I went out looking at cars today, mainly out of boredom and ended up at the Ford dealer. I was mainly looking for used GTs but ended up driving one of the new 2013s they had on the lot. I’ll start off by saying it had all the options I wouldn’t want in a new mustang, but a ton of nice features as well. This one was a 5.0 convertible, triple black, automatic with the premium package and the shaker sound system. The automatic was nice, but I felt that it took too much away from the driving experience. The shifts are smooth- too smooth for my taste, but the power delivery was still excellent. Rolling into the throttle, the car accelerates effortlessly and when you are ready to just cruise, it chugs along at 1200-ish rpm with little to no effort. The chassis felt extremely planted, especially for a convertible, through the twisty roads we took and there was no sign of wheel shutter when going over rough patches. Body roll was minimal at best, although I didn’t get to really push the car as hard as I would have liked to since it was a brand new dealer car with dealer plates on it. Steering was tight and responsive with a very positive feel without being too heavy, but not twitchy at all. When you turn the wheel, the car just goes. I definitely felt like the car was screaming to be let loose on the straightaways and a short pull from second gear confirmed that the 400+ hp was there anytime you felt the need. The onboard computer surprised me with g-force sensors, IAT, cylinder head temp, trans temp, air-fuel ratios, and other performance goodies I had no clue existed on an American pony car. Wind noise with the top down was almost non-existent allowing you to hear the low rumble from the stock exhaust. Braking was impressive as well with relatively little nose dive and positive downshifts from the automatic giving a noticeable grumble from the tailpipes on each down shift. The interior was surprisingly comfortable as well, easy to navigate, and the leather seating seemed to really bring the whole thing together. My one gripe about the interior is the massive amount of plastic on the dash and the way the radio is built into it. While the shaker system is amazing for a factory radio, I’m not really sure how well the platform would accept aftermarket stereo components if you ever got the itch for “more”.
All in all, for someone looking to spend the money, it really is an amazing platform. After driving the GT, I can only imagine how insane the GT500 will be once they hit the streets. Part of me wants to go back and buy one, but for $45,000 I think I will pass on this one. That being said, the seed has been planted and I may just end up going back for a manual coupe one of these days.
