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AMC had a fastback on the auto-show floor before the Mustang even existed, then handed the idea to a new CEO who scrapped it for something bigger and slower to sell. The result moved barely 17,000 units in three years, yet one six-cylinder survivor from suburban Chicago shows exactly why the story still matters — and its owner bought it in 2011 for a reason that has nothing to do with horsepower.
Ford did not simply facelift the Mustang for 1969. The company renamed the fastback body style entirely, stretched the car nearly four inches, gave it a one-year-only quad-headlight face, and launched four new models in a single season. Buyers could order anything from a mild six-cylinder commuter to a 428 Cobra Jet. Read on to find out what made the 1969 SportsRoof a genuine turning point rather than a running change.
Jay Leno gets a look at a car that shouldn’t exist by any normal logic: a brand-new 1968 Mustang GT 2+2 Fastback with Cobra Jet badging, built from freshly manufactured tooling rather than a restored donor car, and packing a modern Coyote V8 underneath period-correct steel. Watch to see how a Florida manufacturer is legally building Mustangs Ford stopped making decades ago.
Ford handed Carroll Shelby a brand-new Mustang platform in 1965 and let him tear it apart. The result was a race-ready fastback most buyers were not quite prepared for. Roughly 560 were built that first year, each one rebuilt with a stiffer chassis, a hotter 289, a deleted rear seat, and none of the compromises a regular Mustang made. Read on to find out what separated a genuine 1965 GT350 from the car it started as, and why that distinction matters so much today.
This 1965 Ford Mustang 2+2 Fastback rolls out with its rare factory red pony interior intact, a concours-style restoration, and a long list of original options most surviving 1965 cars lost decades ago. The team at MyRod walks through exactly what makes this fastback a reference-quality example rather than just another restored classic. Watch the full test drive to see what is actually loaded onto this car.
Plenty of 1967 Mustang fastbacks look completely factory at a cruise night and are hiding an engine Ford never built. The 408 stroker starts with a 351 Windsor block, opens the bores slightly, and swaps in a longer-throw crankshaft to reach 408 cubic inches — all while fitting in the same space a 289 once occupied. The result is one of the most effective sleeper combinations in the Ford world. Read on to find out how the recipe works and where two identical-looking builds end up in completely different places.
Before the Boss 302 or the Mach 1, the biggest engine a Mustang buyer could order was the S-code 390. Rated at roughly 320 horsepower and 427 lb-ft of torque, it turned the 1967 fastback into the serious performance choice a full year before the 428 Cobra Jet arrived. It also wore the exact silhouette that Steve McQueen would make famous. Here is what the GT 390 package actually included.
This 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback started life with the mildest 289 V8 Ford offered, then got rebuilt with Trick Flow heads, an Edelbrock intake, and a fresh cam to make 330 horsepower on the dyno, more than even the rare factory HiPo version ever produced. The exotic European-inspired Fastback shape hides a genuinely modern small-block underneath. Read on to see how a basic A-code engine got transformed into something the factory never built.
Cliff Batson calls himself a Chevy guy — but he’s owned this 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback in an unusual shade of Lime Gold since 1990, and it’s never left his garage. Under the hood is a drivetrain combo collectors still chase decades later, and the body shares its shape with the most famous car chase in movie history. Watch to find out why a self-described Chevy guy never let this Ford go.
Cliff Batson calls himself a lifelong Chevy guy, which makes his 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback — bought in 1990 and still in his garage today — something closer to an exception than a habit. It wears Lime Gold, a color Ford offered for only a few years, and pairs a 9-inch rear end with a top-loader manual that enthusiasts still call one of Ford’s best factory drivetrain combinations. It shares its body style with the Bullitt Mustang, minus the Hollywood color. Watch it run bone stock, three decades into one owner’s care.