According to a friend back home in Britain, the waiting list for a new Ford Mustang is such that it will be at least a year between putting down a deposit and picking up your keys. And that’s in a country that has for decades spurned American muscle cars for writing cheques they couldn’t cash, and unable to go around corners. Meanwhile, my friend, after seeing a few photos on Facebook of this one I’ve been driving, has decided it’s worth the wait. It’s that kind of car.
I’ve had the key to this yellow model for a week, and there’s no denying it: I have fallen deeply in love with it and don’t want to give it back. Obviously the Mustang is a familiar sight in the Middle East, with the region’s fondness for Americana and a good bargain, but the new one, in the right colour combination, still manages to turn heads wherever it goes in the UAE, a country notorious for having seen it all. It’s understandable – I mean, just look at it. If you whipped away the galloping-horse badges and Ford logos, and replaced them with the wings of Aston Martin, while telling everyone it was the DB9’s replacement, you could probably present a convincing case. It really is that gorgeous.
The previous generation, as popular as it was, always looked a bit awkward to my eyes, particularly around its rear flanks, but I can’t fault this thing. I’d own one just to be able to look at it each day. The story isn’t quite so successful on the inside (although it’s light years ahead of its predecessors), with a retro dash design that just about works internationally, but it’s let down by some cheap materials and switchgear. Then again, you could buy two of these for the price of the cheapest Porsche 911, so you should expect at least some compromise.
Fit and finish is equal to Ford’s best products in Europe, which means it’s very good indeed. And there’s practicality in the mix, too, with a cavernous boot and entirely usable rear seats. Spying the “Isofix” logo on them, I even manage to use the Mustang to bring my newborn son home from hospital, and the bulky baby seat nestles in there with room to spare.
But this is a motoring icon unlike any other, not some family runabout, and the Mustang enjoys a production history stretching back to 1964. It has always offered style, grunt and affordability, and this, the new GT, keeps that tradition alive and well, but brings with it previously unheard of engineering and technology. On the face of it, it’s a car with universal appeal.
Underneath the bulbous and blistered bonnet, with its scoops and bulges, lies a V8 engine that displaces 5.0L and generates 441hp and 542Nm. Putting that power and torque to the road is a rear-wheel drive transmission with either a six-speed manual or automatic gearbox, and to give the new Mustang some credibility in Europe and beyond, it now comes with independent suspension both front and rear. If you want the looks but not the thirst, instead of the V8, you can opt for a 3.6L V6 or even a turbocharged 2.3L four-cylinder, and the car is available in either “fastback” form or convertible – never have “pony” customers had such choice.
In my week with the car, I drive it on motorways, back roads, congested city streets and epic mountain routes that would leave its ancestors flailing in the dirt after careering off course in clouds of tyre smoke and failed attempts at correcting uncontrollable oversteer with armfuls of opposite lock. And at no point do I find myself wishing I’m driving anything else.
The engine sounds magnificent – a deep baritone rumble that ascends into a full-on roar when the taps are opened – and provides tremendous thrust, particularly when the automatic gearbox is knocked into sport mode. Left to its own devices, it’s this gearbox that becomes the Mustang’s only weakness, feeling a bit recalcitrant at times and lethargic. If it was my choice, I’d opt for the manual, no question about it.
Cornering is flat and true, the new suspension managing to disguise the car’s physical dimensions and weight, while the limited slip differential means tyre smoking shenanigans are there if you actually want them (and you will, from time to time). And the Brembo brakes are more than up to the job of wiping off huge speed in an instant, too, completing the Mustang’s incredible transformation from industry joke to genuinely astonishing performance car.
The Mustang’s rivals are also becoming better with each generation, with Dodge’s Challenger and Charger, as well as Chevrolet’s Camaro, baying for blood, and this means traditional muscle car buyers are now spoiled for choice. But what this new Ford does is take the fight to the Europeans in a way that the others haven’t yet managed. And after my week-long fling, I’ve made up my mind: I’m buying one – exactly the same as this – with yellow paint and those beautiful alloy wheels, but with a manual gearbox, please. I never thought I’d live to say those words, but trust me: it’s that good.
motoring@thenational.ae
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