speed overdrive manual, with its awkward, widely-spaced gear ratios, was replaced by a 5-speed Borg Warner T5.
The results were impressive, with an 11.5% horsepower bump over the previous year (157 to 175 SAE net). Car & Driver tested an '83 hardtop GT and recorded a zero to sixty time of 7.0 seconds and a 15.4 quarter at 90 mph. The 5.0L H.O. pushed that new aero snout through the air all the way to 125 miles per hour, too. The Medium Charcoal GT convertible in the picture would have been a few ticks more sluggish due to the added weight of the stiffening added to keep the chassis flex to a tolerable minimum.
It was a pretty clear statement from Ford that the Malaise Era was done in Dearborn.
The one in the photo was captured in July of 2022 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark III and an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens.
When the 79 Mustang came out, 11-year-old me was excited for this return to form. One of my aunts bought one, hatchback, blue. Base engine for sure. Rode in it that Christmas and holy COW was that car squeak and rattle city. The platform felt strangely flexy. I wondered how well that thing was screwed together.
ReplyDeleteFord kept improving these, and by the end they were a little out of date, but straight up good cars.
By the time of the ‘83-‘84 models they really had the bugs ironed out, and by the ‘86s, they were really punching well out of their weight class. When one of the magazines… I can’t remember if it was R&T or C/D …did a group test of an ‘86 GT versus an IROC Camaro and a Firebird Formula and it manhandled both of them, the Chevy engineer who was there to babysit the Z had to grudgingly admit that the Mustang GT was the best damn Fairmont ever. ;-)
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