Top Gear magazine (probably the best car mag in the UK) has a 6 page article on the '05! They got hold of a Screaming Yellow GT in Santa Monica and drove it to Vegas. It is a very balanced article, and the car comes across very well. I will try to scan it on Monday.

That makes two UK mags that have tested it in a week! and we are not even "officially" getting the bloomin' car!! :bang:

James!

 

Does the magazine give times?!

 

Hah, I'd love to see Jeremy and the guys dissect it on the TGM show. B)

 

James

There's also a review in another UK magazine just called "Car".

I had a quick look when I bought the Autocar Mag, but it didn't seem quite as good a review.

Mouse

 

the only time's mentioned are estimated,
0-62m.p.h. in 5.3secs.
150 m.p.h. max top speed.
19.0 m.p.g.

a good article, the only complaint was with the five speed manual gearbox, " lumpy, agricultural, strange noise's"

maybe they just got a dud gearbox, or it's been thrashed by one too many road tests?

Regards.

 

Top Gear got a hold of one WITH NO VIDEO?!??! They must do a video review on the car! Their videos are awesome.

 

Top Gear is also a magazine. I am sure the video will turn up in due course!!!

 

The TV show is taking a break but will be back Oct 24th.

Top Gear TV Show website:
www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/

Top Gear Magazine website
www.topgear.com

If Top Gear does a review on the TV show it will probably be posted here:
www.sleepy-fish.com/other_veh.htm
or here:
www.flixvault.net

Go to this website to suggest that Top Gear be shown on BBC America:
www.bbcamerica.com/about/contactus_suggestion.jsp

 

www.topgear.com/content/misc/magazine/thisMonth/

In the November issue of Top Gear magazine:


BMW M5 driven
Focus v Golf v C4 v Astra
Drifting - how it's done
Ford Mustang - 2005 v 1967
Aston Martin Vanquish S
VW Golf GTi v Astra VXR

 

Hope somebody scans the article.

 

I don't have access to a scanner, but here's the text.

GOTTA HAVE SOUL

In the 70’s, the Mustang lost its way. But as the Ford’s latest ‘Stang sits
amid the sodium lit sleaze of Las Vegas, one thing’s clear: it’s back

