THE ACCIDENTAL GAME-CHANGER

YOU’LL RECALL THAT IN THE MID-1980S, Ford planned on retiring the Fox-body rear-drive Mustang altogether, opting instead to put the legendary name on a sporty front-drive coupe that shared its greasy bits with Mazda. For fans of the legendary pony car, who had already suffered the austerity of the ’70s with the Mustang II (its underpinnings shared with the subcompact Pinto), front-wheel drive and Mazda guts were a step too far. Grassroots letter-writing campaigns were organized. Crowds carrying flaming torches converged on Dearborn. Ford, in a rare instance of actually reading the room, let the Mustang live on virtually unchanged through the end of the 1993 model year. Meanwhile, the front-drive would-be Mustang replacement launched as the Probe.

As much as the idea of the Probe wearing a Mustang badge may cause pony fans to shudder, it was an idea that might have