BY AARON ROBINSON
February 2004
Those who recall the Mustang GT concept coupe and convertible from last year’s Detroit and L.A. auto shows (C/D, March 2003) know Ford has delivered what it promised, memories pressed in sheetmetal. Although not announced yet, the base sticker prices for the four-seat coupe and convertible should be close to 2004 pricing, says Ford: about $18,000 for a V-6 coupe to about $28,000 for a V-8 convertible. There will be a five-speed stick shift or a five-speed automatic available with both engines. There will also be a familiar suspension, with struts in front and a spruce log of a live axle in back.
Any way you see the new Mustang, you’re not about to confuse it with an effete Black Forest bullet, not about to mistake it for a front-drive fadmobile from Fukuoka. This Mustang is 29 carats of painstakingly crafted Detroit nostalgia, a visual hit parade from the pony car’s greatest days.
“We went back and looked at the significant [Mustangs], the ones that were really done right,” says Ford chief designer Larry Erickson. Basically, he means the ’65–’70 Mustangs, the Hi-Pos, Bosses, and Shelbys. They were all dumped into the styling stewpot along with a few progressive ideas.
“The surfaces have to be modern, or it really looks like you’re doing what you did before,” says Erickson. The early Mustang’s nose-up, tail-tucked stance was reversed; the new Mustang starts low and wedges upward toward a big finish at the back. Instead of sharp razorback creases down the rear shoulders, the new Mustang’s hindquarters roll upward and inward with subtle compound curves that play the light in diffuse directions.
Other features are shamelessly retro: the fish gills in the nose (shielded behind clear plastic headlight lenses), the moon-size driving lamps on the GT’s grille, and the chrome medallion on the rump. Buy the V-6 model, and the 16-inch alloys can be fitted with optional three-eared chrome center spinners.
Inside, the original Mustang’s squared-off, double-cowl dashboard theme returns. Chrome rings circle the large gauges, and an optional dress-up package adds textured, aluminized trim. The wispy-thin gauge numbers will be familiar to vintage Ford owners, and all Mustangs will feature driver-selectable backlight colors. Shelby white, Oil Filter orange, Air Filter blue, and Country Squire green (our names, not Ford’s) are among the 60 colors that can be mixed up using the digital dash display.
Ford vice-president of design J Mays “knew what he wanted going in, and that’s a Mustang,” says Erickson. But apart from a few yester-trinkets, the new Stang’s body is remarkably clean. No side scoops, no hood scoops (perhaps later, on the SVT Cobra version), and no badges on the fenders except for a simple “GT” designation on V-8s.
Erickson says that unlike the quarter-century-old Fox platform that gave the previous Mustang somewhat stubby proportions, there’s no need to dress up the shapelier DEW98. That’s Ford-speak for the 2005 Mustang’s structural bones, a skeleton shared with the Lincoln LS, Jaguar S-type, and Ford Thunderbird.
“Basically, we asked, ‘What’s the last rear-drive program we were happy with?’ and started there,” says Mustang chief engineer Hau Thai-Tang.
The newest DEW sports a much longer wheelbase than the Fox (107.1 inches versus 101.3 inches). It also features clipped overhangs; a better relation among the steering wheel, pedals, and shifter; and more distance from the front axle to the dash, as if the car had been stretched out like taffy. Indeed, the DEW Mustang is 4.4 inches longer stem to stern than the Fox. Front-seat passengers get the most benefit; adult riders in the coupe’s rear seat will still be seeing their knees and scraping their noggins on the glass.
The new platform should be less jiggly, with torsional rigidity of convertibles rising a claimed 100 percent over the old Mustang and 10 to 15 percent over the Thunderbird. Even so, curb weights should be within one percent of the current 3300-to-3500-pound Mustang, says Thai-Tang, thanks in part to the use of prewelded, variable-thickness stamping blanks and an aluminum hood.
Although the other DEW vehicles have all-independent suspensions, the 2005 Mustang goes without. That’s mainly to keep down costs, says Thai-Tang. It’s also partly because the majority of Mustang owners don’t know or care what kind of rear suspension they have, he says, and partly to serve street racers and quarter-milers who love a live axle’s simplicity and cheap interchangeability.
