Modifying Mustangs has been around since, well, since April 17, 1964, the day the original pony car first launched. Since then, countless owners of the iconic muscle cars have worked tirelessly to make them stand out in the crowd.
For me, I’ll take a nice race-tuned Cobra in classic white with blue strips. Or, black on black is always a good choice. But then I’ve been known to take more of a utilitarian approach to Mustang mods: If it makes it go faster, improve handling or stop better, it’s good, regardless of appearance.
Sadly, not all Mustang owners share this simple philosophy. Over the years pictures have come forward of highly modified Mustangs that went wrong—way wrong. Below are some of my all-time favorites. Perhaps the most staggering point to consider is that most of these were not built on a whim, but rather through hundreds of hours of painstaking labor backed by thousands, or in some cases, dozens of dollars.
We hope you enjoy, and look forward to your comments regarding these Mustang mishaps…
Undoubtedly the best Mustang I found in my exhaustive search for the worst Pony ever. I don’t even need to say anything about the car, or bike. (I’m honestly not sure what to call it.) I just love the fact that the slew of trophies its owner is touting are standing on a board that’s supported by a trio of mini Coors Light kegs while a host of trailers sit in the background. This is more than a picture. It’s a window into the life of some seriously twisted people with too much time and raw building materials on their hands.
This wild pony is obviously the result of a healthy dose of spit and polish. The shine is impressive, though the paint scheme is questionable. More importantly, I can’t stop wondering what the robot version will be like when it’s done transforming.
This is one of my long-time favorites. At first glance I have to admit the creative talent is impressive at the very least. But given that this Bud-built Mustang was reportedly done by a young-man while away at college, I can only imagine what his father said when he found out what the second mortgage on his home has funded.
Honestly, I kinda like this one, but it’s still just wrong. So you’ve got a Mustang that’s seen a few too many winters… What are you going to do with it? Make a super mud-machine of course. Mud destroys cars. And effectively powering through it requires a ton of power, which we all know this car has got in spades. But I digress. This car was born to beat up Camaro’s on the drag strip or a winding road course, not wade through two feet deep of septic pond scum.
Okay, I know this is not a Mustang, though it clearly wants to be one. And can you blame it? But really, how much effort and money was put into making this car less than half a Mustang? I’m guessing that by the time its owner was finished with his Pony-inspired mods, he probably could have bought a real Pony. Even better is the expression on his model and/or girlfriend’s face. It’s a beautiful blend of disgust and embarrassment. Dude, even your lady knows your ride ain’t right.
This King Cobra Mustang actually rolled right out of the factory as is. And though our theme here has been poorly modded Mustangs, I checked around the office and the feeling was mutual: Thanks to the uncontrollable gag reflex that struck more than 70 percent of our staff after viewing this photo, we had to throw it in the mix. If you suffered the same gag reflex, we apologize.
I’m not sure if we were fortunate or unfortunate to have found both a front and rear shot of these matching Sonny and Cher Mustangs. We all know the famous song-and-dance duo was known for their mad love and flamboyant lifestyle, but this is really going too far. Couldn’t they have just gotten matching tattoos? At least then a divorce would only mean they would be forever stuck with each others’ name on their skin instead of having to sell their prized Pony. That would just plain suck!
This one is actually impressive in a very strange way. Stupid as it may be, the engineer (and I use that term loosely) behind this one has managed to link the steering from the motorcycle to the steering wheel. I might just question the reliability though. If I see this sad little three wheeler blazin’ down the highway next to me, I fear I’ll have to fight off the impulse to stare in wonderment, and drive quickly in another direction before the chicken wire holding the steering together snaps under pressure causing him to wish, if only for a second, that he had not cut the crumple zone off the front of his car.
This car is proof that not all Mustang mishaps start in barns far from the lights of the big city. As if from a plastic apocalypse, this metal-studded machine was sighted at the 2008 SEMA Show. Clearly its designer was trying to make a statement with this monstrosity, though I have no idea what that might be. It is possible that if Batman were looking to downgrade from the Batmobile, this might be a viable, though decidedly less effective crime-fighting option.
This is what happens when a team of infinitely-talented designers, master mechanics, and deep-pocket financiers sit in a room for hours on end and everyone in the room is afraid to raise their hand and say what they really think. Or better, everyone involved flat out refuses to listen to that all-knowing, all-important voice of reason that is screaming from the rooftops, “Don’t do it! It’s just wrong!” Deemed the Scythe by its creators Galpin Auto Sports, a growing mod shop and the prized offspring of the nation’s largest Blue Oval dealer, this was once an ’08 Mustang convertible. If you ask me, and you didn’t, it looks like a rolling coffin with a giant gun, which sounds cool until it comes out like this.
