We test the new Mustangs: V8 vs 4cyl

Published Mar 11, 2016

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By: Denis Droppa and Jason Woosey

Johannesburg - Finally it’s happened: Ford started building the Mustang in right-hand-drive so that South Africans could buy it too.

America’s most famous pony car has been in production since 1964 but this is the first time the blue oval’s deigned to put the steering anywhere but on the left. As part of its world expansion plans Ford also gave the car some decent independent rear suspension.

For the last 50 years the ‘Stang has made do with a bakkie-like solid rear axle which was fine for the ‘States – where there are reputedly no corners – but not so great in a mountain pass like Long Tom or Franschoek.

Since they were already messing with the legend, Ford decided, what the heck, while we’re at it let’s dump a new-fangled 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo engine under the long hood (which is how the Americans say bonnet). But fear ye not, muscle car purists: the venerable V8 5-litre GT still remains as the option to rock your eardrums and guzzle your fuel budget.

We took both engine versions of the newly-launched Mustang to the Gerotek testing grounds to see how they shaped up in terms of performance, handling, noise and general tomfoolery. In the red corner is the 2.3-litre convertible and in the black corner, looking very evil in its Darth Vader colour scheme, is the 5-litre GT Fastback.

AGILE, BUT IT AIN’T GERMAN

For starters, in handling neither of these Mustangs will hold a candle to a BMW M4 or similarly fast Audi or Benz. For cars that have just discovered the benefits of independent rear suspension for the first time, the Mustangs do a pretty decent job of getting around corners, but a German sports sedan will run rings around them on a track or handling circuit.

While throwing these Yank tanks around a track’s not a thing of pin-sharp precision, neither is it offputtingly vague. The traction is decent and there ain’t a huge amount of body roll in these rear-wheel-drive cars, and there’s plenty of fun to be had hugging curves and clipping apexes. The steering feel is meaty and it’s all fairly safe and predictable, helped along by a stability-control system that prevents sideways action (although this can be disabled if you wish to perform lurid rubber-smoking drifts that would earn you brownie points in Brakpan or Bellville. Or Detroit)

What saps some of the fun is the very leisurely automatic gearbox fitted to both derivatives we tested. It takes its sweet time to shift cogs no matter how frantic the driver’s high-adrenaline aspirations, even when in Sport mode. Switching to shifting manually with the steering paddles helps only a little as it won’t change gears if it thinks the revs are too high. The auto ‘box makes this horse feel a lot lazier than it should, and we’d really like to give the manual Mustang a go.

HOW DO THEY GALLOP?

While the 2.3 Ecoboost Mustang has a much smaller lump in its pants than the 5-litre GT, the accelerative performance difference between the two cars isn’t overwhelmingly large. The Ecoboost engine is the same one used in the very rapid new Focus RS so it’s no slouch, especially at high altitude where the atmosphere-compensating turbo comes into its own.

We tested both at Gerotek using a Racelogic VBox and from a standing start the Ecoboost Mustang was just one-tenth of a second slower than the V8 from 0-60km/h, and around a second slower to 100 and to the quarter-mile once the V8’s huge torque started playing more of a factor.

Either way, these are grand tourers rather than all-out sportscars.

There’s a much bigger difference between the two cars’ sonic personalities, with the rottweiler-like GT out-growling the Ecoboost by a significant factor. The old saying about a Mustang is that you watched the fuel needle go down as the speedo needle went up, and the GT does nothing to dispel this. It’s mega thirsty, and our test car averaged 16.4 litres per 100km. The Ecoboost version sipped a lot less, and managed as low as 8 litres per 100km on a freeway-only trip.

STYLED LIKE A LEGEND

On the visual scale both cars are anything but subtle and drew their fair share of stares. There are clearly a lot of Mustang fans out there judging by the smiles they elicited from passersby.

The cabin is decked out in leather and steel. There are some elements of shared parts from other Fords – the indicator switches for instance – but a lot of it’s unique to the Mustang including the steel toggle switches, the steering wheel with the galloping Mustang logo, and a heritage-proclaiming metal plaque on the dash which reads “Mustang: since 1964”.

When you unlock the doors a Mustang-shaped light is projected onto the floor next to the car – a party trick that friends and family members couldn’t get enough of.

True to the original 1964 car is the long-hood, short-deck styling, and having that extended bonnet stretch out in front of you gives driving this muscle car a unique vibe. Space in the two back bucket seats is tight, and adults will experience cramped knee- and head-space. In the fastback version your head is squashed right under the rear windscreen.

The boot is reasonably spacious (helped by the fact that there’s no spare wheel) and with the rear seats flipped down the car’s even large enough to take a bicycle.

HERITAGE COMES AT A PRICE

In terms of value, heritage clearly comes at a price. In SA, the 233kW 2.3T Mustang convertible costs R779 900 and the 306kW 5.0 GT V8 Fastback auto costs R839 900. In that league, a 245kW Audi S5 costs R848 000 and a 240kW BMW 440i Coupé sells for R763 488.

With super- and turbocharging, these Germans should compete, with or even beat, the V8 Mustang in performance at Reef altitudes.

In South Africa the Mustangs are simply priced too closely to the premium stuff, especially given that they don’t offer as refined a driving experience all round.

While we are loathe to do direct currency translations, surely you’d feel a bit short-changed by the fact that the car is much cheaper than these German rivals in its home country. In the US a 5.0 V8 GT costs $32 395 to $36 395 depending on spec, versus an Audi S5 from $53 100.

In fact a base-level Mustang EcoBoost in the US, costs about the same at a Toyota 86, both with a base price of just over $26 000.

SO WHICH ONE IS BEST?

Given the R120 000 price difference between the two Mustangs, we’d choose the V8 over the four-cylinder EcoBoost any day. Even if it is heavier on juice, the difference is surely not going to break the bank at the price level and even though it’s not really much faster, that soundtrack is just so much more soulful that it feels like a completely different car. And it won’t be embarrassing when you give in to a request to rev it, which happens about 150 000 times a day.

The bottom line: sure, the four-cylinder Mustang is the more sensible purchase, but that’s a bit like saying tequila is more sensible than Stroh Rum. Fact is, the Mustang is an emotional purchase, not a sensible one and to honour its legend you have to have the V8. Buying a four-cylinder Mustang is a bit like walking into a Texan steak ranch and ordering a salad as your main meal. Sure, it makes sense on some levels, but then why did you go there in the first place?

Star Motoring

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