The Portland, Oregon, offers some truly great backroads for driving enthusiasts; and while they might be perfect for testing out sports cars in the summer and fall months (the dry season), always-gray mid-March perhaps wasn’t the most appropriate place to preview the 2013 Ford Mustang.
We were also surprised when with pouring rain, and temperatures down in the 30s, Ford urged us not to keep to the Interstates and boulevards but to get out and drive a route it had planned on Coast Range roads. But we soon figured out why: Those wet, not-so-ideal conditions, with choppy backroads partially covered with debris and grit, only served to underscore just how surprisingly sophisticated the Mustang is today.
While the underpinnings of the 2013 Ford Mustang have some humble origins and still rely on a solid rear axle, Ford engineers have worked magic in making the Mustang a better driver’s car than quite a few sports coupes or sedans with more sophisticated underpinnings and expensive price tags.
For those who are avid readers of this site, followers of the Mustang, or enthusiasts in general, you, there’s really nothing all that new in the ‘driving’ portion of this first drive. In recent years, Ford has stepped up its game with the Mustang and has been introducing a host of serious engineering and feature improvements nearly each model year; while there are plenty of improvements in the 2013 model, performance itself for the V-6 and GT models remains mostly the same as when the Mustang was last extensively improved, for 2011.
Mustang is a pony car, so it’s easy to lapse into thinking that these new versions keep with tradition and have relatively low-revving engines—especially in V-6 form. But it’s quite the opposite. Both engines make their peak horsepower at 6,500 rpm and their peak torque at a rather high 4,250 rpm, so we firmly advise that you get the manual transmission.
The Portland, Oregon, offers some truly great backroads for driving enthusiasts; and while they might be perfect for testing out sports cars in the summer and fall months (the dry season), always-gray mid-March perhaps wasn’t the most appropriate place to preview the 2013 Ford Mustang.
We were also surprised when with pouring rain, and temperatures down in the 30s, Ford urged us not to keep to the Interstates and boulevards but to get out and drive a route it had planned on Coast Range roads. But we soon figured out why: Those wet, not-so-ideal conditions, with choppy backroads partially covered with debris and grit, only served to underscore just how surprisingly sophisticated the Mustang is today.
While the underpinnings of the 2013 Ford Mustang have some humble origins and still rely on a solid rear axle, Ford engineers have worked magic in making the Mustang a better driver’s car than quite a few sports coupes or sedans with more sophisticated underpinnings and expensive price tags.
For those who are avid readers of this site, followers of the Mustang, or enthusiasts in general, you, there’s really nothing all that new in the ‘driving’ portion of this first drive. In recent years, Ford has stepped up its game with the Mustang and has been introducing a host of serious engineering and feature improvements nearly each model year; while there are plenty of improvements in the 2013 model, performance itself for the V-6 and GT models remains mostly the same as when the Mustang was last extensively improved, for 2011.
Mustang is a pony car, so it’s easy to lapse into thinking that these new versions keep with tradition and have relatively low-revving engines—especially in V-6 form. But it’s quite the opposite. Both engines make their peak horsepower at 6,500 rpm and their peak torque at a rather high 4,250 rpm, so we firmly advise that you get the manual transmission.
