Fox On The Run

John Maguire’s ’79 Mustang Cobra Has Been an Evolutionary Work in Progress Since High School

- John Machaqueiro

The late ’60s was the golden age of the muscle car from Detroit, and the Mustang one of its brightest stars. At that time, anything branded with the “Cobra” designation went hand in hand with big cubes and horsepower, but by the mid-’70s the best that Ford could do to keep the name alive was to slap it on the fangless Mustang II King Cobra. With the introduction of the Fox-body platform in 1979, the neutered Cobra name continued as little more than a trim package that was available with either a turbocharged 2.3L four-cylinder or a 5.0L V-8.

The upside of this time period—one that lasted well into the ’80s—was that the remnants of that golden era could be purchased dirt cheap, and most youngsters looking for a performance car had plenty to choose from. That’s what a then 14-year-old John Maguire had his eyes on back in 1988—his uncle’s brother-in-law’s banged-up ’69 Mach 1. “It had been sitting for years and that was supposed to be my first car,” he recalls. “I went out there one day and the car was gone.” With the ’69 behind him, his focus shifted to a ’79 Mustang Cobra equipped with a 5.0L V-8 and a four-speed manual. That didn’t quite work out too well either because his dad ended up buying it to use as a daily driver. While he did manage to keep it in the Ford family, a well-worn Ford F-150 ended up being his first ride.