Does the ’78 Mustang II King Cobra Deserve a Second Look?
It might’ve been the top-of-the-line second-gen Mustang, but pretty stickers on a gussied-up Pinto was a bit like lipstick on a pig.
Over the years, Ford has turned out some truly spectacular Mustangs, but along the way it’s also produced a few stinkers, comparatively speaking. If you stop to think about it, though, it’s not really too surprising that there were a few runners up along the way. With a half century-plus of Mustang production and well over 10 million sold in total, we’d be more surprised if there weren’t a few less successful creations along the way.
Perhaps understandably, it’s the classics on which our collective memories are mostly focused. It’s easy to find roundups like Road & Track’s Greatest Ford Mustangs of All Time, Motor Trend’s 11 of the Coolest Ford Mustangs Ever Made and DriveTribe’s The 10 Best Looking Mustangs Ever, all eulogizing the best of the best. In a piece published a few days ago, though, HotCars’ Aaron Young takes a different tack, remembering one of history’s lesser-loved ‘Stangs, the 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra.
When it first debuted in 1964, the Ford Mustang was an instant classic. It outsold Ford’s projections by more than four to one, and passed a million units sold within just two years. In a world of cheap gas, low unemployment, and easy money, it was just what the doctor ordered. By the time its successor arrived on the scene a decade later, though, things had changed radically — and so too had the Ford Mustang.
In some ways, 1974’s Ford Mustang II also seemed like the right car for its time. Just months after it first went on sale, the 1973 oil crisis hit, and over the next few years, US retail gas prices doubled. Ford Motor Company president Lee Iacocca seemed somehow prescient, as on his orders the second-gen ‘Stang was both smaller and more fuel-efficient. And initially, it looked like he might have made the right call: Straight out of the gate, first-year sales for the Mustang II bettered all but the 65-67 Mustang.
But it wasn’t to last. Despite its handsome looks courtesy of Italian coachbuilders Ghia, it was still underpinned by a subcompact Ford Pinto platform, and by default even shipped with the same 2.3-liter inline-four engine offered as an option to ’74 Pinto buyers. A 2.8-liter V6 borrowed from the Mercury Capri was the only alternative, meaning that for the first time in the Mustang’s history, there was no V8 option at all.
Both engines can best be described as anemic, with the 2.3L I4 turning out just 92 horsepower, and even the optional 2.8L V6 just barely matching the base inline-six in the first-gen Mustang with 105 hp. And even when a five-liter V8 made its return the following year, it still underwhelmed with just 140 hp. By way of comparison, the first-gen Mustang was available with V8s producing up to 375 hp, and even with an inline-six had been capable of up to 155 hp.
As the public realized that the Ford Mustang II was all hat and no cattle, it quickly became derided as the “Pintostang”. Sales fell by almost half in 1975, making it the fourth worst-selling model year for the Mustang to date. And there they remained, essentially stagnant, until Ford made the call to put its mistake in the rearview mirror, launching the third-gen Mustang in 1979.
On the way towards that inevitable demise, though, the company did what it could to try and goose its sales and profit margins with styling tweaks and options packages instead. These included the Cobra II in 1977, and the limited-edition King Cobra for the Mustang II’s final year in 1978.
The Cobra II was essentially just the standard Mustang II with a fake air scoop, new spoilers front, and rear, plus some badges and go-faster stripes. The King Cobra, meanwhile, turned the faux-hood scoop around to point backward, changed up the graphics and included the 5.0L V8 engine by default, as well as uprated steering and brakes. Neither brought the performance improvements Mustang fans craved.
The 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra was, says HotCars, “one of the automaker’s biggest disappointments to date” — and we have to agree. But does it deserve a second look, and does it have redeeming characteristics that can help us overlook some of its shortcomings today? That’s just the argument HotCars makes in its piece, which you can find here. It’s an interesting argument, and well worth a read!
Photos: Ford Performance / John M. Clor