5 - '69 Mach 1
How do you improve on a winner? Try Ford's restyled '69 Mustang Mach 1. Ford's first bold attempt at styling beyond the original Mustang emerged in showrooms everywhere in the fall of '68. The new Mach 1 was the most exciting Mustang ever produced, eclipsing GT sales right out of the chute. It didn't really matter if you ordered the standard 351W V-8 or the optional 428 Cobra Jet stump puller. The Mach 1 looked terrific no matter how it was ordered. It remains so loved because it symbolizes the peak of the musclecar era and a time likely never to be repeated.
4 - '68 1/2 Mustang Cobra Jet
Ford got its bottom spanked in 1967 when it dropped the stodgy 390 big-block into the Mustang. It just wasn't a winner in traffic-light-to-traffic-light performance. Not much respect was had at the dragstrip, either. When Ford went to the parts shelf and began assembling the right combination of parts inside the long-stroked 428ci big-block, bountiful torque was born of the new 428 Cobra Jet. At the '68 Winternationals in Pomona, California, the Bow Tie boys got the shock of their lives when Dyno Don Nicholson and a host of other factory-backed Ford types in Wimbledon White Mustang fastbacks staged and sent them home with their egos in their back pockets.
3 - '93 Mustang Cobra SVT
Of all the high-performance Mustangs built after 1981, the '93 Cobra SVT reigns supreme because it remains popular with enthusiasts long after production ended in the summer of '93. The '93 Cobra weighed less than its '94-and-later venom-stung counterparts. It was less complicated, sporting 5.0L EFI GT-40 pushrod power, and it yielded a clean appearance not seen since in the Mustang camp. What's more, Ford SVT built 107 racing counterparts that have witnessed success on the roundy-round in the years since. Anyway you slice the '93 Cobra, it was a winner from the start and destined to become a modern classic.
2 - '65 Mustang GT Hi-Po Convertible
This one remains America's favorite. It's a design impossible to ignore and a sound that's unmistakable. The '65 Mustang GT convertible is a hands-down favorite, even with people who don't like Fords. The K engine code serial number gets adrenaline flowing for us die-hards. An Autolite starter and the sound of solid lifters gets your motor running. When you get right down to it, the 289 Hi-Po V-8 isn't much more powerful than the 225-hp A-code engine we see in a lot of Mustang GTs. However, it's the sound, the special Hi-Po heads, the open-element air cleaner and chrome valve covers, dual point mechanical distributor, and those cast-iron headers that get a person excited. Wrap these features in a topless classic and life doesn't get much sweeter. Are you ready for the ride?
1 - '70 Boss 302
The '70 Mustang Boss 302 is fondly remembered for the persona that Larry Shinoda created for it. With that slippery SportsRoof body, the shark's mouth grille, low profile, SCCA Trans Am performance reputation, and the sound of solid lifters and throaty exhaust pulses, the youth of the musclecar wars took note. Grab the shifter, ring the canted-valve small-block to six grand, cut the apex, and behold a genuine slice of SCCA on nearly any backroad. The Boss 302 was just that-BOSS!