There was a lot of speculation about what engine the Mustang would come with once launched in India. Internationally, there is a 2.3 litre four cylinder Ecoboost as well as a 3.5 litre V6 motor but Ford decided to give us the full monty, the 5.0 litre V8 of naturally aspirated goodness. This engine develops 400 horsepower and 515 Nm of torque. The engine has been detuned to run on normal octane fuel. Push the start button and the massive V8 comes to life with a distinct rumble. There is a rumble as you accelerate and progress is smooth. Acceleration is linear and you don’t really get thrown back into the seat when you put the pedal to the metal. The V8 comes mated to a six speed automatic gearbox. While shifts are smooth at moderate throttle inputs, the transmission does feel slow to respond when you push the accelerator hard. The best part about this motor is in the way it picks up speed smoothly through the mid-range all the way to the red line without any hiccups. The Mustang is very useable as a daily driver around the city and fantastic cruiser when you hit the highway. It will happily cruise at 100-110 kph all day long at 1500-1600 rpm. While the engine sounds nice, it isn’t extremely loud. However, the Mustang is very mod friendly and many bolt on parts available internationally. So getting an exhaust system to suit your ears shouldn’t be a problem at all. There are four driving modes – Normal, Sport+, Track and Snow/Wet. Sport+ makes the engine extremely responsive and quick. It revs all the way to redline easily making the dials go red as you do so. It also gets three steering modes – Comfort, Normal and Sport. The steering is at its lightest in Comfort, Normal makes it a bit weighty, while in Sport mode it gets tight. The Mustang’s engine may be detuned but it is still a V8 that means it will empty its 60.9 litre fuel tank quickly too.
The Mustang now comes with an all independent suspension setup. This has given the car very compliant ride quality. Even with the 19 inch alloy wheels, the car soaks in the pot holes and bad patches of road nicely. Handling is decent but there is a good amount of body roll going around corners. The Mustang is not really a track car anyway. But it can go sideways and how. It can slide its tail out at any given corner. Massive thrills guaranteed. There’s 137 mm of ground clearance but though that feels low on paper, its quite adequate. The Stang did not scrape any of the speed breakers that we went over.
Safety feature on the Mustang include eight airbags, ABS, ESP, Hill Launch Assist, Traction Control, ISOFIX Child seat mounts, rear parking sensors and a rear view camera.
