Image: Peet Mocke
Image: Peet Mocke
Image: Peet Mocke
Image: Peet Mocke
Driving ImpressionsBy: Siyavuya Mbaduli
In the past years, eight cylinders were almost a minimum requirement for admission to CAR’s annual Performance Shootout. As a sign of the changing times, downsizing and the corresponding turbocharging have now become the norm and it could well be that the 2022 winner – the Audi R8 Performance Quattro with its decuplet of cylinders – signalled a genuine last hurrah for those big boostless engines in the competition. Here’s what we think of the Mustang California Special.
Image: Peet Mocke
So, whatever one may think of the Ford Mustang – a proper and still enjoyable retro-throwback or a mere marketing exercise in chest-beating, its now-endangered status guarantees special recognition of the momentous achievements written in spent octane and burnt rubber over the past 57 years. The Mustang, in SA as a limited-edition California Special, is the most powerful entrant in the Shootout after the Eskom powered Audi e-Tron. It delivers 330 kW at a booming 7 000 r/min (whoever said lazy American V8s can’t rev?) and 529 N.m of torque at 4 600 r/min, driving the rear wheels through a paddle-shift 10-speed automatic transmission, a six-speed manual version is available Stateside.
Image: Peet Mocke
The name is a throwback to limited-run Mustangs dressed largely in the tinsel of cosmetic adaptations (although in ultra-rare instances, high-performance big-block 390 and 7,0-litre Cobra Jet 428 engines were equipped). They were sold in selected parts of America between 1967 and 1969 – primarily on the West Coast – after which the name fell into disuse before being revived in 1987, and then again from 2007 onwards. Our 2022 Performance Shootout test candidate falls into the former category of sporting no-engine performance upgrades, although to its credit, it is fitted with a limited-slip differential, 19-inch tyres and high-performance Brembo brakes. The C/S commands a R70k premium over the base-model Mustang, which, incidentally, would have sat a bit closer to our guiding R1 million price point. As always, value is in the eye of the beholder. Thanks to traction-enhancing rear-wheel drive, on the drag strip the Mustang matched Ford’s claims by tearing from zero to 100 km/h in 4,81 seconds. It was bested only by the BMW M240i and the two Audis.
Image: Peet Mocke
However, when the asphalt began to sweep and the pace became more pressing, the pair of German super-saloons came into their own and left the Mustang in their wake as its penchant for cruising over bruising was more prevalent. Trail-braking, apex-sniffing moves simply aren’t its thing and there’s a reason why a Mustang has seldom troubled the Nürburgring’s timekeepers. the Mustang hits hardest not at high, but at low speeds, a crowd-pleaser with its throwback appearance and glorious burble from its neighbourhood-unfriendly V8 as an on-demand fantasy donut machine. At nearly eight years old, and at a time when evolution in the automotive industry is clocking light speed, the Mustang was always going to end up as an anachronism.
Keyword: CPS 2023: Ford Mustang 5,0 GT/CS – The limited edition Pony