REVIEW | The Ford Mustang 5.0 GT keeps V8 brawn alive

The number of American muscle cars offered in South Africa over the past 15 years can be counted on one hand. One of them is technically not even American. Though it wore the famed golden bow tie emblem, the Chevrolet Lumina SS was an Australian Holden Commodore at heart.

Nationality aside, its mix of beefy aesthetics, rumbling acoustics and V8 clout resonated strongly with a set of buyers who fancied a large four-door saloon that packed more flamboyance than what was offered by conventional alternatives.

Then there was the Chrysler 300C in SRT8 guise, seemingly designed outright for swaggering gangster types or, as Breaking Bad depicted, unassuming drug peddlers named Walter White.

Then in 2016 things got interesting when Ford decided to sell the sixth-generation Mustang here in right-hand drive form. It was an instant hit.

Critically, it had its shortcomings. A cheap-feeling interior, on-road dynamics that were hardly up to the standards set by German coupés of the time and a convertible version that had all the structural integrity of last week's newspaper. None of that mattered. The cool factor was peerless.

The 2.3 EcoBoost was an interesting option, but when passers-by made that universally understood gesture to rev it up, the limitations of the modest four-pot were instantly revealed. For full Mustang effect, the 5.0 V8 GT was non-negotiable.

Years later, the seventh-generation Mustang landed on Mzansi shores and it is only available in V8 automatic, ditching the option of a manual available before.

It is slightly more grown-up (in the areas that matter). Perhaps “grown-up” is the wrong description because this is, after all, a car you can rev-up using the key fob: a feature that has no point other than to startle and woo others.

Truth is, the person buying a Mustang knows what they are in for. They relish the attention of muscle car ownership and the associated theatrics.

That famed 5.0l fires into life in truculent fashion, waking the neighbours, sending small dogs into a frenzied tizz. All part of the Mustang mystique.

Boot it from the exit boom of your security estate — as Mustang owners seem to do — and the V8 pony car will comply with smoky, tyre squealing antics. Rein yourself in before behaving over confidently in the knowledge that the suspension was given a once over: the flagship Ford sports car will still buck when provoked.

The manufacturer claims a 0-100km/h time of 4.9 seconds but at Johannesburg altitudes, that might be ambitious. When group editor Denis Droppa tested the more powerful, focused Dark Horse version, a 5.22-second sprint time was recorded.

Enthusiasts will counter that the Mustang experience transcends acceleration figures. Under full send, the delicious rumble of its power source is something to be savoured. The engineers intended for it to sound as filthy as possible, goading its driver into seeking out tunnels and holding gears just a bit longer than necessary.

On that point, the weakest link of the Mustang has to be that 10-speed. It never bothered me at the launch event, testing the car on the wide open plains of the Western Cape. Those Brembo anchors, the Torsen limited-slip rear differential and adaptive dampers working harmoniously as we kept good pace through the sweeps.

In the real world of stop-go traffic and town driving, one wonders whether 10 ratios are necessary. It often feels like a continuously variable transmission rather than a decisive, torque converter automatic.

Shifting manually worked better, but that also revealed unresponsive tendencies, with a delay between the action of tipping the upshift paddle and having the vehicle dispatch the shift.

Under hard acceleration, the move between second and third seemed to have a “rubber band” type of effect: snapping into the latter gear, upsetting the rear of the car in a way that might catch the driver off guard.

As a jockey gets acquainted with a steed, the uninitiated Mustang driver will need to explore the performance competencies of the vehicle carefully at first, before unleashing all 328kW/540Nm at whim. Fuel consumption is what you would expect. On the open road, driven sensibly, it is possible to achieve about 10l/100km.

The inside is probably where the car has made is most radical transition. Tactile quality is markedly improved. From the leatherette seat upholstery to the materials deployed on the fascia and door panels, it is considerably more upmarket than the predecessor. Though the Mustang has gone digital in a major way, the presence of physical switchgear, including a handbrake lever (electronically actuated), should keep the traditionalists happy.

Using a 13.2" unit for the central infotainment display and a 12.4" ahead of the driver, the screen estate of the Mustang is extensive. It offers excellent clarity and the usability of the SYNC4 operating system is superb, easily up there with set-ups encountered in certain Germans. You can control some functions remotely via the FordPass smartphone app.

The new Mustang has also been loaded with a raft of driver assistance features, from lane-keeping and centring aids, coupled with adaptive cruise control, facilitating a semi-autonomous experience.

At a price of just more than R1.3m some might describe the latest Mustang as a relative performance bargain. And they would be right. Aside from being the only normally aspirated V8 of its ilk on sale in South Africa, nothing else at the price offers such personality or pedigree.

Those who struggle to gel with the live-out-loud Mustang character can have more sober, sophisticated two-door options — with less power and smaller displacements.