"Real Teal"

Greg Montoya's '93 Cobra 

    Your humble author will be the first to admit that I am a fox body Mustang Melvin. If you aren't familiar with the term, it means I am a font of useless knowledge, and have been known to quote paint codes and production numbers from memory. Here at Foxcast Media central, we were noticing a trend in our feature cars being seriously over the top. We still get blown away by the cars we thumb through when choosing each weeks feature car. With all of the big turbos, smooth engine bays, and custom interior; we wanted to change it up a bit. As the years pass and the fox gets older, a trend toward clean stock foxes is emerging. Now granted, part of what makes a fox body Mustang so wildly popular is the ease of modification, and how well the cars respond to them. Some owners think its a waste to leave them stock, while others appreciate them just as Ford made it. This is nothing new in the car guy sphere, as any car gets older owners become more nostalgic, and want to return them to stock.  

    I tend to go both ways on the subject. Meaning that variety is the spice of life, and that's what keeps things interesting. The '93 Cobra is one that has an even hotter debate as they are few in numbers. Most of them are bone stock and never get driven, to preserve the breed. There are however others that are full custom, race cars, and so on. When I stumbled on Greg Montoya's '93 I was intrigued that it fell somewhere in the middle. No it isn't built, but it also isn't bone stock, or even low miles for that matter. 

   Greg is the fifth owner of this snake, and she rocks 126k miles, not that you could tell. The car has received some choice mods like Maximum Motorsports suspension, BBK headers, X pipe, cat back, Centerforce clutch, and mild cam. This makes #1960 a good "Driver". If you ever watch the big car auctions, they refer to cars that aren't perfect, but extremely nice, as good drivers. Meaning you can take the car out and enjoy it, instead of letting it languish under a cover. I must say that getting this car out and hitting some back roads sounds like more fun. Not only that, but you won't get sweaty palms as you watch the odometer climb. 

     Yes #1960 has some miles on the clock, but you wouldn't know it to look at it. The paint is flawless, the lines are laser straight, and the wheels are mint. With only slight wear on the driver's seat, and a bit of sag on the map pockets; this car could easily pass for half of the miles. The quarter glass are also near perfect, the ashtray door works, and the original headlights show no signs of yellowing. Let us not forget that every VIN tag is right where it should be; all bases covered. 

   Despite my deep Melvin leanings, I would love to modify this car. Quality parts like big brakes, suspension, wheels, and a little extra grunt under the hood would be perfect. Keeping the exterior as true to form as possible, while adding the goods where it counts. This method was appropriately named by the editors of 5.0 Magazine: "Foxrod". 

    So this one goes out to you fox body Mustang Melvins. The callers of the paint codes, the nazi of the emblem placement, the VIN tag hunter, and ashtray door inspectors. We love all of those foxes, from stocker to rocker. The time has come where people start getting nostalgic and all choked up about a clean survivor fox, being reminded of their younger days. For the younger generations, they need to see the history, and heritage of these cars. They aren't all heavily modded, or race cars; there is a legacy here. CR