A Mustang Cobra II was the fourth Mustang my family owned, and the third that I got to drive. Our first was a 1965 2+2, which we owned before I reached driving age. But Dad took that car up to an indicated 100 mph, legally in the day on Nevada highways, with the entire family AND our cat inside.
I passed my driving test on my 16th birthday, and was rewarded by getting to drive the family's Grabber Orange 1970 Mustang fastback, as they were called colloquially at the time, to high school that same day. I was originally sad when my parents traded it in on a new Mustang, but as that was a '72 convertible in Grabber Green with the matte black "351 Ram Air" hood -- a pair of solenoids opened the intakes when you engaged the automatic transmission's kickdown feature -- I soon got over losing the George Follmer lookalike.
Then we got a black-and-gold Cobra II liftback/hatchback, the same colors as the GT-350H. The 302 was significantly less energetic than that in the '70 (even though the '70 had just a 2bbl carb and the base V8, not the Boss version). But it was lighter, shorter, and much nimbler than the '72 convertible. Still, it put the "sick transit" in "sic transit gloria mundi." But it DID have an 8-track cassette player.
In the Nineties and early 2000s, I used to daydream about finding a non-rusty Mustang II and doing a full crazy, handling-oriented restomod to it: crate motor, Tremec, aluminum-paneled interior and cage, IRS, the works. Just to make people's heads explode. The way the market is today, if I HAD done that, I could probably sell it for enough to buy a new Kia... Yeah, okay, that's not something I regret not doing.
Great read, and yes, Burt's upper lip was EXACTLY the image I had when I read "mustache muscle." At least it didn't evoke his Playgirl centerfold.
