Even though this is for a magazine, I've written it in the same sort of style that I'd write for a newspaper. Newspapers are of course general interest, and have to cater for everyone, so it has to be more interesting and approachable. As magazines are special interest, I can normally get away with being a bit more boring, because at least readers will have some involvement or enthusiasm with the core subject of the article. But with this, I've kept it pretty light and accessible, so it shouldn't be too heavy for you to read. If you do, you may work out that the article is intended to be a little nudge to Ford to get them thinking about a realease in European, Australasian, and even Asian markets.


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It's been completely updated and refreshed, and it's exactly the same as the old one, bar a little bit of a face lift. Isn't it? This was my problem when I was thinking about how to approach writing about this car; Ford supplies a big pack about all the big metal bits which are different shapes from the metal bits on the previous model, and this car is fitted with the brand new “Track Pack 2” but there's nothing that pokes you in the eye, and makes you gaze in wonder at the revolutionary presence of the new machine.

The figures, as they are, indicate no more than that it is actually an updated version of the 2005 model, as you'd expect. Ford have wrung more power out of the V8 lump, 315 hp (6000 rpm) and 325 lb/ft (4250 rpm) with a slightly broader, flatter curve of power delivery. Springs and dampers have thankfully been replaced with more capable components, drag coefficient has been reduced by 7% and weight has been reduced by almost 50kgs.

Approaching the car, it's a very striking thing. Certainly, it will look very imposing parked among the Peugeots and Toyotas in the car park outside of Billa. Even parked, completely motionless, it looks fierce and violent. This is good, and it doesn't stop when you get inside. The new dashboard is much improved on the previous one, mildly less logical, but has an even higher level of design than simple mathematics. Best of all, it is of far better quality than almost any other American car I've ever been inside, although it has to be said, it doesn't feel quite as solid as a European dashboard, and it doesn't inspire confidence that it will last as long or as well either.

Fire up the big V8 powerhouse, and things seem surprisingly smooth, there's a lovely torque reaction but without the judder low down, or the over-run flutter when dropping off the limiter. The gearbox is the same as it is in the 2005 Mustang, which is no bad thing because the shift is nice, there's no agricultural clunks to the action, it's like stirring honey. Better still, the ratios are bang-on, as I would later discover when I took the car for a thrash on a racing circuit.

First though, I took it for a bit of a jaunt through the twisty little lanes, partly to test the handling, and partly just to get it all wet and dirty, with big gritty mud-splashes up the sides. I always wonder if the other car journalists work their cars out properly, they always arrive for testing gleaming inside and out, completely dirt-less. When I test a car, everyone knows I really put it to the test, and this Mustang was no different, if it were going to break, it would have broken. Although single-track European roads aren't San Francisco, air-time was still had over little crests, and I have no doubt that the car has the ability to recreate a certain car-chase without much mechanical failure. The dashboard held together well under such treatment, and the big torquey engine was a typical big torquey engine, little slow on the response but relatively capable of dealing with revving and braking in quick succession.

In town, the Mustang was no more awkward to drive than a large Mercedes-Benz, though the steering felt a little muted at low to medium speeds. It was fine to see out of, easy to park, and swallowed a large load more easily than a Swedish porn star. Best of all, it drew lots of warm attention, people turned, there were smiles and dropped jaws everywhere I went. People gravitated towards it in even larger amounts than I had seen with a McLaren Mercedes-Benz SLR, a car costing more than five times as much. Environmentalists carve my BMW to pieces if I park it in the wrong place. I parked the Mustang in all the wrong places, and nobody put a mark on it. It's still got the mass appeal and general adoration that made it such a phenomenon back in the 1960s.

It's still well priced, too. With less electronic bits and pieces in the cockpit, it's less well equipped than all its German and Swedish counterparts. But is that a bad thing, when you consider that cars such as the Perodua Kelisa, the Reva G-wiz, and the original Volkswagen Beetle, all of which are as well equipped as a blind man's photo album, still continue to do very well among the modern car buyers? Nothing is over complicated, there's not infinite settings for the volume of the bonging sound you get when you open the door with the lights on, there's not a mind-boggling string of sub-menus for setting up different aspects of the the traction control, and so on. Everything is there, but everything is easy.

So far, then, it's shaping up to be an ideal car to blitz the European market, and I haven't even played its ace yet. The way it handled on-track. The new suspension transforms the car, in a way that is almost magical. Stiffer springs in a Skyline gives you a firmer ride and sharper cornering. You get what you give. But in this new Mustang, stiffer springs transform a soft, soggy car into an electrifying fun machine. It's not a razor-sharp hardcore racer by a very long way, however, it still swings around on its axles, bounces about on the springs, and can be a bit clumsy if you're driving becomes as aggressive as the car looks, but the waywardness is no more than is either uncomfortable or expected from such a car.

I was given fifteen minutes of track time, and asked nicely not to lower the tone of the sophisticated race day into a drift meet. Of course, I'm required to find the car's limits, in the name of research, so at one point I did venture into the damp sand on the outside of a corner, but other than that, I stayed very much on the track, and mostly on the racing line. The 2005 Mustang would have rolled and flopped about wildly, and was too unstable to blast through certain lines. This one was so different, it loved the racing line, as though it were taking part in the drive instead of fighting back, and this made it a joy to corner. Business as usual on the straights, big V8 grrowl and 130mph was achieved with great stability, a rival even to the Mercedes-Benz CL63.

Despite being on the track for fifteen minutes, and taking the scenic route through the gravel, the car was overtaken only once, by a Ford GT supercar, which I then managed to retake position from on the very next corner. On the track that day were an Audi RS6, a Honda NSX-R, a Porsche Boxster, a Ferrari 456 GT, and of course the Ford GT, which should all be faster than the Mustang. But they weren't, and that's the most impressive thing about this car, it is stunning to drive. Old-school characteristics with modern manageability is a perfect recipe for serious fun, one we've seen before in the Roush Mustang, where it worked well on track, but didn't quite work as a daily transport solution. Ford's new one does, even in Europe, and that's why it's not just an updated version of an old American legend, but could be the start of a new European one. If they choose to make it available for sale here.

They have no plans to do so.

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