The UK's best car magazine (by a large margin) has been running a 2005 GT for 18 months. Their 'end of term' report was published in the mag at the start of the year, it is now available online:
http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evol...ustang_gt.html

"When news got round the office that we were buying a Mustang GT, no one was quite sure who was crazier, Jethro for suggesting it or Harry for going through with it."

Summary: They liked it.

 

Nice find. Owning a Mustang in Europe I can pretty much relate to what's written in the article.
The only thing I doubt is the power increase from 300 to 370 HP (I assume it's flywheel numbers) with just a CAI (looks like C&L) and a tune.

 

Yes, if you look at Litchfield's website, they have the dyno chart on there. Not sure how they do it, but to the wheels it's 266ish, with 105 odd hp lumped onto it for drivetrain losses (I presume):
http://www.litchfieldimports.co.uk/s...product=LIM044

 

here is dyno

 

LOL

Is Ford reading this article? This is a good documented account of the fuel filling issue experienced on S197 GTs.

 

I think it is just a conversion error. I've seen at most a 25 rwhp increase from a tune and a CAI kit (260 rwhp to 285 rwhp).

 

Yup, that's exactly what I find hard to believe.
Even with automatic transmissions, powertrain loss is not more than 20%. This means that if they measured ~266 rwhp, then flywheel power can't be more than ~335 HP.

The 370 HP number implies a ~28% powertrain loss to end up with 266 rwhp... Not even a gearbox with no oil in it and a broken diff would cause such a loss!

And by the way, 266 rwhp after CAI+tune isn't that impressive, some people have seen numbers in excess of 280 rwhp with the same combo. Something's fishy with their calculations. Too bad it's not the same in reality, I wouldn't mind having 370 flywheel HP after my mods...

Anyway, the most important part is that a European car magazine liked the Mustang!

 

I must admit, their running it was a major factor in my pulling the trigger on importing a Mustang (due in a couple of weeks). 266 may not be that impressive, but it is what I figured it should be producing (honestly) at the wheels. I dynoed a 928S4 with 320 horses supposedly from the factory, bone stock (auto) it produced 267. I was so suspicious of the Mustang numbers when I read the article in print that I immediately looked up the Litchfield graph which confirmed that some magic dust had been sprinkled/consumed.

 

Nice review - thanks for the link!

I liked their comment on the radio: "radio tuner isn’t keen to settle on British frequencies. But then I suppose it was only designed to receive two stations: Country and Western…"

the final conclusion (which we knew all along) was also sweet: "Suffice to say that after 18 months and almost 30,000 miles, it’s exceeded all our expectations. It’s a special car in so many ways – an American icon, a performance bargain, a terrific long-distance partner and an entertaining driver’s car – that despite its undeniable shortcomings it always gives you enough positives to push those failings into the background and leave you feeling good about driving it."