Even Pushing 60, the Ford Mustang Has Kept its Untamed Edge
Apart from any of its other qualities, the Ford Mustang is, primarily, a survivor.
Over 60 years, it has seen off global oil crises, cost-cutting initiatives, front-wheel-drive experiments, the SUV obsession and even our new friend, electrification.
To understand the emotional punch the Mustang still carries, it is instructive to remember how it burst onto the scene as a motoring phenomenon back in 1964.
Ford wanted a car that would appeal to the newly emerging American baby boomers: twentysomethings with money in their pockets. Designer Joe Oros was briefed to deliver something sporty, European-looking and fun.
Ford hoped to sell 100,000 cars a year. By 1968, it had already sold two million. One Detroit baker put a sign in his shop declaring: “Our hotcakes are selling like Mustangs.”
There were plenty of cultural reasons why the ‘Stang made such an impact. Not least, how its well-chosen associations with freedom and the American West played to a younger, more optimistic crowd. And its price. It was seriously cheap for the impression it left.
For that reason, perhaps not enough credit is given to its design. With its long bonnet and short tail, here was an American take on a European grand tourer that borrowed from Ferraris and Maseratis.
Its uncompromising grille pointed straight at you, like it was sitting up on its haunches in a semi-aggressive strut. Cannily not so aggressive as to scare off the professional crowd; at least until you started the V8 engine. It looked like a good time. And it sounded like one, too.
Women appeared a lot in those early adverts, and customisation was a big selling point. Perhaps things haven’t moved on that much.
It’s strange to think that this newest Mustang, now up to mark seven, has more in common with the original than some of the models in between. Time-wise they are epochs apart, but some of that early spirit is still there.
It’s huge in comparison. The original muscle car has been bulking up through the years. Affordability isn’t quite the same selling point either, though it considerably undercuts its German competitors.
The stance and stature remain, in the scarcer “Dark Horse” variant especially. The “long hood, short deck” formula doesn’t go out of style: there’s a flarey Seventies thing going on, but with one cowboy boot firmly in the modern era.
This special edition has some visual upgrades of its own — lower side skirts, a new rear wing and spoiler, gloss-black grille, painted bonnet vents and new Mustang Dark Horse badges on the front wheel arches and door sills. There’s a tad more power too, bigger brakes and some aero and engine tweaks to the perfectly named five-litre “Coyote” V8.
In essence, this is an enthusiast’s Mustang. Maybe you’ll drop by the racetrack, maybe
you’ll just hoon it down some emptier roads early on a Sunday morning. Maybe, just maybe, that throbbing V8 will keep you happy on its own, as it purrs and chugs around town.
Just like the original, this Mustang is pitched at a younger crowd, an attempt from Ford’s
marketers to give it some pep. It’s as loud and visceral as you’d hope. In fact, there are four different exhaust notes, from “Quiet” (a lie) to “Track” mode, which comes with a warning that it’s not for road use. For the true child inside, there’s a remote rev function, which, as you might guess, allows you to rev the car and hear that engine cooking by using only your key fob.
If you choose to actually sit down inside, you’ll find the interior snug and much improved on previous efforts, with a new digital dashboard, plus some Dark Horse touches, like an Alcantara steering wheel and, on the manual version,
a metal gear stick.
Fire it up and you’re in no doubt of the car’s capabilities. Like the wild horse it was named after, it feels eager to escape its tethers and run for the hills as soon as you’re over your first speed bump. With a tightened-up suspension, track tyres and uprated brakes, it’s certainly a firm ride around town. Just like the car, you’ll be impatient to find yourself some open country. Or at least a B-road.
When you do, though, happiness results: smooth, powerful, characterful and fast in all the right ways and places. Is it as refined as its European equivalents? Probably not, but that’s kind of the point.
This is a loud and lairy car, but one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Again, just like the original. It’s a throwback to simpler times, when a Kris Kristofferson tape and a tankful of gas might be all you need. It’s uncomplicated, unfussy and hedonistic, when so many modern cars try desperately to be the opposite. It says a lot that this might be the last mainstream car to offer both a manual gearbox and a V8 engine.
It makes driving — or at least the idea of it — fun. Hell, it even has an optional drift brake: a hydraulic handbrake for sliding out the rear wheels. It’s a good time. And that’s why the Mustang keeps us coming back.
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