Ford Mustang 2015-2023 review

Official European examples get Ford’s Performance Pack as standard, adding front strut braces, a thicker rear anti-roll bar and stiffer springs to the specification. They also get uprated front brakes, a bigger radiator and an additional oil cooler compared with their non-passport-carrying cousins. In October 2016 Ford's performance division created a range of kits to increase the power of the V8 and 2.3-litre Ecoboost Mustangs. The packs themselves are available in the US, but there is no definite confirmation they are set to arrive in the UK. The Ecoboost Mustang sees its power increase to 335bhp from 310bhp, and gains a 70lb ft leap in torque – with the pack fitted. 

Meanwhile, the 5.0 V8 Mustang GT gets three different performance kits. The mildest of these adds 13bhp and 16lb ft, and the mid-range pack provides 21bhp and 24lb ft. The most potent kit provides a power hike of 37bhp and 5lb ft, and extends the engine's redline to 7,500rpm.

UK sales will be limited to fastback and convertible bodystyles, 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo and 5.0-litre atmospheric V8 petrol engines, and six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmissions. And although the Ecoboost four-pot promises an intriguing combination of sub-6.0sec 0-62mph sprinting and 35mpg-plus touring, it’s still the ‘Coyote’ 5.0-litre, the model we’ve chosen to test, that’s expected to dominate sales.

Using port fuel injection and only just having inherited proper variable camshaft timing, it’s not the most modern V8 in the world and unlikely to surprise anyone with its fuel economy. But then, 410bhp for less than £35k is damned hard to argue with.

Ford's home market naturally benefits from some additional models, which the firm has indicated won't be available in the UK, including an entry-level naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V6 and the potent 518bhp Shelby GT350 and GT350R, however, if you feel the 410bhp that the 5.0-litre V8 Mustang produces isn't enough and modest performance kits don't quite satisfy your demands, then fear not. London-based supercar dealer, Clive Sutton, may just have the answer in the shape of the Sutton CS700 and CS800, which produces an astonishing 700bhp and 800bhp respectively.

Arguably, that leaves its finish and straightforward appearance some way short of the upmarket European hot hatch that the same money would buy you – a Volkswagen Golf R or BMW M2 owner would cringe at the rudimentary feel emanating from the Mustang’s toggle switches – but it also furnishes you with a robust sense of space not encountered in more familiar fare.

For those in the front, the model easily competes with any saloon you’d care to think of for scaled-up roominess. Its exterior width translates into an elbow-swallowing panorama of internal broadness and there’s no shortage of head room or comfort, either.

Rear-seat passengers – of which there can assuredly be only two – are progressively less well catered for, yet the Mustang remains a bona fide two-door four-seater in precisely the way a Audi TT, for example, isn’t. Of course, the big Ford’s general dissimilarity to Ingolstadt’s preened coupé is both strength and weakness, as we’re about to discover.

But although the ’Stang thinks for too long about how to make its body settle over complicated asphalt, there always retains a pleasing honesty to it. It’s well balanced, it settles more quickly than most American sports cars and it doesn’t always retain complete traction. And with all of that comes a sense of clean fun that means you can forgive it a great many things.

The wet track was unavailable when we visited MIRA’s proving ground, but the dry circuit was fairly damp anyway. This and the fact that Ford supplied the Mustang on winter tyres explain why the ’Stang wasn’t as fast as it would usually have been around our circuit.

But that doesn’t matter, because what matters more than speed is fun. And here the Mustang scores. Because it’s front engined (and quite a sizeable engine it is, too), the weight distribution is just over half (54 percent) to the front, which lends the Mustang an inherently stable balance. It’ll understeer a bit if you let it.

But you don’t have to let it. If you keep the brakes gently applied as you turn in, it keeps the nose planted. And from that point onwards, you can call on the rear wheels to help you turn as much as you’d like them to. On winter rubber, grip is low enough to let you feel that balance out on the road.

The Mustang stops pretty well, too. In the dry, and on grippier rubber, track days would give them a workout, but they performed well in these conditions.