Chip Foose Draws a Car: What if Carroll Shelby Designed a Fox-body Mustang? (Hagerty)
The Fox-body Mustang was in production from 1979–93, a revolutionary time period in automotive history. By 1987 the 5.0-liter Mustang benefited from technology we now take for granted, including sequential multi-port fuel injection and aerodynamic flush-mount headlights for lower drag. On top of that, revised emissions controls finally allowed impressive performance.
The Fox-body Mustang was available as a convertible or as a hatchback, but the notchback, the third body style available, was the cheapest, lightest, and stiffest variant. The notchback is now one of the most popular and desirable versions of the Fox-body generation. Let’s see how it takes the subtle tweaks from Chip Foose’s pen.
Chip starts by drawing a Fox-body notch from a roughly front-three-quarter perspective, adding a modest spoiler, a revised quarter window, and a mild ground-effects kit. Before the Fox-body Mustang’s heyday, Lee Iacocca left Ford for Chrysler and took his relationship with Carroll Shelby with him: Chip imagines what could have been if Shelby stuck around to enhance factory Mustangs instead of turbo Chryslers. The proposed Shelby Fox-body Mustang includes wheels that are similar to the 1967–68 Shelby aluminum alloys but are larger and yield a better stance. Foose decks out the Mustang with racing stripes, a more aggressive front bumper, a hood scoop, and graphics befitting the Shelby brand.
It’s a shame that Carroll Shelby couldn’t make a Fox-body Mustang. Did Chip make one worthy of the legendary name?
(image credit: Chip Foose)