Story by Richard Fleury Photography by Anton Watts

Soul. Easy to sell, impossible to buy. It
can’t be faked. You’ve either got it or you
haven’t. The Ford Mustang had it, once.
A runaway success from the off, the
Mustang had blue-collar America waving
chequebooks outside Ford dealerships back in
1964. Good ol’ boys queued around the block
howling: “Yessiree, I sure want a piece of that!�
The most democratic of performance cars, the
‘Stang was a symbol of a confident America
where any hard-working Joe could aspire to own
a powerful, rear-wheel-drive thoroughbred with
a horse on the grille. Galloping, not prancing.
Eye-talians…Who needs ‘em?
But in 1967-68, the Mustang evolved into
something else – a fully-fledged legend. The
epitome of the cool muscle car. Everyone in the
US knows this. They probably teach it in fourth
grade, along with the names of US presidents.
The immigration officer at Los Angeles’ LAX
airport enquired as to the nature of my business
in the US of A. I’m a motoring journalist, I
explained, here to test drive the new Mustang.
Sizing me up with a skeptical eye, he growled:
“You done much research?�
“Some,� I replied.
“OK. What’s the most popular Mustang?�
“The ’67-’68 fastback�
His hard-man features gave way to the sugges-
tion of a whistful smile.
“You know you can buy a junked-up one for a
thousand bucks? I’ve been thinking about getting’
one…� he said, stamping my form and waving
me through, leaving me wondering if answering
“Er, the 1982 Mustang SVO?� would have got
me clapped in leg-irons and shipped off to Camp
X-Ray in an orange romper suit.
In 40 years, Ford has sold more than eight
million Mustangs. There are no fewer than 250
clubs around the world dedicated to the ‘Pony
Car’. But the ‘Stangs built between 1967 and
1973 are the ones everyone remembers.
Steve McQueen’s 1968 Fastback on Bullitt is
the obvious one. Or perhaps the ’71 Mach 1
Mustang Roger Moore used to evade the Vegas
cops in Diamonds Are Forever. Or ‘Eleanor’, the
’73 Mach 1 in the original Gone In 60 Seconds.
In its various incarnations, the Mustang has
appeared in more than 500 movies.
But sadly, after that golden epoch of the late
Sixties and early Seventies, the Mustang fell into
decline. Its ‘Fat Elvis’ years, if you will. From the
late Seventies onwards, Pony Cars have been,
well, a bit pony – flabby, mediocre and soulless.
The same is often said about Las Vegas. Once
a shimmering oasis of impossibly disreputable
glamour, Sin City has grown up, become a slick
corporate adult Disneyland but lost something
crucial along the way. Its soul? Perhaps…
But spool back to the latter half of the Sixties,
the Mustang’s glory years, and Las Vegas is in
full swing, blazing away out there in the Nevada
desert. Elvis and his now-legal young squeeze
Priscilla tie the knot at Aladdin’s, while Viva
Las Vegas plays in movie theatres. Sinatra’s Rat
Pack prowl the Sands Casino by day and stumble
onstage, cold Martinis in hand, by night. At the
same time, Evil Knievel cracks a few more
vertebrae jumping over the Caesar’s Palace
fountains and Howard Hughes, the demented
emperor-recluse of Vegas, holes up in the Desert
Inn, eventually buying the place up to stop its
managers throwing him out.
So when Ford invited us over to the US to
drive their latest Mustang – a car unapologetically
influenced by the ’67 Fastback – Las Vegas
seemed the obvious destination.
Ford insists the 2005 car, the first genuinely
all-new ‘Stang since 1979, possesses ‘all the soul
that makes a Mustang a Mustang’. It’s a bold
assertion and, like all half-decent marketing
slogans, virtually impossible to substantiate.
Horsepower, acceleration and top speed are
easily verified, but ‘soul’ is harder to nail.
But, we reasoned, if we drove out into the
desert and just kept on going until we reached
the neon canyons of Las Vegas; that would be a
good place to start looking. And you never
know, we might even be able to find out what
happened to Vegas’s soul along the way.
We leave Santa Monica before dawn. The
yellow Mustang GT, whose outline we can
only vaguely determine in the darkness,
burbles satisfyingly as we turn the key and
aim towards Interstate 10.
Almost immediately, a mysterious, persistent
squeak emanates from the trim; exact source
unknown. I probably wouldn’t notice it normally
but it’s before 6am and , frankly, everything is
annoying at this time of day. The wretched state
of LA’s freeway system doesn’t flatter the
Mustang’s suspension either. We crash over the
scarred concrete and judder over expansion
joints as the sun rises through the early morning
photochemical haze. No wonder ‘Governator’
Schwarzenegger drives a Hummer.
The new Mustang’s suspension is not exactly
cutting-edge engineering. The rear end is based
around a solid live axle, roughly the diameter of
a telegraph pole because, says Ford, the drag
racing crowd wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s also cheap. Cheap is good in the muscle car
market. It’s all about bangs per buck. Buyers
want horsepower and the gew-gaws can go to
heck. Consequently, the entry-level four-litre V6,
202-horse Mustang will sell for just $20,000 and
the V8 GT model will go for an affordable
$27,395. Neither will be made in right-hand
drive or officially exported to the UK, sadly. But
specialist importers will bring them in and
there’s always the private import route.
Once on the I-15 to Vegas however, the
asphalt smooths out, the suspension settles down
and we lope happily along at 80mph, the 4.6-
litre aluminum V8 spinning lazily at 2,500 revs.
This beefed-up version of the outgoing car’s
engine with 40 extra hp makes the 2005 car the
first mainstream production Mustang to boast
300bhp; power only delivered by hot Cobra and
Boss models in the past. The V8 Mustang will
be the cheapest 300bhp car on sale in America.
There’s really no need but I can’t resist giving
the accelerator the occasional nudge, just to feel
the ‘Stang lunge forward on torque alone, the
revs building in the unhurried way a proper
musclecar engine should. The V8 delivers its peak
300bhp at its 6,000rpm redline, but you would-
n’t know it. The engine note is nothing short of
symphonic, rising from a booming rumble to an
urgent, hard-edge hammering as the revs climb.
As the sun scorches through the mist, and the
LA suburbs give way to dry scrub and Joshua
trees, I settle deep in the dark leather bucket seat,
squinting into the distant heat haze over the
curvature of the bonnet bulge. I’ve never driven
an original ’67 Fastback, but I’d like to think it
feels like this, only more so.
Our first proper daylight look at the car comes
when we stop at a suitably retro-themed diner.
