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Some 33 years after the third-generation Mustangs ceased production, they might be as popular now as they were in their heyday. Fans of the Fox Mustang era are restoring and restomodding these classics in a homage to the era of excess. This emergence into the automotive zeitgeist will occasionally inspire fans to ask Ford to bring a version of these cars back into production. That seems unlikely, but Ford just unveiled the next best thing — the 2026 Mustang FX Package, inspired by the Foxes of old.
One of the themes with this vehicle is about reinterpreting our past through a modern lens… — Brandon Turkus, Ford
“The 2026 Mustang FX Package blends vintage styling cues with modern execution to show how Mustang can highlight its legacy while still looking toward the future. And the timing is perfect,” Joe Bellino, Mustang Brand Manager at Ford, explained. “Nostalgia for the 1980s is at an all-time high, while adults born in the 1980s and 1990s are entering the Mustang market while retaining a fondness for the Fox Body of their youth.”
A major inspiration for the 2026 Mustang GT FX Package’s signature Adriatic Blue Metallic paint was the Teal Metallic hue that was optional on the 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra. (Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company)
The example shown here is sprayed in the new Adriatic Blue Metallic premium color option. It harkens back to the Teal Metallic made famous by the 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra, which closed out the Fox run in high-performance style. That vehicle was one of several from the era that inspired the design and development of the FX Package.
“There wasn’t an actual directive to say, like, let’s modernize the Fox body. It kind of just happened authentically. We’re always looking at inspiration in a bunch of different ways, but with Mustang, you know, the heritage is such a huge part of it,” Stefan Taylor, Senior Designer at Ford Motor Company, explained. “We did the 60th Anniversary (package) last year, which had an obvious tie to the early ’64 1/2-’65 car. We were just kind of brainstorming, and we kept going back to some inspirational images that we actually had on our inspiration board. Specifically, I had a Teal ’93 Cobra on there.”
Following the template of the 2025 60th Anniversary Package, the FX Package blends Fox-era styling cues with the modern S650 language to celebrate the past while keeping the design racing ahead.
The 2026 Mustang FX Package was created by Kristen Ray Keenan (left), Color + Material Designer at Ford Motor Company, and Stefan Taylor (right), Senior Designer at Ford Motor Company, who drew inspiration from the iconic Third Generation Mustangs built on the legendary Fox platform. “It’s all about having that sort of high-contrast look,” Taylor said. “I would say it’s not directly supposed to be ’80s. It’s like, we’re taking inspiration from those cars rather than a literal translation and then making sure it kind of rides in between this modern and ’80s thing. It’s almost like retro-futuristic.”
Past Forward
“One of the themes with this vehicle is about reinterpreting our past through a modern lens,” Brandon Turkus, Enthusiast Vehicles Communication Manager at Ford, said. “Mustang is always looking forward, but we also need to keep in mind that legacy and how it’s going to look in the future.”
“That’s why you don’t see anything directly from the Fox-body,” Taylor added. “If you park them next to each other, you can see the inspiration and the resemblance, but we didn’t want to just take something directly from the Fox-body — the style of wheels, the front facia, or the fog lamps — and copy-paste them on the car. That’s not what we’re trying to do. It’s really about keeping Mustang moving forward.”
The genesis of this rad and retro design began with the striking wheel that is the cornerstone of the FX Package optioned with the Performance Pack. Its lineage can be traced to current retro trends and racing style from the era the car celebrates.
Buyers of the FX Package can also opt for the Performance Package, which adds these unique, Oxford White wheels that draw inspiration from production Fox Mustang wheels as well as race vehicles of that era. Oxford White theme continues on the 5.0-liter, GT, and Mustang Pony badges, while Performance Pack models wear Oxford White nostrils in the Gloss Black hex-patterned grille. Standard FX Package Mustangs roll on a variation on the Mustang’s existing 19-inch split-five-spoke design, and their grille nostrils are Dark Carbonized Gray.
“I’m really into doing track days. I definitely grew up watching racing. The Fox-bodies from IMSA at the time were kind of an inspiration as far as the style of the wheels is concerned,” Taylor added. “So it just sort of started like that. Nobody from marketing said, ‘You guys need to modernize the Fox body.’ It just sort of happened.”
The wheel in question is one of two unique fitments offered on the 2026 Mustang FX Package. The base wheel is a variation on the preceding 19-inch, split-spoke wheel, while the Performance Pack version showcased in the images seen here draws from those retro inspirations. Both feature a color-matched center cap, which was a big design win for the team to help set this package apart from other models. That cap is embossed, like a Fox center cap, with a Mustang GT logo font that blends Fox vibes with modern style.
