Owning the best of something usually have a few caveats. For one, the price tag is higher. Second, you’re often afraid to drive it. And third, any flaws – no matter how minor – stand out glaringly compared to a car with some road rash and history markers. It really comes down to to what you want to see in the garage every day, and for someone looking for the best Mustang SVO they can get their hands on, this example may be the ticket. The 1985 SVO listed here on craigslist is said to come with the full assortment of documentation from new that Mustang fanatics will love, and it has just 39,000 miles on the clock.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Curvette for the tip. The SVO is an underappreciated classic for sure, and I often wonder who the most fervent fan is of this model. Is it a Fox body enthusiast who just wishes to collect every variety of 80s-era Mustang? Or is it someone who appreciates the turbocharged years when various manufacturers were experimenting with ways to extract more power that didn’t rely solely on displacement? Or was it a love of European-inspired Ford products that made their way stateside, like the Merkur, and their impact on standard-bearers like the Mustang? There are numerous reasons why one might love the unusual and rare SVO.
When it comes to an example like this, however, a low-mileage specimens most likely appeals to the muscle car collector who has one of everything. While the SVO wasn’t necessarily subject to abuse like your standard 5.0-equipped Fox body, there seems to be an outsized amount of them that are left as half-finished projects. I suspect the allure of increased boost and other turbo-friendly modifications leads to many of these cars being taken apart and never put back together – at least not the right way. And given you can still buy a very nice SVO for not a huge amount of money (this car not included), it just makes more sense to buy a driver. The interior of this car shows you what you get for your additional dollars, however, as the seats and steering wheel – and everything else – are in mint condition.
The deeply bolstered bucket seats look like they haven’t seen much use, and I’d presume the back seats have never been sat in. The 1985 Mustang SVO is a particularly interesting car as it relates to output, since there was a significant change from 1985 to 1985.5. I’m slightly surprised the seller didn’t pick up on this, as it’s a big deal to folks who might pay top dollar for an SVO. Since it has the flush-fitting headlights, I’ll go ahead and assume that this is the more desirable 85.5 model which featured an increase in horsepower and torque to 205 b.h.p. and 280 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s a seriously cool car and one that looks like it’s worth $18,995 asking price.
No, no, not a heater core story, ( not that these are any easier) but didn’t these have those awful metric rims? Oh, that was a bad day. I was shopping for some nice wheels for my ’88 LX, a local swap meet, a guy insisted they were 15″, I think I paid $100 for all 4. Trying to mount a 15 tire, wouldn’t go. Even the tire guy was stumped, even ruined a tire trying. When I found out they were metric, and special tires needed, so I took them home, and destroyed them with a sledge hammer, so nobody else would go through that. Wheels aside, I bet this is a really nice car to drive and plenty of steam.
Wait, the ones I got were 4 bolt, but metric, now not sure where they came from.
Wait again, the wheels WERE 5 bolt like this car, and I bought them for my ’95 Mustang that had 5 bolt, 15s. I was pretty upset that day, and one of my kids saying, “whatcha’ doin’, dad”? “Makin’ things right, now stand back”,,,
The early Fox Mustangs (79-83) came with a Michelin TRX wheel option which were a Metric size that only Michelin made. All Fox Mustangs except the Turbo SVO and the 93 Cobra came with 4-lug wheels. This 85 SVO came with 16″ tires you can get anywhere.
“Makin’ things right, now stand back”. ✔️
No, they did not have the Michelin TRX setup, these were shod with Goodyear Eagle NCTs originally in 1984 and later with VR50 ‘Gatorbacks’. I do have a question, though… This car has the 85.5-86 aero headlamps but has the 1984-Early ’85 single/dual outlet exhaust. 85.5-86 cars had dual pipes out back. It would surely be nice to see pics of the VIN plate, tag or close up of the window sticker to confirm it’s build date… Anyway, it is surely a beautifully kept example. Oh wish I had the space and cash to get her…
I’m curious on its production date too.
