Car of the Week: 1984 Ford Mustang G.T. 350

[dodgechargerfan]

A little late late this week.


If there is such a thing as a list of underrated “sleeper” cars in Mustang circles, Jim Dombrowski figures his dandy 1984 convertible certainly belongs.

Fox body Mustangs from 1979-1993 were wildly popular in their day and are still omnipresent in the collector car hobby. They remain among the most obtainable, most affordable and best “bang-for-your-buck” feel-good cars around for Gen Xers who loved them during their youth.

Certainly one of the sharpest and most collectible offerings of the Fox body era was the 1984 20th Anniversary G.T. 350, which was built in small numbers during a six-week window back in the spring of 1984. Ford apparently didn’t have any big plans to make a big splash for the Mustang’s 20th birthday, but company brass changed their minds in time to crank out 5,260 special editions that carried a host of cool goodies and options to make them unique — including the G.T 350 moniker made famous by Carroll Shelby in the late 1960s. The trouble with the plan was that Shelby was working for Lee Iacocca at Chrysler in 1984 and owned the rights to the G.T. 350 name. A lawsuit ensued and things got ugly between the sides for a time, but the limited run of cars was still warmly received by those who received them.

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[68R/T]

Blech !! :dgt:

 

[71ChargerRT]

Nothing to see here, move along...

 

[TheIronSausage]

That's a malaise era turd that Ford polished.

This is a sleeper.. yeah, it's a chevy, but Mike Musto, the presenter is a mopar guy
[video=youtube;96Hv_jRQMv8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Hv_jRQMv8[/video]

 

[Not A Duster]

I think they are ugly as hell, and I would never want to own one, but those little fox body mustangs were the ONLY way to go fast in a V8/RWD manner off the showroom floor at that time. A cheap & readily available supply of aftermarket parts meant you could crank up the fun factor on a blue collar budget. Something that both GM and Mopar had both abandoned at that time... Firebird/Camaro were expensive dogs, and all Ma offered were tweaked FWD 4 bangers that cost more than a 5 litre mustang..

I can understand why they are/were so popular. A lightweight & nimble chassis with a snotty V8. Nowadays you see lots of them racing with chevvy LS power, allowing guys with families & bills to pay to have fun while still feeding their kids.

 

[TheIronSausage]

I know, I know.. Cheap rear wheel drive v8. Every trust fund twit at my high school got one when they were 16.. I can hear flowmaster 40s a mile away now.

 

[69.5CUDA]

friend of mine had one.....but..she had been done another direction..i belive his was an 87?..but the COUPE ie not the hatch not the fastback..something with a REAL back window...cobra brakes big gnarly suspension i built the 302 for him..worlds 5 speed...it was a BONE SHAKER and an animal...with stock cobra wheels...and a simple white body....sleeper..oh hell yes

do i like em...meh..they are fords 350 chevy in body form

 

[Dr.Jass]

The GT350 had nothing to do with the Mustang's 20th anniversary, as it was also available in 1983 in the exact-same guise.
As far as this car being fast, a sleeper, or easily modified with readily available speed parts, none is the case. By Ford's own admission several years later, all Mustang 5.0s were overrated by 20HP, resulting in that year's car (1990? '91?) being downgraded to 205HP even though nothing had changed. That means this ass wart had only 10HP over the faster, nimbler Turbo GT and SVO cars while being significantly heavier. Any Chrysler Turbo car of the same vintage will show this thing its taillights, and woe to it if it comes up against an '84 Z/28 with the L69 305. I'm not sure what's "sleeper" about a pig-slow car with loud graphics and alloy wheels, unless you preface "sleeper" with "reverse". Instead of sneaking up on people, you're simply scaring off the uneducated. As far as modifications, to my knowledge there never were any speed parts for the shitty speed-density CFI 5.0, and even the higher-horsepower four-barrel cars still had EEC-III which meant the carb feedback circuits didn't allow the usual mods and the ignition timing was completely locked out. Turds, the whole lot of 'em. This is truly a car only a dweeb with no interest in performance would love.
The Mustang got the easily-modified mass-air multiport engine in '86, but didn't really hit its stride until the awful '87 restyle. It wasn't cheap, though, particularly considering it was a rickety shitbox on an already-ancient platform. And although those later EFI engines took to mods like a duck on a junebug, the parts were far from cheap at the time--especially with a car payment hanging over your head and a voided warranty to consider. The parts really didn't get to be "cheap" until the pre-SN95 Fox platform was near the end of its production life.
Even a stripper LX 5.0 5-speed with the back seat and spare removed would get its ass handed to it by a 350 GM F-car with a passenger and the AC on, by the way. Saw it too many times in person and read too many comparison road tests to delude myself that it wasn't the case. By the time you bought enough "cheap" speed parts to win, your glorified Fairmont cost about the same as a 350 RS, your warranty was void, and the Camaro guy was on a date with your girlfriend while you were installing yet another new T-5.