TThe Ford Mustang got off to a flying start in the 1960s when it became the fastest-selling car of all time – a record it still holds – before losing its way in the 1980s and becoming, for a while, another grim American “compact”. “. In 2015, Ford woke up and had the sense to fit a grunting 5.0-liter V8 engine, called the Coyote, and reshape the car to look more like its muscular ancestor. The Mustang got its mojo back and Ford started selling it around the world, including right-hand drive models in the UK.
Now Ford has updated it again. The distinctive three-stripe taillights are complemented by triple-arrangement LED headlights that give it a more racing look. The press release claims that there is a “new 5 liter V8”, but when I looked under the hood, it is still a Coyote engine. It was tweaked to bring more oomph to the North American market, but unfortunately it was slightly out of tune in Europe. A cynic might say that the car was upgraded less for refinement and more to stay one step ahead of safety and emissions regulations.
To verify this, I took it for granted: the essential pieces are still there. A tap on the throttle in Sport mode opens the exhaust flap, making the Mustang sound less like a pony and more like a bloated rhinoceros. Above 4000rpm the car wakes up and gallops towards the 7500rpm redline – with a starting price of £55,725 it must surely be the cheapest way to experience real V8 thrills, especially in a convertible where you get the full soundtrack.
So what has changed? I’ve been experimenting with what PR calls an “immersive digital experience” and wondered if the windshield would turn into a huge augmented reality display on which I could recreate the most famous car chase in cinema – from the movie Bullittrepresenting the predecessor to the 1968 Mustang. But no, the tiny head-up display only showed speed signs and speed limits and told me I was going too fast.
The PR bumf also trumpets a “digital cockpit,” for which we read a “big screen” comprising a 12.3-inch instrument panel and a 13.2-inch infotainment panel. One neat trick is that if you don’t like the modern instrument graphics, you can go for the dials recreated from the classic 1979 Mustang “Fox body” and with the free 1967 Fastback wireless upgrade. The climate control buttons are on a permanent bar at the bottom of the center screen , so you don’t have to look for them in the menus, and there’s — hallelujah — a physical knob for stereo volume.
Unfortunately, Ford has replaced the handbrake with an electronic replacement called a “drift brake,” which sounds sporty but is basically bucking the trend among manufacturers to do away with conventional handbrakes altogether – likely to be gone by the end of the decade.
So the all-new Mustang complies with stricter regulations, but does nothing new. And that’s good. It’s still a big, brazen throwback – a holdover from the days of movies like Vanishing point (1971, Dodge Challenger), Gone in 60 seconds (1974, Ford Mustang) and Smokey and the Bandit (1977, Pontiac Trans Am) — when the cars were fast and loud and, of course, ran on flammable liquid so that the movie theater chases ended as they should, with a crash and a giant fireball.
That’s why Ford parked a 1968 GT Fastback—the kind Steve McQueen used to chase a Dodge Charger through the hills of San Francisco. Bullitt — at the end of the line of modern Mustangs at the launch of a new version. It’s as close as the company has come to admitting that if it weren’t for its cinematic legacy, the Mustang would likely have followed the likes of the Falcon and Thunderbird into extinction. This car is the keeper of the eternal flame not only for Ford, but perhaps for internal combustion cars as we know them.
In the age of fuel efficiency, ultra-low emission zones, 20mph speed limits, can the government’s Marxist showroom tax on new cars costing more than £40,000 survive? It’s the Big Mac and fries in the world of healthy garden salads. Its five-litre engine isn’t what you’d call frugal – although it gets better fuel economy than the outgoing model – and there’s no electrification. Its excellent 10-speed automatic or 6-speed manual transmission with adaptive downshifts is a welcome change from the continuously variable gearbox that has become standard in so many hybrids. The grip of the car is impressive and you can throw it into corners, maybe not with abandon, but certainly with the confidence that everything will not go sideways.
It’s as loud, fast and loud as can be under EU rules, which have made the ride a cacophony of bongs and horns if you go even 1mph over the speed limit. The great age of the automobile is coming to an end, and soon there will be nothing like it. Maybe it’s time to buy one and lock it away in your garage. Then, on a clear day, find an open road and ride towards the horizon like Kowalski Vanishing point.