The Mustang looks stunning, all coolly aggres-
sive angles, its ‘Screaming Yellow’ paint blinding
in the desert sun. More importantly, it couldn’t
be anything other than a Mustang. Its forward-
jutting snout, reworked grille and sloped rear
windows are borrowed directly form its ‘67
forbear but, as a whole, it looks contemporary –
unlike Ford’s recent Thunderbird which veered
uncomfortably towards pastiche.
Fuel becomes an issue when the dash warning
starts blinking ’50 miles to E’. so we take the
next trash-strewn exit ramp and follow signs to a
rundown old gas station, which turns out not to
sell petroleum products of any kind and looks
exactly like the kind of place where bad things
happen to stranded drivers in dubious B-movies.
I prod the dash button that switches off the
traction control, spin the rear tyres in the dirt
and rejoin the blacktop in a slithering dust-
storm. Always wanted to do that. Hoping to find
another gas station soon, while pondering how
horrible it must be to have to drink your own
urine, we press on down the desert highway.
Twenty miles later we pull into a garage at the
same time as a minivan full of college kids
heading to Vegas for the weekend.
“Hey, is that thing on the market yet?� shouts
one, clearly an avid reader of auto magazines.
“It looks like a ’67 or ’68. Cool car.�
We get exactly the same response in Las
Vegas. Two or three times a minute on average
as we crawl along the Strip – the world’s most
entertaining traffic jam. Inching past pirate
battles, dancing fountains, New York, Paris
Venice and hideous 200ft high images of spray-
ing tanned faces split in two by unnaturally white
smiles, people point and yell at our car. Not
just nostalgic baby boomers and seasoned old
petrolheads either. Everyone. From an old-timer
in a matching Ferrari baseball cap and polo shirt
combo, to teenage neo-punks in ‘Exploited’
T-shirts. We practically have to wipe the drool
off the windows.
“Is that the new Mustang?�. They holler,
“$%&#, yeah! How much did that run ya?�
I know, I know, not exactly Wildean bon
mots. But that’s the whole point of muscle cars.
They have to be brash, powerful and affordable
enough to be a realistic aspiration for the mullet-
ed mid-Western male with a dog called Skeeter.
The muscle car taps into something psycholo-
gists call the reptile brain; the primitive, inner
core of the human cortex. Higher functions of
the intellect mean nothing to the reptile brain –
all it wants is basic stimuli: sex, food, adrenaline…
and big, fast, loud cars.
The reptile brain is most likely the reason Las
Vegas not only exists, but is the fastest growing
city in the United States. ‘Eat, Drink, Play,’ say
the signs downtown, ‘Nude Girls,’ ‘Free Drinks
for Players,’ and ‘All You Can Eat, All Day!’
Hunter S Thompson knew this when he wrote
Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas… A few tabs
of acid and the casinos were crawling with
voracious man-sized lizards. This is why deep
down, we all want to drive a muscle car –
whether we agree with them intellectually or
not. What made the ’67 Mustang different was
that it had all this visceral caveman appeal, but it
was also beautiful. Steve McQueen – a man of
wealth and unquestionable taste – didn’t drive a
Pontiac Firebird, did he?
Judge for yourself, but I think the 2005 ‘Stang
is the best looking Mustang since. The interior is
full of classy, Sixties retro touches, like the pony-
badged steering wheel with the cruise control
buttons hidden inside the alloy spokes.
But look close up and you can see how Ford
has kept costs down. Tap the big chrome rings
around the clocks and they’re plastic under-
neath, as are the ‘aluminum’ –look doorhandles.
The handbreak and centre console too are
made of cheap, brittle plastic.
The Mustang’s interior showcases an oddball
innovation… the first ever colour-configurable
instrument panel. Owners can mix and match
lighting to create more than 125 different-
coloured backgrounds. The idea is very Vegas
but not very muscle car. It’s hard to picture the
guys down at Bud’s Speed Shop asking each
other whether the dash lights go with their new
mauve slacks. No, I suspect their interest is more
likely to be fired by the optional 1,000-watt,
MP3-playing Shaker sound system.
Ford is making much of the fact that the new
‘Stang has an all-new chassis. This is sort of true.
The new car is built on a modified version of the
Jaguar S-Type platform, but it’s a dramatic
improvement on the Fox platform that has
underpinned the Mustang for nearly two
decades. The six-inch-longer wheelbase creates
more backseat passenger space, for one thing,
but it’s also stiffer – one reason why the new
Mustang’s convincingly planted handling is a
massive improvement over the woolly floatiness
of the previous model. The way the Mustang
carves confidently into corners making freeway
on and off-ramps something to look forward to.
And the brakes, the biggest every fitted to a
Mustang, pack more than enough bite to rein
in all that power.
A five-speed manual gearbox is the standard
transmission for both V6 and V8 cars, with
five-speed automatics available as an option.
The Tremec manual gearbox in our GT gave
cause for concern, though. Lumpy and rather
agricultural feeling, it graunched and churned
away like a slot machine paying out all the way
to Vegas. Maybe they’re all like that or maybe
we had a dud. Either way, it’s bad. In the twenty-
first century, a new Ford really should not be
making noises like that.
Its heart may belong to 1967, but the new
‘Stang does make a few concessions to modernity.
It has ABS, bundled with switchable traction
control as an option, plenty of airbags as part
of Ford’s Personal Safety System and even
‘passenger weight-sensing technology’, in case
one too many Vegas all-you-can-eat steak and
lobster dinners threatens to unsettle the car’s
delicate balance.
We arrive in Vegas to find that Top Gear has
thoughtfully booked us into The Frontier, a
Western-themed casino hotel where the
evening’s entertainment is billed ‘Bikini Bull
Riding’. Bull shouldered cowboys wearing
Stetsons indoors are swaggering into a sawdust
strewn saloon bar where Footloose is playing at
painful volumes. (Footloose played at any vol-
ume is painful, but you know what I mean.)
Do we go join ‘em? heck, yes. You don’t drive
America’s greatest muscle car – a car with a silver
‘GT’ medallion the size of a dinnerplate on its
rump, all the way to Vegas and not watch Bikini
Bull Riding. No, sirree.
Does the new Mustang have soul? Despite its
flaws, yes it does. Bags of the stuff. And Vegas?
I’m not sure Vegas ever had a soul. Probably lost
it playing poker with a giant lizard back in ’71.

