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11/25/04, 09:24 AM
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A great little hoofer
Ford's Mustang GT is old-school to the bone -- in the way it looks, performs, sounds and costs.
Dan Neil
LATimes.com
November 11, 2004
As a thought experiment, try to imagine that there never was a car named Mustang before - that it wasn't an automotive icon four decades in the making, Bullitt's bullet, Carroll Shelby's Eleanor, Bill Clinton's chick magnet, or the scene of a million prom-night battles with temptation lost.
Not easy, is it?
Mustang is part of the text and texture of American life. In this respect (and to whatever degree your cynicism will allow) Mustang is something of a public trust held by Ford Motor Co. And so, with the arrival of the 2005 Mustang - an all-new piece of engineering die-cast in '60s nostalgia - it's fair to ask whether Ford keeps faith.
It certainly looks the part. The proportions and silhouette - the brimmed grille, the fastback angle, the rear-deck length, the car's general mass, like the thick wrist of a veteran swordsman - all come together to make a handsome car worthy of its inspiration, the late 1960s Mustangs. This is a design that rewards a long look. The galloping pony emblem on the grille, the chrome Mustang badge between the tri-lens taillights, the dual fog lamps inboard of the round headlights (standard on the GT model) and the general audacity of the car are all so convincing you have to look at a vintage Mustang to see how the new car is different.
You might note, however, that the car seems a trifle unfinished in places. For instance, the wheel wells seem a little oversized even when they are filled with the GT's 17-inch alloy wheels. There seems to be an unusual amount of air between the ground and the side sills and conspicuous vacancies in the sail panel and hood. All of these negative spaces will be filled in over time with air scoops, aero skirting and huge wheels as a legion of aftermarket Mustang specialists (like Saleen, Steeda and Roush) and Ford itself offers high-performance variants with names like Shelby, Eleanor, Mach 1, Boss, Bullitt and, of course, Cobra.
Though I remain unpersuaded that Ford's design recidivism - the so-called retro-futurism of the Ford GT and Thunderbird, for instance - is worthy of a great company, the execution of the Mustang is exemplary. The old-school soaks right to the bone. The car's interior includes a pinstriped brushed alloy that is right out of the first generation of cars. The speedo and tach are at the bottom of Crisco-can sized openings, just as in the old car. The three-spoke wheel has the deep-dish profile of steering wheels circa the Johnson administration. Even the lateral stitching on the leather seats is modeled after the original car's upholstery.
The interior is clean, spare and lightweight, with lots of textured rubber and plastic, and yet the touchable surfaces - the switches, the hand brake lever - feel substantial. One of the curiosities is the variable backlighting of the instruments; you can choose among the most lurid green, blues and pinks imaginable. The GT edition comes with a standard skull-crushing 500-watt sound system whose lack of fidelity is aggravated by its sheer reckless volume. The optional 1,000-watt system may be an improvement.
The backseats are tight but usable, and the seat-forward levers make getting in and out of the back seat easier. The 50-50 split rear seatbacks fold forward to open up the cargo space to the car's interior, giving the car some utility of the dorm-room moving day variety.
As for keeping faith, the car sounds the part, and then some. The GT comes equipped with the 4.6-liter overhead cam V8 generating 300 horsepower, 320 pound-feet of torque and who-knows-how-many daunting decibels when you push the "loud" button with your right foot. This is designed sound. Given enough time, Ford engineers could have made this car sound like a grade-school flutaphone. The car's rich and throaty, dual-exhaust timber is pitch-perfect - the cannonade from a distant decade's pony wars - but I think it could be turned down a notch or two. When the car is rolling down the street at 45 mph in second gear, its scornful snarl will turn heads at 200 feet.
Like the car's bodywork, this engine - with 24-valve, variable-valve timing heads - provides an excellent basis for all kinds of mischief. A supercharger seems inevitable (the 2003 Mustang Cobra SVT was powered by a blown 4.6-liter putting out 390 horsepower). In stock configuration, the motor has excellent mid-range torque. It's punchy - "cammy," hot-rodders would say - which means that when it reaches a sweet spot on the tach, about 3,500-4,000 rpm, the car jumps at the prod of the throttle. Again, this is the result of the engineers' mapping of the timing and throttle programs to attain what they call in Levitra ads a "quality response."
