|
My gut tells me that the M4 will have a very tough time putting distance between itself and the Mustang GT on a track. We don't know how the F8x will compare in performance to the E9x yet, but certainly from the preliminary information we have now it is not going to be such a huge leap in performance such that it will leave the rest of the industry with absolutely no hope of competing. When you consider that the outgoing Boss Mustang was outperforming the E9x M3 in tests, and Ford has said the new Mustang GT has now been able to best the Boss, its clear that - whatever the car was benchmarked against - it has gotten a bump in performance as well. In the end we are talking about cars with similar power, similar weight, and similar handling after all, this new Mustang GT and new M4.
On the styling topic, I am actually a bit disappointed that the styling of the new Mustang is evolutionarily close to the outgoing model. I was hoping for a clean slate approach. I was also hoping for a smaller footprint (i.e. smaller overhangs this time around). But it is not a bad looking car by any stretch - its actually quite good looking as is the model it replaces.
What the car lacks though is DCT, although they do have paddle shift now. But if Ford were to build one with DCT and throw in a higher revving Roadrunner V8 (the old one hit 7500 RPM, say they hit 8000RPM this time) it starts to get real tempting. That being said, I think the next "C63" will be tempting too, even if it has neither the DCT (it probably won't, but might) nor the high revving V8 (it definitely won't have that). Not sure why I need hold the Mustang to higher standards then; I suppose there is just that certain degree of snobbery I possess that causes that double standard. What can I say, I am not perfect.
|