9/4/2023 0 Comments Ilift twin![]() The Mustang's ride can be a bit percussive and baggy at low speeds, but most of the time it pulls a similar very clever trick to our European Fords. European Fords don't suffer that way, and I suspect the Focus RS will be a scalpel in comparison. Its macro moves are good, but on the micro scale they're fuzzy. But beside the Audi the Ford's reactions and messages are less exact, making it seem too softly bushed, like you're wearing thick gloves: only when the material has compressed does the connection properly happen. A limited-slip diff is standard, and generally a slide will be pretty tidy. Of course, though, it'll poke the tail out, and pretty suddenly too, when you apply the right toe. Sure, in tight bends you've got to be careful not to go in too fast and be kidnapped into understeer by its weight. Inevitably the handling is defined by the driven wheels. In the snaky valley-side roads, I'm starting to bed in with the Mustang too. The Audi's shift is less mechanical, but quicker and lighter and it's easier to be smooth. At least you do feel in shifting gears that you're meshing actual cogs. Even so, there's a want of sophistication here, and your sense of lurching ham-footedness is heightened by a brake pedal that's over-servoed at the top of its travel, a clumsy mismatch for the heavy box and clutch. The Audi's are better, but as with all small turbos, less realistic.Ī new diff (still a limited-slip one) and other tweaks have meant the European Mustang suffers less from the crude low-speed transmission snatch and whine than the first one we tested in the US. The Ford's official economy and CO2 numbers are dire, but you might just hit them. The Audi doesn't just over-deliver on performance for a 230bhp four its noise is better than you'd expect too, a blend of cream and spice, their proportion varied by whether or not you have the intake resonator engaged on the sports button. It's honest music, unlike the slightly cheesy theatricality that's all the fashion on European forced-induction V8s. And it sounds terrific: a well-oiled mechanism wrapped in a naturally tuneful exhaust. Yes, it'll rumble quietly along at 2,000rpm, but it thrives on high revs too. This isn't quite the stereotypical apple-pie V8. At least not until the Mustang driver really starts using the revs, when the gap opens again. On real roads, the Audi takes advantage of a quicker gearshift and whacking mid-range turbo thump, and mostly doesn't fall far behind. Once you get past, say, 30mph, the margin diminishes. Except - welcome to my world - when creating smoke-choked photos for magazines. But assuming Ford uses line lock and takes advantage of RWD traction, it's really opening out its advantage as it departs, like a 4 July firework display, from the start line. The Mustang is supposed to get to 62mph in 4.8secs the TT, in 6.0. The Audi weighs only three-quarters as much as the Mustang. ![]() Still, a front-drive 2.0 four is going to have a hard time against a rear-drive 5.0 V8. The engine's a 4cyl, but a good one, with a turbo, direct injection, and the valves have variable timing and lift. The TT's body is composed in greater part of aluminium, and much of its suspension is lightweight too. Optioned with navigation, cruise and climate control, heated seats and internet connection, all of which are on our £34k Mustang, it tips over £35k. We've got the base 2.0 turbo manual, with front-drive. The bonnet and front wings are aluminium.Īn Audi TT can technically slip beneath £30k, but it never does. The V8 isn't some pushrod job but a four-cam all-aluminium effort with variable timing on all four camshafts. Before you ask, to be ‘world-class' meant this generation of Mustang has ditched the live rear axle in favour of proper suspension. For under £34,000, we've a 5.0-litre V8 up front, a limited-slip diff in the back, big Brembo brakes inside the 19in P Zeros, a pretty sophisticated integrated infotainment system and upgraded hi-fi in the cabin. So here we are, bubba-bubbing down a German dual carriageway, impressed by the refined cruise. In the US, no one likes to be taken for the sort of fool who'd pay over the odds. Is it a direct competitor, an interesting diversion, or a hopeless irrelevance? For us today, it's the muscle car, to see what it means in the European coupe landscape. They want the cruiser or the muscle car - always the two most significant Mustang strands. That makes eight possible combinations but almost everyone who's ordered one in Britain has gone for either a soft-top 4cyl auto or coupe V8 manual. ![]() You can have it with a 2.3 Ecoboost or a V8, with manual or auto, and soft or hard top. Over here, Ford of Europe's pitch is to folk who seek Americana but with world-class competence. So this new Mustang has kept its accent even as it's acquired a passport - it's in Europe now with LHD, and arrives in Britain this autumn with right-side steering. ![]()
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