26. Ford Mustang II King Cobra (1978)
The second generation of the Ford Mustang debuted in 1974 and was on the market for four years until 1978. Despite the fact it was the subject of so many jokes and bad press, the Mustang II was actually a very important model. The downsizing of the whole Mustang range, the introduction of four-cylinder engines, and part sharing with other Ford models helped the model survive the recession of the ’70s and the death of the muscle car movement (via Mustang Specs).
But all of that doesn’t mean that there were no exciting Mustangs between 1974 and 1978; they just were pretty slow. There was one particularly interesting model, and this was the special edition King Cobra. Ford knew that their 5.0 V8 engine made only 140 hp in Mustang II, and the performance was very slow, but they also knew that by dressing up the car, they could attract some buyers.