This is the new Ford Mustang, revealed at the Detroit motor show with an engine update for the range-topping V8 version of America's much-loved muscle car.
It gets more power, more torque, and better economy and emissions.
The eight-cylinder Mustang's mill will grow from 4.6- to 5.0-litres next year. The new 4951cc engine measures just over 302 cubic inches - a number that will conjure fond memories for Mustang devotees.
However, fitted with an aluminium block and head, twin overhead camshafts, four-valves per cylinder, and developing 412bhp at 6000rpm and 390lb ft at 4000rpm, there's nothing 'old tech' about this new motor.
Ford started afresh when designing the Mustang's new 5.0-litre engine; it shares nothing with the outgoing modular 4.6 except its bore spacing and deck height.
The latest computer engine design software allowed Ford to design-in strength to the block only where it's required, so that the new engine is hardly any heavier than the outgoing one, while tighter tolerances within the mill mean that it can run a compression ratio of 11:1, to the benefit of both performance and economy. While it produces 31 per cent more power and 20 per cent more torque that the 4.6, the new 5.0 should also return 5 per cent better fuel economy.
The V8 model will continue to be comprehensively outsold by the Mustang V6, which as of next year gets a 3.7-litre double-overhead-cam engine in replacement of the single-overhead-cam 4.0-litre it used to be saddled with. Producing 315bhp at 5250rpm and 275lb ft at 3500rpm, the new six actually produces as much power as the old V8.
