Feel the luurve

THE Wheels team of car nuts are grateful to Ford SA for allowing us 72 hours with the Ford Mustang V8.

Not many media cracked a nod for this one and even more aspiring owners are still awaiting delivery of their models, so it really was a rare treat. Despite this, not all like the ’tang in equal measure.

These are their views:

Amil feel-the-soul Umraw

Granted, the Mustang is not M5 fast, F-Stle elegantly styled, or GT-R jammed with the latest technology. But these little gaps just add to the car’s “soul”.

Oh, and the fact that it is fast enough to ram your head into the seat as it snakes from side to side.

This is not a computer driving you, but you getting a primal testosterone boost as you explode fuel in eight cylinders the way the creator intended for engines.

This is not a computer driving you...

And who cares about elegant, sleek styling anyway? The Mustang is a muscular brute on the road and everyone knows it.

What has changed is the Mustang’s reputation for breaking down. Ford has in the 2016 model harnessed the spirit of the open road into a comfortable, smooth and practical vehicle into which we even shoehorned four blokes.

And that sound that comes out of exhausts! I have yet to find the words to describe the joy it gives you. But the coupé roofline means the blokes at the back will feel a bit squashed. And don’t even think of parking at the mall. It is too long, too wide and you can hide trucks in the blind spots.

As for the interior styling, what styling? In there you can see where the money did not go to make a Pony car those not earning dollars can afford. It’s all faux metal plastic knobs on cheap black plastic panels in there, not at all what you’d expect in a R819 900 car.

This emotion-pony has the measure

Brian it-stacks-up Bassett

In my distant youth, I was very lucky in that I could buy a rusted 1969 with stick shift and drive it across America along Route 66.

This new Pony brought back those memories and I like how the designers clearly made an effort to incorporate elements from all the preceding generations. As for the comparatively underwhelming interior, you have to approach this car like an American, for whom it is all about grandstanding.

Do that, and this pony will tickle all your right spots.

Quarter tank = 15 litres = 41 km range left. Some trucks are lighter! 

Alwyn save-the-drops Viljoen

Ford was quite considerate to limit the loan to 72 hours. During this time, we twice had to put fuel into the Mustang’s 60-litre fuel tank.
And no, we did not drive it like we stole it ALL the time.

(It was only once, to make the little whisp of smoke shown here. OK, so it was once and a half, but the traction control was still on so that half doesn’t really count.)

What you do most in a
V8 Mustang.

So how far can you go in the ’tang with a full tank and just a little bit of putting foot between the lights to hear that growl become a bark? Between 160 and 200 km, depending on the size of your right shoe.

This is the elephant in the room that we car nuts politely ignore when we sing the praises of the V8 burbling away under the hood. The bottom line is you are lucky to get three kilometres a litre in the city, and about 8 km/l on the N3.

A car for Sunday cruising then.

But this is the first car I’ve driven in that people actually ran after. And even Fortuner drivers make a gap for it in traffic. In a Mustang, you will feel the luurve like a Bollywood movie star.

(First published in Wheels 26 May 2016)