[Ram]

Dear friends:
In the Bollywood movie, “Bluffmaster” starring Abhishek Bachchan, he drives a black 1969 (first-gen.) Ford Mustang convertible. I really loved the car, being old enough to remember when it was first launched. I also love the 1968 Shelby Mustang GT-500KR for its looks and performance.

When Ford downsized the Mustang in 1974 to accomodate the oil crisis, they
produced the worst Mustang (second-gen.)ever. This Mustang (called Mustang II) mercifully died in 1978.

The third-gen. 1979 thru 1988 Mustang, based on Ford’s Fox platform (Ford Zephyr/Mercury Zephyr) was a beaut. It had more interior and trunk space than the Mustang II, yet was the same weight. Its corporate cousin, the Mercury Capri was dropped after 1986.

Awhile ago, when I was posted for a year in Silicon Valley, California, a lovely Hispanic friend had shown off her “fully loaded” Ford Mustang to me. I adored that car and vowed to buy one as soon as I had saved enough money.

At the next opportunity at Everett, Washington, an ad for a 1979 Mustang Cobra hatchback caught my eye. I drove to Seattle and signed the papers buying this Rangoon Red 1979 Mustang hatchback with red leather interior.

My darling Mustang "Washington HTW 430" had Ford's 2,300 cc “Lima” four overhead camshaft turbo-supercharged engine. The engine put out 143 bhp and did 0-60 mph in 9.1 sec.







The car had an Alpine 4-speaker stereo and a console housing an electronic digital clock with day/date/elapsed time/stopwatch functions, plus a graphic warning display module that indicated low level conditions in the fuel tank and washer system, and signaled when a headlamp low beam or taillamp/brake lamp needed replacing.

It had a special suspension package with retuned shock absorber valving and front and rear stabilizer bars along with metric-sized forged-aluminum wheels and, for the first time on a Mustang, non-US tires (Michelin TRX 190/65R390 performance radials).

The 'stang would go very fast. I don't know how fast because the economy oriented speedo only went up to 85 mph where it had a stop to block the needle. I distinctly remember max’ing the speedo on that baby on the Interstate expressway I-5 zillions of times.

[Beeman]

I love mustangs but am sorry to say i cant bring myself to like that one

[Ram]

Originally Posted by Beeman

I love mustangs but am sorry to say i cant bring myself to like that one

Mustang people do have a favorite model year and a despised one.
Most Mustang people avoid the 1974-1978 models, which were slotted between the smaller Ford Pinto and the bigger Ford Granada.

More on the Mustang's younger brother: the Ford Pinto
The Pinto petrol tank would explode in a rear-end collision at even 30 km/hr. About 500 people burned to death in Pintos. In Feb. 1978 the US courts awarded a 16-year-old boy, badly burned in a Pinto accident, $128,000,000 in damages -- the largest single-person injury judgment in history.

Come May 1978, the US Dept of Transportation announced that Pinto was defective and called for a recall of all 1971 to 1976 Pintos. 14 lakh Pintos were recalled. The most expensive recall in automotive history. Over 100 lawsuits against Ford forced them to pay millions of dollars in damages. Ford eventually killed the Pinto and replaced it with the Ford Escort.

Back home, do we even know why the Volvo B7R bus burned to death 22 of its passengers on 27th Dec. 2005