Even now I haven’t adjusted. You’d think that fourteen months on this side of the Atlantic would be enough time for me to feel at home, but the little things still catch me out. Red-amber-green traffic light sequences, roundabouts and – this kills me – motorway lane discipline. What is that? Today I’m relaxed, though, because I’m driving a new Mustang GT Convertible. We want to know if the most American of modern-day muscle cars can cope on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and if its charm and lineage will have British buyers humming the Star-Spangled Banner as they roar along.
The Mustang trades heavily on its history, so we shouldn’t ignore it. In the US, the name instantly evokes images of an era defined by good times and free spirits. But most of us aren’t aware of the car’s tempestuous upbringing. Forty-one years ago, Lee Iacocca’s brainchild hit production and the result was miraculous. In the summer of 1964, Americans salivated over a lean, muscular, pure sports car that was affordable and desirable. Eighteen months later, brand-new Mustangs sat on more than a million driveways. But the 1970s brought an oil crisis, vastly higher fuel prices and safety campaigner Ralph Nader – a man hell-bent on sanitising our four-wheeled obsession to the point of banality. Their efforts stripped the Mustang of its soul, and an oil-spewing, octane-chugging bad-ass muscle car became an overfed, limp-wristed shell of its former self. With every brake horsepower taken from the tally, a small chunk of its spirit burrowed into the sand and refused to emerge until a proper output could be resurrected. Developing only 120bhp from a 5.0-litre V8, it was no longer a car that Americans were proud of – which is precisely why they stopped signing on the dotted line.
Hope returned in the 1980s. The Mustang regained some of its hot-rod roots. It went on a diet, restoring some of its original taut proportions. And a new 5.0-litre pushrod V8 meant burnouts became possible once again. When the more curvaceous and progressively styled SN95 model arrived in 1994, the new Mustang almost achieved the acclaim of the original. But a live rear axle and an interior built on a budget never brought it close to its more expensive (and more technologically advanced) European rivals. A BMW M3 of the same era wouldn’t just walk all over the Mustang, it would stomp it into the dust with impunity.
Which brings us to the present. Last year a much-anticipated new Mustang arrived. It has a modern platform that it shares with the Jaguar S-type and Lincoln LS. The live rear axle still exists, as does the old-tech V8 engine, but the stunning new retro looks give it the kind of road presence that causes accidents. It’ll widen more eyes than anything this side of an Italian supercar. With this reincarnation, Ford is trying to remind us of the good old days. And judging by the lack of cheesiness in the details, this Mustang does retro in all the right ways.
It’s instantly recognisable, too. As photographer Mackie is feverishly snapping detail shots, a truck driver is taking an interest. Despite the Mustang being a rarity on our roads, he never asks what it is. He just knows. And he’s excited. Not once did this car get anything approaching a negative response from onlookers. It seems the UK is taking to the Mustang in the same way as America – very enthusiastically.
Ford hasn’t decided whether it will officially bring in the new model, but with a surprising amount of grey imports available it would seem silly for it to miss out on the action. Coupés are going for about £26k; the convertible should be about three grand more. Or you can buy one from a Stateside dealer – where GT Convertibles are selling for $29,995 (£18k) – independently import and SVA it for a few grand more. If you can live with left-hand drive, you’ve got yourself a topless, V8-powered sports car icon for Mini Cooper S Works money.
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