Even American themselves know the pony car fever is fading. Since the sales no. is declining every year, GM is expected to let this generation's Camaro and Firebird die without replacement. Even the Holden division could offer a new rear-wheel-drive platform, the company still think the poor sales won't justify the development cost. Ford, as we know, is going to hang on with at least another generation. Once the only rival has gone, Mustang is likely to survive longer. 

In fact, the Mustang survives because it always outsold the GM's rivals. During the first 10 months of 1998, Ford sold 120,901 Mustangs against Camaro and Firebird's combined 69,389. This enable Ford to revamp Mustang in Autumn 1998. 

The first new feature of the '99 Mustang is more power. The best selling 3.8 V6 gained 40 more horses to 190hp, while Mustang GT's sohc V8 improved from 225hp to 260hp. The Cobra version will be updated later, hopefully have a new independent rear suspension. 

Here we concentrate on the Mustang GT. The extra power is achieved by means of revised intake manifold, lower back pressure exhaust, camshafts with sportier timing and higher lift, bigger valves and ignition with individual coils on spark plugs. Although the power output and torque (300lbft) is still no match with Camaro Z28's 305hp / 335lbft, it is already a big step forward. Remember the LS1 engine displaces a full 1 litre more.  

The '99 Mustang gains 1.4 inches rear track to improve stability. Rear suspensions travel was also increased to deal with criticism about poor ride in the old car. Nevertheless, people used to European sports cars can easily point out its shortage : excessive understeer, stiff gearshift, poor position of brake and throttle pedal which makes heel-and-toe action difficult, cheap and unsupportive seats. In the end, the improved rear suspension is still a non-independent live axle. 

Compare a Mustang against a TVR Chimaera would have been very interesting. However, Mustang (or any pony cars) was not designed to deliver European kind of handling. Instead of handling, straight line performance, the performance / price ratio and upgradability are more important to their customers. People always amuse how they modify the pony cars to 350hp for a few hundred dollars, and how they smoke their tyres during the illegal quarter mile street races. 

Coming back to the questions raised in the beginning of this article - which is the best pony car ? Judging from straight line acceleration and top speed, Camaro Z28 is (by far) the faster car. Judging from handling, Camaro is also better. However, there must be some advantage about price, packaging, equipment, accommodation etc. on the Mustang side, otherwise it wouldn't have continued to outsold the GM rivals. 
 

Mustang - the first Pony car

Mustang became a huge success, not only earned Iacocca a CEO position in Chrysler, but also made itself being the first and only sports car exceeded 1 million units production. Meanwhile, General Motor responded with Pontiac Firebird and Chevrolet Camaro, which continue to rival with Mustang in today. 
 

Mustang Bullitt GT

The conversion is simple: to reassemble the look of the 1968 car, the roof panel around the C-pillar has been revised, hence looking a little bit more like a fastback. Then a set of wheels mirroring the old car is fitted. The suspensions are set slightly stiffer while ride height is dropped by 25mm. In the engine compartment, intake and exhaust breathing has been smoothened to deliver a touch more output - 5 horsepower and 3 pound-foot means little, but now the power comes lower at the rev. Throttle response is sharpened as well. 

Road & Track found the Bullitt nearly as quick as the overrated SVT, reaching 60mph in 5.8 seconds (the SVT is 5.6 while the GT is 6.0 seconds). 1/4 mile is even closer, which is 14.3 seconds, versus SVT's 14.2 and GT's 14.7. Handling is more stable and predictable than the GT, but still no match with the IRS-equipped SVT. 
 

Mustang Mach 1

The new Mach 1 does not have a big block V8, of course - the philosophy of "Living Legend" is to keep development cost at minimum. It takes a stock 305hp 4.6-litre dohc 32-valve V8 from the parts pool. If you remember, the previous SVT Mustang Cobra was powered by the same engine. However, Mach 1 is cheaper than the SVT, thus it still rides on the old live-axle suspensions like the mass production Mustang rather than the independent setup of the SVT. In the expense of ride quality, the Mach 1 can keep its price at US$29,000, around the same level as Nissan 350Z. 

With a 305hp V8, Mach 1 can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in around 5.2 seconds, quicker than the single-cam Bullit by 0.6 seconds. Again, nothing else can produce comparable acceleration figures without costing more. However, the chassis of Mach 1 is as outdated as before. Apart from the stronger Brembo brakes, there is hardly anything worth admiring. 

Externally, the Mach 1 really has some resemblance to the legendary car it imitates. The most obvious is the exaggerate power-dome and air scoop over the bonnet. The air scoop imitates a ram air device but is actually cosmetic. But all these just add to the ugliness of the car while blocking driver vision. Poor taste too. 
 

SVT Mustang Cobra (2002)

To outpower Vette while rebuilding image, SVT has upgraded the Cobra with more power and tweaked chassis. The 32-valve V8 is added with an Eaton root-type supercharger to pump out 390 horsepower at 6000rpm and 390 lbft of torque at 3500rpm. This makes the original Cobra seemed a league slower. The new engine also drives through 6-speed manual gearbox instead of 5-speed. Road & Track timed the new Cobra hit 60mph in 4.9 seconds and 100mph in 11.1 seconds, almost as quick as the Cobra R. The most important is that it beats the Vette convincingly.  

The supercharged 4601c.c. V8 retains aluminium head and forged steel crankshaft of the old Cobra, but with kits taken from F-150 Lightning truck such as supercharger, intercooler and forged pistons which allow a lower compression ratio. New forged connecting rods are chosen to withstand higher power and torque, so is cast-iron engine block. Unfortunately, the iron block put more burden to the nose compare with the old aluminium block. While the old Cobra has front to rear weight distribution of 55:45, the new Cobra's is 57:43. The whole car now weighs 1662kg, some 130kg heavier than the old car, even heavier than the Cobra R. 

The chassis also gets some upgrades. Springs of suspensions are stiffened by 20% (front) and 28% (rear). Gas-charged Bilstein dampers are employed. To cope with more power, rear multi-link suspensions receive an addtional cross-brace for reinforcement. Tyres are widened from 245/45ZR17 to 275/40ZR17. Brakes received new pad material.  

So how does it feel to drive? surprisingly, the new Cobra is easier to drive than before despite of its unbalanced chassis. This must thanks to the modifications to suspensions and tyres that SVT done. You still won¤Ô¤±¤Í¤½ compare it with European sports cars, especially for ride quality and refinement, but its handling is not as untidy as imagined. If you are accustomed to American muscle cars, you will find its tail movement very well controlled. Of course, if you want a dramatic tail slide or wheelspin, you can still easily do that with the tremendous reserve of torque.  

Talking about torque, this is still the main reason people buy Mustang. The old Cobra was not famous for torque, thus was not well accepted as a true American muscle car (also because of the opinion against overhead camshaft engine). Now with the most pound-feet at the lowest price (at US$35,000), hopefully the new Cobra will be adored by traditional fans. They won¤Ô¤±¤Í¤½ care about its poor quality packaging, poor refinement, poor ergonomics, poor gearchange, poor ride, ugly look (that¤Ô¤±¤Í¤¼ very subjective)... Ford needs 10,000 such fans every year. But I am sure they won¤Ô¤±¤Í¤½ be readers of AutoZine.