Ford’s new car czar, Phil Martens, group vice-president of product creation, says, “When I first got here [from Mazda in March 2002], I made the decision to put the solid axle back in. To go out and immediately disband what people know this car to be, which is the best high-performance sports car for under $20,000, is a mistake.”
The live axle has been revised from the old Mustang’s four-link rear. Gripping the axle now are two lower trailing links, a single upper link, and a Panhard rod for side-to-side stiffness. Replacing the old setup, two triangulated upper links, with the Panhard rod allowed engineers to relax the bushing stiffness in the links to soften the ride while fortifying the axle’s lateral stiffness with the Panhard. Ford also upsized the axle shafts for better camber stiffness. Sharper steering response and cornering control should result.
In the nose, Ford has affixed low-friction struts braced by L-shaped welded stamped-steel lower control arms. The front coils that rode directly on the control arms of the Fox Mustang have now moved to their more appropriate position on the strut itself. Drivers should enjoy a tighter, more-tied-down feel to the front end, says chassis engineer Mark Rushbrook, along with less noise and impact harshness.
“We focused a lot of attention on the tuning of the dampers,” he says. “We want a firm damping feeling that was not present in the old car.”
The SOHC 12-valve, 4.0-liter V-6 with 202 horsepower and 235 pound-feet, also running in the Ranger pickup, opens the Mustang’s power résumé. Martens calls the V-8 GT “the most accessible 300 horsepower on the market.” By accessible, he means cheap, at least compared with the 305-hp Mach 1, which runs $29,590. For 2005, the base GT will feature almost the same power for about $25,000.
The base 4.6-liter V-8 now features an aluminum block and receives the SOHC 3-valve aluminum cylinder heads and variable-cam-timing mechanism from the new Ford F-150’s 5.4-liter V-8. Engineers have squeezed more airflow efficiency from the heads, in part with a computer-controlled intake flap that varies the port sizes with engine speed. At low speeds the flaps constrict the passages to create a venturi effect and induce turbulence for better charge mixing. At higher speeds they open wide to let past the rushing atmosphere.
Ford claims 300 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 315 pound-feet at 4500 rpm, a 40-horse and 13-pound-foot climb up from the current GT. Fitted with the Tremec 3650 five-speed manual (a five-speed auto is available on both V-8 and V-6) and running through the standard-across-the-board 8.8-inch, 3.31:1 rear end, the GT should easily lay down two rail lines of rubber with its standard 235/55WR-17 tires or optional 255/45 tires on 18-inch wheels.
Expect 60 mph to whiz by in the low-five-second range in a manual V-8, somewhere around seven seconds for a V-6. All we need is Jan and Dean and the Great Society, and boomers will be babes again.
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Cobra Aspires To Be M Fighter
Phil Martens has put his fingerprints all over the new Mustang. At the helm of Mazda until March 2002, when he became Ford’s group vice-president for product creation, Martens helped engineer the 2005 Mustang’s move from Ford’s assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan, to the Ford/Mazda plant in nearby Flat Rock. There, the Mustang takes advantage of Mazda technology for better body assembly and quality control.
Martens also has an idea of where the next SVT Cobra is headed: “We have to have a Cobra that is world-class level. The old Fox platform couldn’t deliver that; this one can.” Expect a bigger, broader separation between Mustang GTs and SVT Cobras, he says. BMW’s M cars are serving as inspiration; hence, the next Cobra will have to have an independent rear suspension, he says.
“It has to. The expectation in this category is for a much more refined product.” Also likely: supercharging and a substantial increase from the current Cobra’s 390 horsepower. Ford has set no firm price ceiling, Martens says. “The only restriction is that you have to build it on the [Mustang] line, and the quality has to be there.” —AR
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2005 FORD MUSTANG
Estimated base price: $18,000
OPTIONAL ENGINE
Type V-8, aluminum block and heads
Displacement 281 cu in, 4601cc
Compression ratio 9.8:1
Fuel-delivery system port injection
Valve gear chain-driven single overhead cams, 3 valves per cylinder, hydraulic lifters, variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing
Power (SAE net) 300 bhp @ 6000 rpm
Torque (SAE net) 315 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm
Redline 6000 rpm
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