On some of the car hobby websites people often joke about spec Mirage lol. Cheap shitcans would make for good racing, that's why a lot of the small tracks have the FWD four-banger classes now, it's cheap to get into, no one is going fast enough to get killed, and because it's cheap there's usually a lot of shenanigans on track.
Fox bodies....I actually prefer the looks of the Capri. A bubble -back RS is on my list of "lottery cars", because I'd want a collection of oddballs, not a bunch of supercars.
Lighter front end: that's why the Fix-body SVO Mustang handles better than the GT. I had that same 2.3 turbo in a 88 TBird Turbo Coupe, it was a better handling car than you might expect it be.
Premium gas: that TBird had a switch for regular or premium, it would slightly change the mapping for the fuel you used. It also had an early version of automatically adjustable suspension. It really was a neat car, one of the few I have owned that I truly miss. One of those is also on my lottery list, but I'd do a build with a the 2.3 Ecoboost, more power and smoother but still in the spirit of the original.