A five-speed manual or five-speed automatic is available. Our test GT had the Tremec-built manual tranny. The shift throws are short and direct and the clutch, light and progressive. The pedals are perfectly placed for heel-and-toe downshifting.
The Mustang GT motors, no doubt. Zero to 60 mph is under six seconds and it's a lusty, roistering charge up to triple digits. Top speed is limited to about 143 mph. At cruising altitude, the car is dead calm, thrumming sonorously down the highway at about 2,300 rpm.
As for driving dynamics, the first thing you become aware of is the light, easy, progressive effort in the steering wheel. The turn-in is sharp and the effort builds nicely as the wheel approaches left and right lock. It's fairly relaxed on center - look for a quicker steering ratio in the SVT models to come - but plenty accurate, with only a slight tendency to self-center in long sweeping turns.
Sitting on a strut front suspension and a coil-over rear above a solid rear axle, the Mustang is hard to fluster. The car corners flatly and, if you lift the throttle just so, the car will rotate neatly without excessive rear roll, so you nail the back end down with the throttle. It doesn't have an exceptional amount of lateral grip - the stock tires are a little gimpy - and the rear end suspension is calibrated on the soft side to give the car a natural understeer.
You could argue that by having a solid rear axle - which means that the two rear wheels are connected so that what affects one affects the other - the Mustang is a little too faithful to the past. Most rear-drive cars today have independent rear suspensions, which generally offer both better ride compliance and handling. I would have to exercise the Mustang GT on a race track to really tell the difference in handling. I'm pretty sure I could get the car to lift the inside wheel in a corner. As for ride compliance, the Mustang is, just at the margins, a little less supple than other cars (Pontiac GTO) over the broken concrete rhythms of Los Angeles' freeways. This is particularly noticeable if you are riding in the back seat.
But almost certainly an IRS rear end will be part of any future SVT (Special Vehicle Team) package. In the meantime, the Mustang upholds one of the core values of the original Mustang: It's cheap. The well-stocked GT edition comes in under $26,000, and the base model can be had for under $20,000. I do wish, however, that Ford had made stability control available. Ford, of all companies, should know the value of these systems.
When automakers speechify about "heritage" and "legend," they are often engaged in the rhetoric of suggestion. It was only by swilling large quantities of Kool-Aid that anyone ever bought into GM's badge-marketing of the recent GTO, a federalized version of the Australian-built Holden Monaro that is to the 1960s muscle car what a hen is to a hammer.
But the new Mustang is the real thing - great-looking, affordable, and potent, both emotionally and mechanically. The faith is defended.
*
2005 Ford Mustang GT
Base price: $25,705
Price, as tested: $27,375
Powertrain: 4.6-liter V8, single overhead cam, 24-valve, variable-valve timing; five-speed manual transmission; rear wheel drive
Horsepower: 300 hp at 5,750 rpm
Torque: 320 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm
Curb weight: 3,450 pounds
0-60: 5.2 seconds
EPA Mileage: 17 miles per gallon city, 25 mpg highway
Wheelbase: 107.1 inches
Overall length: 187.6 inches
Competitive vehicles: Nissan 350Z, Pontiac GTO
Final thoughts: Something old, something new
Automotive critic Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com
Ford's Mustang GT is old-school to the bone -- in the way it looks, performs, sounds and costs.
Dan Neil
LATimes.com
November 11, 2004
As a thought experiment, try to imagine that there never was a car named Mustang before - that it wasn't an automotive icon four decades in the making, Bullitt's bullet, Carroll Shelby's Eleanor, Bill Clinton's chick magnet, or the scene of a million prom-night battles with temptation lost.
Not easy, is it?
Mustang is part of the text and texture of American life. In this respect (and to whatever degree your cynicism will allow) Mustang is something of a public trust held by Ford Motor Co. And so, with the arrival of the 2005 Mustang - an all-new piece of engineering die-cast in '60s nostalgia - it's fair to ask whether Ford keeps faith.
