Mustang GT Koni Active Suspension: Perfectly-balanced Performance
Can one damper truly give you the best of both worlds? We get behind the wheel to test out the Koni difference.
Koni presented The Mustang Source with a unique opportunity: Drive two Mustangs, back-to-back, identical save for two key details. The first, was that one car was fitted with Koni’s new Active suspension. The second, was that one car was a 2018 with the new ten-speed automatic, while the other was a still fresh 2017 Mustang GT, but with the six-speed automatic.
Before I dive into details about the suspension, I want to take a few moments to talk about the new 10-speed automatic. Truth be told, this was my first time getting to drive a car so equipped. Driving the 10-speed back-to-back with a six-speed auto on the same route was an eye-opening experience that really highlighted the new box’s strengths.
For one thing, I’m not much for automatics. I firmly believe that every car, especially performance-oriented enthusiast cars like the Mustang, should come equipped with three pedals. I don’t care how much faster the auto can shift. I don’t care about fuel economy. I care about focus. I care about engagement. I care about fun.
With that said, I know a good automatic when I drive one. It’s no secret that the Germans (Porsche in particular) have, in their idiosyncratically clinical way, perfected the performance automatic transmission. That’s hardly a hot take, you’d be hard-pressed to find an automotive journalist who would find fault with Porsche’s PDK or Volkswagen/Audi’s DSG. What they lack in tactility and tangibility, they make up for in driving pleasure. You could even go as far as to say it’s a different kind of fun.
While I didn’t have much opportunity to cane the Mustang the way I normally would I have liked, I came away with some very strong impressions about the new 10-speed box. One of my many complaints with automatics is the way they interrupt the driving experience, that agonizing delay between when you decide you want to do something, and when the car decides to eventually follow suit.
That’s all but eliminated now. In situations where I’d normally have to wait for the transmission to downshift; feeling its jarring, bucking movement, I instead feel absolutely nothing. When attempting to maintain speed while cresting hills, I felt no change in the car’s attitude, and had it not been for the Mustang’s exhaust note, I would not have realized that the transmission dropped two gears to help me make it to the top.
Little things like this were especially pronounced when I traveled back over those same roads in a 2017 Mustang GT. The overwhelming feeling I got was that the new automatic does its best to stay out of the way of its driver enjoying the experience. It accomplishes this with shifts that are fast, sharp, and yet surprisingly gentle. While I’d never recommend an automatic over a manual, I’m confident in saying that this is the best automatic ever put in a pony car.
contiuned…
