Gadgetory

ah why am I doing this there is no way to do a definitive top 5 list of Mustangs but the best you can do is take 5 great ones and leave out 10 more great ones but let me give it a swing I'm Brian Cooley with my top 5 list of Mustangs by their magnitude of legacy here we go number 5 the 69 boss 302 built to answer Camaros growing threat to the Mustang the small-block boss was a 302 Windsor block with 351 cleveland heads that's for geek speek for a great breathing engine fake side scoops were taken out a blackout hood deck and rear transom was put in and fastback was the only body style they made just 1,600 of these so they were almost instantly collectible flash-forward today and that first boss inspired the modern boss 302 which is my favorite current production mustang number 4 the 67 Mustang Fastback the 67 was the first restyle of the original mustang but it became really famous in its own right for being flown driven by Steve McQueen in Bullitt often still credited as having the greatest chase scene ever film flash-forward and you can thank this dark Highland Green fastback for inspiring the great film chase era bullet in 68 French Connection in 71 and the 7 ups in 73 all of which by the way were either choreographed driven or both by Bill Hickman the guy driving the black charger in bulletin number 3 the 79 Mustang this was the dawn of the Fox Body Mustang named for the internal code of its underlying platform it rescued Mustang from the doldrums of mustang 2 and became arguably the most popular generation of Mustangs ever running for some 15 years flash forward today and you can thank that car for the Mustang period because had the 79 to 93 car flopped Ford might have gone ahead with its planned replacement for the Mustang the front-wheel drive car we came to know as the probe number two the 65 Shelby gt350 this was the first year you could get a Mustang that had Carroll Shelby's touch in a unique partnership between a car maker and a hot-rodder with more power better brakes and just one color white with blue stripes the 306 horsepower original Shelby was high on grit and low on BS flash forward today and the modern era of Shelby Mustangs are much responsible for reigniting the big-block muscle car wars are Renaissance that includes Camaros and challengers the number one Mustang of course is the first Mustang the 64 and a half or 65 no car ever had this pop-culture appeal sales were predicted to be about a hundred thousand in the first year that actually happened in three months and a million of the one out the door in eighteen months these Mustangs were very simple built up from a lot of Ford Falcon parts to be honest but with a look and a role in the industry that made them something of the iPhone of their day a must have great design icon that changed things forever flash-forward today and any time you see a sporty affordable four seat car with a shortish deck and long ish hood there's a little debt to be paid to the original Mustang for more top fives like this stay on top of high-tech cars and modern driving at CNET on cars.com i'm brian Cooley thanks for watching you