With more than ten million sold across a production run stretching more than 60 years, the Ford Mustang had a firm spot in popular culture. Which means almost everyone has their own idea about what they think it should be.
Whether it’s a Boulevard cruiser, something to lazily rumble its way down a motorway or to simply wake the neighbours of a Sunday morning, it probably is to me what it isn’t to you. But there has always been one constant: it’s one of the cheapest ways to bag yourself a new V8 coupe.
This S650 generation is no different, with prices starting from £55,725 for the base GT model. That’s £10,105 less than the BMW M2 and £19,399 less than the Porsche Cayman GTS. Even the more powerful Dark Horse variant – from £67,995 – is well priced considering it has an extra 7bhp and a suite of track-oriented upgrades.
Ford hopes this, and the fact it is now only available with a V8, will continue the pony car’s evergreen appeal among loyal customers, while also helping it to attract fresh, younger buyers.
To appeal to the latter, this is the most tech-rich Mustang there has ever been – coming with twice the computing power of the last one, a drift-inducing electronic handbrake, the ability to receive over-the-air software updates and change its digital screens (up to 13.2in in size) to a retro 1970s look.
You can think of the S650, then, as more a comprehensively and technologically overhauled piece of American muscle that draws on six generations of experience in trying to be the best of the breed. That last part is the key bit, because it’s what we’re going to find out.