It certainly looks the part. The proportions and silhouette - the brimmed grille, the fastback angle, the rear-deck length, the car's general mass, like the thick wrist of a veteran swordsman - all come together to make a handsome car worthy of its inspiration, the late 1960s Mustangs. This is a design that rewards a long look. The galloping pony emblem on the grille, the chrome Mustang badge between the tri-lens taillights, the dual fog lamps inboard of the round headlights (standard on the GT model) and the general audacity of the car are all so convincing you have to look at a vintage Mustang to see how the new car is different.
You might note, however, that the car seems a trifle unfinished in places. For instance, the wheel wells seem a little oversized even when they are filled with the GT's 17-inch alloy wheels. There seems to be an unusual amount of air between the ground and the side sills and conspicuous vacancies in the sail panel and hood. All of these negative spaces will be filled in over time with air scoops, aero skirting and huge wheels as a legion of aftermarket Mustang specialists (like Saleen, Steeda and Roush) and Ford itself offers high-performance variants with names like Shelby, Eleanor, Mach 1, Boss, Bullitt and, of course, Cobra.
Though I remain unpersuaded that Ford's design recidivism - the so-called retro-futurism of the Ford GT and Thunderbird, for instance - is worthy of a great company, the execution of the Mustang is exemplary. The old-school soaks right to the bone. The car's interior includes a pinstriped brushed alloy that is right out of the first generation of cars. The speedo and tach are at the bottom of Crisco-can sized openings, just as in the old car. The three-spoke wheel has the deep-dish profile of steering wheels circa the Johnson administration. Even the lateral stitching on the leather seats is modeled after the original car's upholstery.
The interior is clean, spare and lightweight, with lots of textured rubber and plastic, and yet the touchable surfaces - the switches, the hand brake lever - feel substantial. One of the curiosities is the variable backlighting of the instruments; you can choose among the most lurid green, blues and pinks imaginable. The GT edition comes with a standard skull-crushing 500-watt sound system whose lack of fidelity is aggravated by its sheer reckless volume. The optional 1,000-watt system may be an improvement.
The backseats are tight but usable, and the seat-forward levers make getting in and out of the back seat easier. The 50-50 split rear seatbacks fold forward to open up the cargo space to the car's interior, giving the car some utility of the dorm-room moving day variety.
As for keeping faith, the car sounds the part, and then some. The GT comes equipped with the 4.6-liter overhead cam V8 generating 300 horsepower, 320 pound-feet of torque and who-knows-how-many daunting decibels when you push the "loud" button with your right foot. This is designed sound. Given enough time, Ford engineers could have made this car sound like a grade-school flutaphone. The car's rich and throaty, dual-exhaust timber is pitch-perfect - the cannonade from a distant decade's pony wars - but I think it could be turned down a notch or two. When the car is rolling down the street at 45 mph in second gear, its scornful snarl will turn heads at 200 feet.
Like the car's bodywork, this engine - with 24-valve, variable-valve timing heads - provides an excellent basis for all kinds of mischief. A supercharger seems inevitable (the 2003 Mustang Cobra SVT was powered by a blown 4.6-liter putting out 390 horsepower). In stock configuration, the motor has excellent mid-range torque. It's punchy - "cammy," hot-rodders would say - which means that when it reaches a sweet spot on the tach, about 3,500-4,000 rpm, the car jumps at the prod of the throttle. Again, this is the result of the engineers' mapping of the timing and throttle programs to attain what they call in Levitra ads a "quality response."
A five-speed manual or five-speed automatic is available. Our test GT had the Tremec-built manual tranny. The shift throws are short and direct and the clutch, light and progressive. The pedals are perfectly placed for heel-and-toe downshifting.
The Mustang GT motors, no doubt. Zero to 60 mph is under six seconds and it's a lusty, roistering charge up to triple digits. Top speed is limited to about 143 mph. At cruising altitude, the car is dead calm, thrumming sonorously down the highway at about 2,300 rpm.
