2016 Ford Mustang Sutton CS700 first drive

Choose an appropriate stretch of tarmac – preferably one without a speed limit – take a long, full-throttle run at the car’s redline, and you’ll be left in no doubt whatsoever that the CS700 is a 700-horsepower car. But it’s a fairly heavy car too, and doesn’t erupt with mid-range torque like an Audi RS6 or a Porsche 911 Turbo S. In other words, if you’re not either brave or daft enough to keep the car pinned between 5000- and 6500rpm, you’re simply not getting your bang-for-the-buck.

Sutton’s suspension makeover does two important things for the CS700 necessary for the enjoyment of the car’s fearsome turn of speed: it creates the traction required to put the car’s power down from low speed, and also the outright lateral grip and stability (on smooth tarmac, at least) needed to carry the huge speed that the car so easily builds. Though it steers with a physically testing, leaden control weight, the car’s handling response is excellent and its roll control first-rate. You might imagine that a 700-horsepower Mustang would always feel like a triumph of power over grip, but in the CS700’s case you’d be surprised.

The inevitable elephant-sized compromise comes with the car’s ride, though – which is short, firm, aggressively damped and wholly unsuited to uneven British roads. As part of its suspension overhaul, Sutton takes a whacking 35mm out of the ride height of the standard Mustang at the front axle, and 25mm at the rear. Part of this is about ‘straightening out’ the natural cruising pitch of the car, and the better balancing of its grip levels. Fair enough. But taking so much travel out of the car’s suspension leaves little room in which the car’s dampers can work, and makes it feel harsh, unsettled and irritable during fast B-road driving. Often a bit unpleasant even on an averagely surfaced dual carriageway, too.

Adding so much tyre footprint and lateral stiffness into the Mustang’s makeup also makes it surrender its grip on the tarmac in less progressive and forgiving fashion than you might expect of a front-engined, rear-driven American muscle car. But the good news both here, and in connection with that uncompromising ride, is that you can tune and tweak the dynamic recipe of your CS700 to your own personal taste during the ordering process. So if you’d rather drift that carve your way through corners, and want to preserve at least some of the long-travel ride compliance of the standard Mustang’s suspension, you just need to say.