SVE/LMR makes a reproduction 16×7 inch rim that looks like the original 1979-83 Mustang R390 TRX wheel. That’s the way to go if you have one of those early cars IMO.
However, Michelin actually now makes the TRX tires again. You can get them from Tire Rack if you want to use original rims. But for years, they were no longer available. So most people ditched the TRX rims
This, is nice, although I always wondered what good two spoilers did. Like on the Merkur, maybe just a gimmick.
For “looks” if one likes that sort of thing. They serve no other purpose as that car could never get anywhere near the speeds where a true spoiler could be useful, and you’d only need one not two.
SVO is an abbreviation for “Special Vegetable Organizer”. Your food sits on the bottom spoiler, and the dipping sauce on the top one.
I bought an SVO new off the showroom floor, the second spoiler would push the car down at about 90 MPH (it was clearly felt in the car)
Notice the second wing is more directly above the rear axle, so any downforce it generates goes more directly towards keeping the rear tires planted, whereas downforce from a more rearward wing could have a lever effect with the rear wheels as a fulcrum, potentially lightening the front end enough to make steering squirrely at high speed.
I.e., distributing wing-produced downforce across the two wings may actually increase the total effective downforce possible to apply without lightening the front end unacceptably vs. the same total downforce produced by a single, more rearward wing.
I think the second wing also smoothed out aerodynamics in the car’s wake. AFAIK, the Probe III concept car was its first appearance on a Ford, and all five Probe concepts were primarily aerodynamic studies first, styling exercises second.
The Probe III did also influence and/or preview styling of the Ford Sierra production model, where the second wing appeared on the sporting XR4i version, which of course became adapted into the Merkur XR4Ti, and the Sierra RS Cosworth variant featured an even huger mid-wing.
This probably has the ugliest front end ever stuck onto a Mustang. You’d think the stylists might have done better work on a car as “special” as this.
Bear in mind stylists were working around the constraint of the rather large and squarish headlight units shared with the Lincoln Mark VII, the very first composite flush-mount headlights certified by NHTSA as legal for the US market.
NHTSA was late in processing the certification, finalized in summer 1983, so the Mark VII launch was delayed accordingly, and the ’84 SVO debuted in April ’83 with a last-minute change to recessed sealed-beam units, finally getting the aero composite units for the ’85½ model year.
Well-written craigslist ad (how rare is that?) for what appears to be a very well-kept SVO. As Jeff notes, many of them lived their lives as “just cars” or were beat to a pulp, not unlike their Fox brethren. So to see a nice one is refreshing. They may always be kind of an underappreciated model, due mostly to being a four-cylinder— despite how good the package was overall, and that the performance was comparable to the 5.0.
Very good write-up Jeff.
If I were to buy a Fox Mustang, it would probably be an SVO (early four-eyes would be a close second).
If I were to get any 80’s Mustang I’d prefer an SVO. Always thought they were good looking cars and pretty quick to boot. This does look in real clean shape. I would have liked to have seen pics of the VIN tag, door sticker and other documents. Plus, not one engine photo?
FYI, only the ’93 Cobra R came with 5-lug wheels featuring unique 17″ rims, which later became the production wheels on the ’94 GT. All SVOs had 5-lug 16×7″ wheels. The regular ’93 Cobras had 17″ 4-lug wheels, and their front rotors were unique so they could run the same offset wheels front and rear.
This appears to be a really nice ’85 SVO with headlights updated to the Aero style found on the ‘85.5 – ’86 models. The main difference is that the ’84-’85 models had 30 less horsepower compared to the later SVOs.
I have an ’84 version and prefer the look of the later “flush” headlamps. But with an “H4” headlamp conversion, you get better lighting with the older style. Softer springs and sway bars than the 5.0 makes this a nicer car to drive providing you remove the Koni shocks and install Bilsteins. It them really feels like a BMW as far as ride is concerned. And not far off in the handling either. Yes, the Konis are adjustable, but there is no way to get even close to the feel with the Bilsteins. This is my favorite color for an SVO.