You never know exactly what you’re going to get with a V-8-powered Mustang. Some of the best performance cars we’ve ever driven include the likes of the flat-plane-crank-powered Mustang Shelby GT350R, the burly Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca, and the flyweight 1993 Mustang Cobra. Others, such as the SN95 Mustang GT, were underwhelming—or worse, just plain forgettable. So you might understand our hesitation to predict anything going into our first test of the new Mustang GT. However, the surprisingly fun EcoBoost gave us hope the GT would deliver.
Before we dive in, let’s quickly cover what’s new and what isn’t. The S650 Mustang’s new sheetmetal is the most obvious change. Ford designers applied first-gen Mustang styling marks again—for the third straight generation—yet did an admirable job of making the car look fresh overall. Mixed in with obvious callbacks to the ’67 and ’68 are subtle
