It’s 11.00am on a bright, sunny Sunday morning. This was the Sunday that I was going to give Tom Cruise a run for his money – him and his P-51 Mustang against the hotter than “wild fire red” Mustang 5.0 GT I was in.

The Mustang was waiting to be let loose from it’s domicile home in PJ. Its owner and I were going to view some land off Karak (1) town; which was over an hour away. D.D. said I was driving.

This was not just any old wannabe sports car. It is big. At 188.5 inches in length, 81.9 inches wide (including mirrors) and standing at 54.3 inches high; this machine’s 5.0L (302 cu.in.) pumps out 450 horses, that pushes the pointer to 160mph. 0-60mph in 4.3sec.

This machine Screamed, “Look at me at every angle. I’m sexy! You will not be disappointed”. It was already fast, just being stationary. It was in my favourite colour – race red.

The car with it’s wide door opened, makes it easy to get in and out of it. This is quite unlike some of its European competitors, which requires some amount of learning to get in and out of them.

The steering wheel on this car was carbon-fibre equipped. The seats were leather standard, with electronic adjustment. All accept the backrest. A chrome lever at the side of the seat at its axis, needs to be pulled to adjust it leaning forward or laying back. It does make sense that this is manually adjustable. Think about it. Eeeeeennnnhhhh(sound)…the backrest is adjusted electronically. Or, brrrttt(sound)…the backrest is adjusted near instantly.

There is a row of buttons on the centre dash, with believe it or not, red square caps covering them – fighter jet style. This is just below the screen with the Ford logo displayed when the system is not in use.

Flick open the red cover on the right, press the engine start/stop button; and all silence from miles around, is broken. The roar of the engine is so loud that it make the sound of thunder sound meek. I simply loved it! What Ford has done with the Mustang 5.0 GT is made the v-8 cylinder engine sound almost exactly to that of the P-51 Mustang’s 12 cylinder engine. Turn up the volume whole watching the videos of Listen to the sound (1) & (2).

Driving this badass machine is exhilarating! This is definitely not the feather-lights of European cars. The steering is heavy though it is power-assisted; which is good because you have full control of the car on the road. Though the engine sound is loud in the cabin, we could still hold conversations without having to raise our voices.

The engine sound was sweet, pure growl. You betcha that everyone on the highway / freeway (American) was looking at us. We could be seen from miles around and before long, we were filling up the wing rear-view mirrors and the centre one of vehicles ahead of us as, as we approached them faster than a blink of an eye. At almost 7ft wide from the tip of one wing mirror to the other; the vehicles in front of us will not be able to see anything else but this menacing red fury on the road. That’s putting it mildly.

On our way back from Karak, I put this mean machine through its paces. Thump the gas pedal and the 450 horses pulls this red carriage at 10Gs, similar to that of TopGun Maverick’s 10Gs test flight😉. It stayed glued to the road. Immense!

The growl of its engine was excitement hardly containable. If you think the roar of this supercar’s engine is fierce when the car is stationary; the growl as it eats up miles of road when picking up speed is definitely an OMG!!!😲😲😲

I’ve driven the BMW M3 through its paces. Its an amazing car, on top of the charts when compared to other European cars in its league and higher. While the M3 has a bit of head knowledge and driving excitement, the Mustang just blows it away – from head knowledge to sight to deafening sound to sheer go from 0 to its top of 160mph to driving in town to attraction to deafening sound (did I mention deafening sound?) in almost every category. I’ve included a video “F80 BMW M3 vs Ford Mustang 5.0 I ROLL RACE” for you to get an idea of my experience with both these cars.

Many good things has to come to an end. I had to reluctantly detach myself from this Mustang to head for home. A massive “Thank You” to D.D. for letting me get into the cockpit and drive this Mustang off its wheels.

NOTES
A little background on Mustang horses:

The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses.
Etymology and usage
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the English word mustang was likely borrowed from two essentially synonymous Spanish words, mestengo (or mesteño) and mostrenco. English lexicographer John Minsheu glossed both words together as ‘strayer’ in his dictionary of 1599. Both words referred to livestock defined as ‘wild, having no master’.