FIRST DRIVE Iconic sports car blends V8 power with hi-tech
Steve Sutcliffe mail@autoexpress.co.uk
THE original Mustang was unleashed in the summer of 1964. In the six decades and more than 10 million sales that have followed, Ford has nurtured its iconic sports car into a best seller. This seventh-generation version has been comprehensively redesigned to celebrate the success of its ancestors, and to take the Mustang howling into the 21st century.
So while it still adheres to the traditional V8-engined, rear-driven formula that we’ve come to know and love over the years (there is no four-cylinder version for Europe this time round), the latest Mustang is, Ford claims, a sharper sports car, for a new generation of customers.
Powered by a heavily revised 5.0-litre ‘Coyote’ V8 and featuring a raft of styling upgrades inside and out, the reborn Mustang is now a fully connected car, says its creator, with a new touch-and-swipe screen that’s powered by Unreal Engine software – the sort of graphics wizardry that features on many of the world’s top computer games, we’re told.
In layman’s terms, it has a fully digitised new cabin that’s been designed loosely to replicate the feel of a fighter jet, with two big new touchscreens in place of the famous double-oval dials of old. The system is Android and Apple compatible, so although the mechanicals might be familiar – big V8, uprated suspension, huge brakes, monster 19-inch Pirelli wheels and tyres – the Mustang has been well and truly modernised inside for its probable final outing. And as a result, it looks like an awful lot of car for the money.
For your £55,725, you get 440bhp and 540Nm. This reaches the road either via a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic gearbox with a mechanical limited-slip differential taking care of traction, regardless of which gearbox you choose. You can also specify Ford’s excellent (but optional) MagneRide dampers from the more potent Dark Horse model for an extra £1,750, and there are six drive modes to choose from, including Drag and Track.
Whichever options you specify, the new Mustang GT is a genuinely quick, entertaining car – although if you can afford those optional dampers, go for them, because they’re great. With the manual transmission the car can go from 0-62mph in 5.3 seconds; the closer-ratioed auto drops this to just 4.9secs. In both cases, the top speed is limited to 155mph.
It’s probably best not to ask about things such as fuel consumption