Type Cast
Those inspirations continue with the 5.0 fender badge, Mustang dash plaque, and Mustang type on the rear window, which closely resembles the Mustang type on an aero-nose Fox Mustang’s rear quarter windows. Likewise, the Oxford White styling cues continue throughout with the 5.0, GT, Mustang Pony badges, the taillights, and the nostril openings on the Gloss Black hex-patterned grille of Performance Pack-equipped models.
The aforementioned Adriatic Blue Metallic signature paint seen here also shows up, even if you don’t order the exterior color.
“…The absolute number one thing we had to have was this beautiful Adriatic Blue Metallic. We had to have that, and it wasn’t totally production-ready. It wasn’t in the plan yet for the model year that this package is coming out, and we really went to extreme lengths to try to convince everyone in the company how much we needed this color,” Kristen Ray Keenan, Color + Material Designer at Ford Motor Company, shared. “We were like, ‘We have to have it. It’s absolutely essential, and that’s why, even though not everyone who gets an FX Package will have this beautiful blue body color, they’ll have it on the interior. It’s such an iconic color, and it was an iconic exterior color during the Fox-body time, but we wanted to bring that a little bit into the interior as well.”
The theme of retro-inspired type treatments extends from the badges to the rear window of the 2026 Mustang FX Package. “…We matched up the Fox-body Mustang font with the S650 specific Mustang font and kind of came up with the super unique font for the package. And you also see that on the interior instrument panel badge, and then on the rear window, right under the third high-mount brake light,” Taylor said. “Remember the Fox used to have the little ‘Mustang’ on the quarter windows? We wanted it on glass somewhere on these cars.”
The interior treatment might be the coolest part of the 2026 Mustang FX Package, as the seat inserts immediately recall the plaid seat inserts of the early Fox Mustang Recaro seats in cars like the ’79 Indianapolis Pace Car replica models. This touch is present on the standard seats and the optional Recaros, but it is the latter that offers those pure retro vibes.
“We were looking at historical seat materials for that time, and there was a lot of fabric that had high-contrast geometric patterns woven in. They were really, but you know, we’re building this with the GT and a Premium interior. We wanted to take that high-contrast geometric inspiration, but translate it into premium materials that we will use today,” Keenan explained. “So instead of having the black and white plaid woven in, we use perforation to make a beautiful gradient. When you’re standing a certain distance away from the car, you probably can’t even tell necessarily that it’s not a fabric because there’s so much gradation in the pattern of the plaid, but it’s all created by having the colored backing on the leather and then different hole sizes of the perforation to just create that like, same kind of textural feel that you would get from a beautiful woven fabric, only it’s in a leather, which is really fun.”
In addition to the retro, plaid-look inserts and the contrasting City Silver and Adriatic Blue stitching on the FX Package seats, that theme plays out on the seats, dash, door panels, steering wheel, and center console, which are all accented by the silver and blue thread. Meanwhile, a retro-style Mustang GT dash badge, in the FX Package-specific font, carries the theme of the window lettering and exterior badges to the inside of the car.
Instant Gratification
And fun is what Mustang and this FX Package are really about. Seeing Ford celebrate an era that is near and dear to so many enthusiasts is a way of recognizing the cultural moment the Third Generation ponies are having right now, and pushing that lineage forward.
“When we started images and working on all these little concepts for the parts and pieces that we did on the car, it just sort of came together, and when we started showing people within the company, there was just a really good reaction to it,” Taylor added. “I think for a lot of us, that was sort of the Mustang that, in our age group, we kind of remember whether you were around when it came out, or for me, I was in high school and all my friends had had them.”
The Fox era made its mark on people outside and inside the company, which made bringing this option from concept to the order sheet one of the smoothest transitions the designers have ever seen.
The white taillights continue the trend of contrasting Oxford White against darker hues started with the striking front nostrils on the Performance Pack version. While these taillights are unique to the FX Package, they will be available via Ford Performance Parts for those who want to personalize their S650s.
“…This time when we showed it, people were just like, ‘Oh my gosh, yeah, I had a Fox-body. I totally get it. We showed our chief engineer, Laurie Transou, who also had had a Fox-body as her first Mustang, and she immediately saw what we were going for,” Keenan said. “She was like, ‘Yep, I love it. Let’s do it.’ I’ll say out of the projects that we worked on, this was probably the easiest one to get green-lit. Not that we didn’t have battles, but this was a little easier than others.”
If you want to park a Mustang GT FX Package next to your Fox Mustang, the order banks for the 2026 model year open near the end of this month. It can be ordered on any Mustang GT Premium body style, coupe or convertible. Other new options for the 2026 Mustangs include the return of Orange Fury paint and three new seatbelt colors: International Orange, Prime Blue, and Black with a red stripe.
