As a product of the 80’s, we have a profound respect for the decade that brought us the death of disco and the rise of fuel injection. The 1980’s brought performance back to cars with evolving technology that allowed for reasonable gas mileage and respectable performance. The Ford Mustang was at the vanguard of the performance revolution, leading the way with the rare-but-powerful Mustang SVO.

This morning we came across this classic commercial for the 1983 Ford Mustang, and we hope you get as much of a kick out of it as we did.

For 1983 Ford made a series of changes to the Ford Mustang, chief among them the addition of a convertible model after a ten-year absence. The GT model also got a new intake manifold and 4-barrel carb, boosting horsepower to 175 ponies. The 2.3 liter turbocharged SVO model only offered 145 horsepower, and cost a substantial amount more, one reason why it ended up selling so few units.

But Ford did try to sell the turbo Mustang idea, that’s for sure. The “sophisticated technology” of the Mustang SVO was supposed to be the big draw, but at the end of the day most Americans wanted cheap performance. Ford is rumored to be bringing the SVO Mustang back with a turbo 2.3 once more…hopefully this time it will fare better.