The Pinto-based Mustang II is the Mustang everybody likes to hate, but I will reveal a deep, dark secret about myself: I’ve always liked them. The tape-kit Cobra was wicked cool, and I even liked the four-cylinder cars. Maybe that’s because my best friend’s older sister had one that she used to cart us dumb adolescents around in. Whatever the reason, I’ve never hated Mustang IIs the way any card-carrying car geek is supposed to. Maybe this video will help turn you into a Mustang II fan, too.
The driver comes close to losing it in the grass at the end, but he gets a good couple of revolutions in the cul de sac before he lets it all hang out.
There are a couple of videos of the car under YouTuber TheRacegamer32’s account. It’s a really sweet looking car with a 302 and a four-speed.
Say what you will about these cars, we bought a ton of them during the Oil Embargo. The first year alone, Ford sold more than 385,000, outselling the 1973 Mustang by a factor of about three to one. Rather than stealing sales from Chevrolet’s Camaro, the Mustang II was aimed instead at the 2+2 and two-seat competitors from Japan, like the Datsun 280Z and the Toyota Celica, which had become wildly popular.
It’s good to see one in action. Racegamer32, if you’re one of our guys here at BangShift, give us a little background on the car. We’d love to learn more.
These cars started off as Mercury Capris.
Uh … no they didn’t … they have nothing in common with the the European Capris other than the driveline options and 4 on 4.25″ wheel pattern. 79-86 Capris shared the Fox chassis with the next gen of Mustang. These ones were based off the Pinto platform.
They sure are ugly, but yet, still cool. Who’s gonna be the first to coyote swap one??
I know everyone dumps on these cars but there were two Cobra II’s in my high school parking lot back in the early 80’s. Both pretty quick with built 302’s and 4 speeds. In fact, this video was pretty common back in the day.
Here is a pretty clean example of a Mustang II on Craig’s list. more than i would pay, but not bad looking
http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/4495061434.html
I am a fan of these Mustang IIs as well. I love them in pro stock trim, pro street trim, or as funny cars. They weren’t the most fun to work on back in the day, especially interior trim as its all plastic and the Oklahoma sun would bake the parts and make them brittle. For the most part though, they were decent cars for the time. I probably wouldn’t want one today in stock form. I would want to update most of it.
The four cyl versions were pretty badly underpowered. By todays standards though, so were the V8s.
My wife (girlfriend at the time) had a Ghia II that was a blast to drive..you gotta understand that at the time even a Corvette only had 165 HP..
They get a bad rap. They have genuine drag racing history around them. I think Bob Glidden did pretty good with one. The Mustang nerds brought this on them way back when. Who cares what kind of power it made stock. I dont think anyone on here would leave it that way.
I owned a 1974 Mustang II Ghia. Even though it was fully loaded with a Sunroof and all – it was the worst car I have ever owned.
Agree that the bad rap people lay on em ain’t fair, to me they look way more like a Mustang should than the “Fox” stang.
They do have a drag racing history, and all you got to do to make one look cool is copy the look of a pro stock car. That’s pretty much what Jack Roush did when he built one of the first pro street cars ever made.
I’d love to see one with 17-18″ wheels and reworked wheel openings to go with a bigger overall wheel and tire, and a pro-touring look.
I bought new a ’77 Mach 1 dark brown with 4 speed and 302. Yes, one of the worst cars I’ve ever owned. You could smoke the tires anytime due to the weight of the V8 on the front end. Traded in a ’72 442 w/455 to buy it. Wish I had that one back.