The introduction of the 1979 Ford Mustang, the inaugural stanza of the fifteen-year Fox body platform run, was much less heralded upon its arrival than it would be if the car’s designers had the benefit of  foresight to see what the Fox would do for Ford Motor Company, automotive performance, and  the Mustang nameplate in general. The Ford bigwigs of the time did manage to get the car scheduled to be the Pace Car in the Indy 500, which was a much bigger deal 34 years ago than it is today.

In that era, the 500 was carried on a tape-delay basis, and ABC color announcer (and legendary Formula One driver) Jackie Stewart was selected to drive the Pace Car at the start of the race. Ford leveraged that status into a full-on thirty second spot to promote the newly-designed machine – and it paid off in spades. The 1979’s sales numbers totaled nearly 370,000 units. That surpassed the final year of Mustang II production by nearly 150,000 delivered cars, 10,478 of which carried the Pace Car replica badging.

The real Pace Car engines were built by none other than Jack Roush, and wore a set of high-performance cylinder heads along with a Boss 302 camshaft and crankshaft.

Those of you who are Four-Eye fans will appreciate the view on this one. Heck, anyone who’s a Mustang fan should enjoy the video. The view was a lot simpler in those days, and getting the chance to see our favorite ponycar on the banked oval at Indy in Stewart’s hands is a treat. T-tops not included – as they weren’t even an offering in the Fox sales guide until 1981.