I had idealised the Mustang as the very pinnacle of muscle car culture, which represents affordable performance in a sleek and desirable package.
Therefore, the four-cylinder EcoBoost soft-top with its high sticker price, muted exhaust note and lack of tangible quality inside left me disgruntled. An old adage came to mind “Never meet your heroes” which implies that meeting/driving someone or something that you’ve idolised will lead to disappointment.
This may have been true for my first Mustang experience, but recently I had the chance to drive another Mustang, this time with the 5.0-litre Coyote V8 under the bonnet, which remedied things a bit.
The pony-car in the room
Before I resume my recollection of my most recent Mustang experience, I must address an issue with local Mustang models, which is related to the fact that our market still receives the pre-facelift version whereas other global markets have had access to the updated version for quite some time.
The updated model gets a more powerful version of the V8 engine, thanks to a higher compression ratio (now 12:1 versus 11:1) as well as a larger 93mm bore, bringing the exact displacement up from 4 951 cc’s to 5 035 cc. The new model also ditches the old-school six-speed torque converter automatic for a 10-speed unit.
There’s also a host of new driver safety systems which should see the updated model perform better than the outgoing version, which achieved a dismal two-star Euro NCAP safety rating. The update also includes cosmetic changes which are, subjectively speaking, either better or worse than the pre-facelift version.
Driving Mustang
A V8 Mustang Convertible auto arrived at the Autodealer office for a road test, and I have to admit, there was still a part of me that couldn’t help but remain excited about driving the Mustang.
I fired up the big V8, which produces 306kW/530Nm, flicked the car into ‘Track’ mode and blipped the throttle to the sound of a far more acceptable roar. The V8 gives the Mustang another dimension; it changes your outlook because the engine note now matches that rather dramatic exterior.
During my week or so with the Mustang, I had many people approach me, asking about the car and what I thought about it. It wasn’t just the fact that people approached me though, it was the variety of people and their collective enthusiasm for the car that surprised me most.
The proverbial pinch of salt was how I approached my test of the Mustang because from a purely objective, journalistic point of view, it’s far from perfect. The interior quality is genuinely not impressive for a car that costs as much as it does, it’s a massive brute to manoeuvre yet struggles to seat four occupants in comfort, it lacks safety credentials and when it’s all said and done, the performance feels, well, blunt in the turbocharged, electric-infused era.
But if you put its rather obvious foibles aside, you’ll find what is essentially a throwback; a vinyl record player with a USB port if you will. You see, as an open-road cruiser, a poser-mobile and something that makes you smile each time you approach it, the Mustang delivers the muscle car goods.
Verdict
Objectively, there is certainly more performance, quality and general excellence to be had or around the R1-million mark, but there are few cars that evoke the sort of childhood wonderment that the Mustang does, regardless of age, gender, race and creed.
It is, quite simply, a cool car, a car that makes people happy not because of how it accelerates, handles or how luxurious it, but simply because it’s a Mustang.
Price: R955 800