Specification: Ford Mustang GT
Price $27,395
Engine: 4601cc V8, 300bhp @ 6,000rpm, 315lb ft @ 4,500rpm
Performance: 0-62mph in 5.3secs (est), 150mph mas speed (est), 19.0mpg
Transmission: 5-speed manual, RWD

 

James..thanx for the heads up and Guth thank you very very much for typing all that. They seemed to really like the car and if it can get past the TG guys then it must be good!

 

God I love Top Gear. British humour owns all. I couldn't stop laughing while I read all that. I even had tears because I was laughing so hard.

 

I was laughing when he said Roger Moore was driving the Mustang in "Diamonds are Forever." Who could mistake Sean Connery for Roger Moore? Sean Connery was THE real James Bond!

 

Wow...can't believe you typed all that! Thanks for the effort!!!!

Nice read! Where's the video!!!

 

longest post ever u should get a special rank lol

 

"The muscle car taps into something psycholo-
gists call the reptile brain; the primitive, inner
core of the human cortex. Higher functions of
the intellect mean nothing to the reptile brain –
all it wants is basic stimuli: sex, food, adrenaline…
and big, fast, loud cars. .... This is why deep
down, we all want to drive a muscle car –
whether we agree with them intellectually or
not."

Wow, they got me down to a science, that's hilarious.

Charles: longest quote ever.

 

hi people,i have a windviel blue v8 on order,cant wait. Reviews look good, Iim bringing them in through my company,even if ford wont .
B)

 

Was gutted to miss top gear,sounds good.Great right up guys.

 

The article is up with pics:
http://www.topgear.com/content/features/st...ustang_2004/01/

Love that pic of the 05 next to that old beat up stang.