As for driving dynamics, the first thing you become aware of is the light, easy, progressive effort in the steering wheel. The turn-in is sharp and the effort builds nicely as the wheel approaches left and right lock. It's fairly relaxed on center - look for a quicker steering ratio in the SVT models to come - but plenty accurate, with only a slight tendency to self-center in long sweeping turns.
Sitting on a strut front suspension and a coil-over rear above a solid rear axle, the Mustang is hard to fluster. The car corners flatly and, if you lift the throttle just so, the car will rotate neatly without excessive rear roll, so you nail the back end down with the throttle. It doesn't have an exceptional amount of lateral grip - the stock tires are a little gimpy - and the rear end suspension is calibrated on the soft side to give the car a natural understeer.
You could argue that by having a solid rear axle - which means that the two rear wheels are connected so that what affects one affects the other - the Mustang is a little too faithful to the past. Most rear-drive cars today have independent rear suspensions, which generally offer both better ride compliance and handling. I would have to exercise the Mustang GT on a race track to really tell the difference in handling. I'm pretty sure I could get the car to lift the inside wheel in a corner. As for ride compliance, the Mustang is, just at the margins, a little less supple than other cars (Pontiac GTO) over the broken concrete rhythms of Los Angeles' freeways. This is particularly noticeable if you are riding in the back seat.
But almost certainly an IRS rear end will be part of any future SVT (Special Vehicle Team) package. In the meantime, the Mustang upholds one of the core values of the original Mustang: It's cheap. The well-stocked GT edition comes in under $26,000, and the base model can be had for under $20,000. I do wish, however, that Ford had made stability control available. Ford, of all companies, should know the value of these systems.
When automakers speechify about "heritage" and "legend," they are often engaged in the rhetoric of suggestion. It was only by swilling large quantities of Kool-Aid that anyone ever bought into GM's badge-marketing of the recent GTO, a federalized version of the Australian-built Holden Monaro that is to the 1960s muscle car what a hen is to a hammer.
But the new Mustang is the real thing - great-looking, affordable, and potent, both emotionally and mechanically. The faith is defended.
*
2005 Ford Mustang GT
Base price: $25,705
Price, as tested: $27,375
Powertrain: 4.6-liter V8, single overhead cam, 24-valve, variable-valve timing; five-speed manual transmission; rear wheel drive
Horsepower: 300 hp at 5,750 rpm
Torque: 320 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm
Curb weight: 3,450 pounds
0-60: 5.2 seconds
EPA Mileage: 17 miles per gallon city, 25 mpg highway
Wheelbase: 107.1 inches
Overall length: 187.6 inches
Competitive vehicles: Nissan 350Z, Pontiac GTO
Final thoughts: Something old, something new
Automotive critic Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com
11/26/04, 06:13 AM
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Originally posted by dtoups@November 25, 2004, 12:27 PM
When automakers speechify about "heritage" and "legend," they are often engaged in the rhetoric of suggestion. It was only by swilling large quantities of Kool-Aid that anyone ever bought into GM's badge-marketing of the recent GTO, a federalized version of the Australian-built Holden Monaro that is to the 1960s muscle car what a hen is to a hammer.
When automakers speechify about "heritage" and "legend," they are often engaged in the rhetoric of suggestion. It was only by swilling large quantities of Kool-Aid that anyone ever bought into GM's badge-marketing of the recent GTO, a federalized version of the Australian-built Holden Monaro that is to the 1960s muscle car what a hen is to a hammer.
The Boss Hog
11/29/04, 11:42 AM
#3
Oh yeah he's slammin it alright - basically saying that if you took the GTO label off the car, you would be clueless as to what it is supposed to be.
Personally, I LOVE the lack of identifying LABELS on the new Mustang - if you've ever seena Mustang before, pretty definite that you'll have an idea that THAT is what you are looking at.
[With the GTO?.... take that off and people are like... "uhhh... that a new Grand Prix?..."
]
Personally, I LOVE the lack of identifying LABELS on the new Mustang - if you've ever seena Mustang before, pretty definite that you'll have an idea that THAT is what you are looking at.
[With the GTO?.... take that off and people are like... "uhhh... that a new Grand Prix?..."
]
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