Last month I talked about the Chevy Camaro: more specifically, I talked about seven of the best Camaros ever, and three of the worst. This time around, I wanted to give another model the same treatment. It’s the turn of the Mustang to go under the microscope. As the first spectacularly succesful pony car, it’s got a hell of a reputation to live up to whenver a new model comes out. Not all of the Mustangs are capable of this, however. A handful are right clunkers, whether due to appalling aesthetics, mechanical problems, or plain sluggish performance. In this article, we’ll look at seven reasons the Mustang has its reputation, and three times it blotted its copybook.

1967 Shelby GT500

Now you may have noticed that I never specified that these cars had to be Ford Mustangs, and this is the main reason for that. Whether the Shelby Mustangs can truly be considered Fords is up in the air. Yes, they are derived from the Ford car, but they were built by Shelby, at the time known for being a constructor firm in the world of racing. This is essentially the McLaren F1 of Fords, and it acts like it too. The GT500, when it rolled out in 1967, was the most incredible Mustang the world had ever seen. The car packed a 428ci Cobra V8, essentially a civilian version of the monstrous 427ci V8 which powered Shelby-American’s GT40s to first and second place in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.

While “no replacement for displacement” is still a potent slogan, the car’s more than just a big engine. This car has the whole package. Just look at these pictures and tell me it doesn’t still look better than just about any modern cars. As well as looking gorgeous, it was forward-thinking. It was the first production car which came with a rollover bar as standard. The 140 mph speedo conjured images of NASCAR and Le Mans in all who drove it. This was not a car that you could step into without having your love of driving refreshed again and again, however bad your day may have been, whatever you were doing, you were going to enjoy getting there. It’s an experience as much as a car, and exactly what the Mustang should be.