Diary of a Mustang Lover

The Salt Plains of Utah, popularly known as The Bonneville Salt Plains. A bright red Ford Mustang with two white racing stripes, standing in the middle of God’s white masterpiece on earth. This combo would leave any motorhead salivating akin to a bulldog seeing the choicest hind legs of Mary’s little lamb. And I was there beholding the sight in person and walking towards the Mustang to drift it on the plains as if there was no tomorrow. The torque, the understeer and the plethora of horsepower under the hood of the Mustang is any drifter’s dream, especially at a play ground like Bonneville. Suddenly some moron started honking incessantly. I turned around to find no one behind me. It was my morning alarm. My perfect dream was shattered.                  

There is something about American Muscle Cars that evoke a myriad of emotions within car lovers that no other cult car evokes. The Japanese have their Nissan Skyline or the 350Z or 370Z, Subaru Imprezas or Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo series and of course how can we forget the Mazdas. The Europeans have their, BMW M series, Audi R’s, The legendary Porsches GT’s, Lamborghini Countach and Diablo SV, Ferrari Maranello & Spider, Maseratis, Volkswagen Beetle. Phew! (Pardon me, my Japanese and European brothers if I am forgetting some of you).                

Imagine an auditorium full of car enthusiasts, say 5000 of them. And a folk standing at the podium calls out the name “Ford Mustang or Shelby Mustang”. May I dare to place a bet on the fact that 95% of the audience is bound to have an instant mini orgasm or call it “Cargasm” and the rest 5% will lie about it. We are talking about one of world’s largest mass orgasms.                

America has quite a few cult muscle cars to boast of and many like Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Charger, Buick Wildcat, Pontiac Firebird, Plymouth Barracuda or the ”Sir Pioneer”  Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Ford’s Mustang has had and will always have a following of its own, since its inception in 1964. The authority of this car as the king of American muscle was reinforced when a certain Texan racer, Mr. Shelby tweaked it with his recipe and thus was born the Shelby Mustang in 1967.                 

I agree these Mustangs were awful at braking then, were a handful when it came to handling, had terrible understeer and what not. The criticisms of the agnostics of the Mustang have stood the test of time. But, dude, give me a 1967 Shelby Mustang any day over a Lambo, Porsche or Ferrari for that matter.                 

Why can’t we have a ready-for-road prototype of this piece de resistance in our country? Is it so impossible? I agree the Mustang in its current form is not a good business prospect in our country. But, my fellow Mustang lovers picture this – take the current Fiesta’s chassis (we already know it’s an able one by seeing the Fiesta, Ecosport and the upcoming Figo Aspire). Elongate and widen the chassis to suit the American Muscle rank. Latch on the Mustang’s body on the platform. Under the hood put a 1500 cc Ecoboost engine for petrolheads and an 1800 cc turbocharged diesel engine for the dieselheads among us. Price it in the 10 to 15 lakh range. What say, folks? Don’t we see the cash registers ringing at Ford? Won’t it be a dream come true for Mustang fans like us on a tight budget? Mr. Nigel Harris, are you listening?                

Until then guys, find an HM Contessa in the best possible condition, under the hood put Hyundai’s diesel engine from the Verna or Elantra (it’s the same one), a good suspension system from Koni. Top it off with a loud exhaust. That’s the closest and best, we poor Mustangers can get to our ultimate stupor, if you may call it so.