Foxbody Mustangs like today’s Nice Price or No Dice GT have long offered some of the best bang for your buck pony car fun to be found. Nowadays, stock models like this are getting harder to find. Let’s see if this one’s price makes it worth snapping up.
The Wrigley Company was founded in 1891, but became best known for its “Doublemint” gum—claimed to have double the flavor—that it introduced in 1914. Beginning in 1959, the company launched an advertising campaign featuring actual twins, dubbed the “Doublemint Twins,” on TVs, in magazines, and on billboards nationwide. The first of these duos was Jayne and Joan Knoerzer, twin sisters from Hammond, Indiana. Identical twins, the Knoerzers were attempting to embark on a singing career when they were signed to be chewing gum spokes-twins. Wrigley leaned into their singing talent, having them cut a jingle called “Double Your Pleasure,” which would become the brand’s theme and, more broadly, a somewhat tawdry double entendre.
Speaking of double what’s expected, that’s exactly what most of you considered the $14,500 asking price of the 2005 Audi TT 3.2 Quattro we looked at yesterday. Taking into account that theme in the comments, it’s of little surprise that the voting ended up in an overwhelming 80% ‘No Dice’ loss.
Work horse
Let’s get one thing out of the way at the outset here. Ford’s third-generation Mustang is vastly less Mustang-esque than was the preceding second-gen model. Yes, people love to dunk on the sophomore Mustang II as nothing more than a gussied-up Pinto, but Ford did try to make the 1974 through 78 edition at the very least look like one of the herd. Introduced for the 1979 model year and carrying through all the way until 1993, the Foxbody Mustang didn’t just throw all the Mustang’s prior styling cues out the window; it redefined Ford’s pony car ethos for a full generation.
Two additional notches on the Foxbody Mustang’s bedpost include the return to horsepower after a decade of emissions and fuel economy strangulation, and the model’s embrace by both owners and the tuner community for aftermarket mischief.
Today’s 1986 Mustang GT convertible is a model that falls dead center in that era’s performance renaissance and is laudably stock (more on that in a sec), so it’s almost like a blank canvas waiting for some fresh brushstrokes for the past four decades.
Ice, Ice, Baby
Well, I guess another thing to get out of the way is the Vanilla Ice connection, as that rap artist (and I use that latter term very loosely) famously befouled the image of white Mustang GT convertibles for ages. Fortunately, this is an earlier, far cleaner-looking 5.0 than the one Mr. Van Winkle rolled in for his videos.
According to the ad, this GT rocks a modest 100K on the clock and is in “completely straight and in stock condition.” That’s not quite the case as it does sport some aftermarket wheels that ape the design of the later SVT Cobra alloys, albeit in old-school four-lug fashion. Also notable is the absence of the factory luggage rack on the trunk lid. That smooths out and cleans up the car’s look, but eliminates the CHMSL brake light, which was integrated into that element on the drop top. Other than those outliers, the car appears factory-spec and in very good condition, with sharp-looking paint, unfaded black accents, and a solid-looking top featuring a fancy glass rear window.
98% restored
The interior looks equally up to the task, featuring cloth upholstery and a ton of ’80s plastic. The seller claims the car to be 98% restored, and we can see elements of the work remaining to be done in the wavy door cards and intrusive aftermarket speakers. Oddly, the head unit in the dash appears to be the old-school AM/FM/cassette, which is perhaps a good thing. The back seat and surrounding trim are missing in the interior pics, so work is required there as well.
We don’t get to see under the hood in the ad’s pics, but it should be a familiar sight. This being a 5.0 GT means there’s a 302 CID Windsor V8 in residence. In this model year, the GT offered port fuel injection for a healthy 200 horsepower and 285 pound-feet of torque. Backing that up, as the gods intended, is a five-speed Borg-Warner manual feeding an 8.8-inch live axle rearend. Brakes are discs up front and drums in the back, and as this is a totally analog car, there’s no ABS, traction control, or any other sort of electronic nannies to lean on when things get squirrelly.
Mustang money
Despite—or perhaps directly because of—the Foxbody Mustang’s reputation for cheap seat thrills, many have gone down the path of suffering sometimes questionable owner-mods, or worse, have been beaten until nearly dead. This clean title convertible is a notable exception, offering an almost all-original experience or a clean sheet for a new owner’s vision of a more modern performance pony. The asking price for either option is $14,000.
What do you think about this eighties icon and that asking price? Does that feel like a fair deal to get some 5.0 time? Or is this Mustang just too musty to ask that much?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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