(August 13, 2015) DENVER — Ford's Mustang is a global icon, and in many minds, the Mustang is synonymous with performance. Yet when looking at 50 years of peak horsepower output, Ford's Mustang has struggled to surpass the performance levels set all the way back in 1971. 

BlueSpringsFordParts.com has charted the Mustang's peak horsepower levels from the 1964 1/2 model year on, and the chart clearly shows that the second, third, and fourth generation Mustang very much lived in the shadow of the first-generation 1971 Mach 1 429 Cobra Jet. Much of the fifth generation Mustang did as well.

"A lot of younger Mustang enthusiasts don't remember the 70s and 80s, but I do," says Kyle Harris of Blue Springs Ford Parts.com. "While the Mustang II and the Fox body will always have a special place in my heart, they never compared to the late 60s Mustangs in terms of performance. In fact, it wasn't until the fifth generation Mustang that performance finally got back to the levels we remember from decades ago," says Harris.

The Mustang horsepower history chart shows how the first generation Mustang's top rated engine — the 429 Cobra Jet — was the highest rated Mustang engine for nearly 30 years. It wasn't until the 2000 Cobra R — a special edition Mustang limited to a run of 300 vehicles — that Ford surpassed the 375 horsepower rating of the '71 429. Even then, the Cobra R was rated only 10 horsepower higher than the engine from 1971.

“It's hard to imagine that Ford would produce an engine in 1971 that couldn't be equaled in terms of horsepower output until 29 years later," says Harris.

"It's particularly amazing in contrast to today's marketplace, where every car seems to get more powerful every year. A lot of people don't realize Mustang performance dropped off substantially in the 70s and 80s. Even Mustangs in the 90s weren't as great as the cars from the late 60s, at least in terms of horsepower," explains Harris.

The biggest drop in Mustang horsepower occurred at the 1974 launch of the Mustang II, which was initially offered without a performance engine option. While engine power was upgraded in 1975, the max horsepower rating of the Mustang stayed below 150 hp until 1982. This was four years after the 1978 debut of the 3rd generation Fox body Mustang.

It wasn't until 1995 that Ford offered a Mustang with more than 300 hp, and it wasn't until 2011 when Ford offered a Mustang that exceeded the power levels of the 2000 Cobra R or 1971 Mach One 429 Cobra Jet — a 40 year time span with only one Mustang that exceeded the high water mark from 1971.

All in all, Ford has only offered engines that exceeded the 1971's 375 horsepower output in seven of the last 44 years.