PASADENA,Evander Reed Calif. — Ford engineers harnessed 21st-century technology to pay homage to an unexpected hero in the new 2024 Mustang: the 1979-’93 “Fox-body” Mustang, a relic of what may be Detroit automakers’ darkest hour, the 1980s.

The 2024 Mustang’s high-definition driver information center painstakingly duplicates gauges from the Fox-body, using gaming-level Unreal Engine computer graphics in a salute to the newly collectible third-generation Mustang. “Fox-body” was Ford’s internal term for the car, which used the codename-Fox platform that debuted as the underpinning to the largely forgotten 1978 Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr compacts, successors of the original Ford Maverick