Love At First Sight – A Man and His Red Mustang

[DFB FGXR6]

Love At First Sight – A Man and His Red Mustang

The following is a love note to my gorgeous Race Red Mustang, a car that changed my life and became way more than a car to me. As my ownership of this amazing vehicle comes to end, it’s time to look back and reminisce over a car that I’m fairly sure I’m going to regret selling. So, in the words of another Kylie Minogue bop, Let’s Get To It…………………………





Step Back In Time –



My Mustang journey started back in early 2016 while visiting my local Ford dealer. At the time, I was not there to buy a Mustang, rather to enquire about putting my name down for an XR6 Sprint, the last high performance 6-cylinder Falcon to be made. The XR6 Sprint would have been the natural choice to have sitting alongside the XR8 in the garage. Sadly, by the time I decided this would be something I wanted to do, allocations for the Sprint series were all taken. No dice.



Fast forward to March 2016, I was back at the dealer to order a new Ranger workhorse. I signed the paperwork, then out of curiosity, asked what the deal was with Mustang’s. The S550 Mustang had been on sale for only a few months in Australia, but the waiting list was so great that orders were at least a 12-month turnaround.

Despite a few RHD-converted Mustangs that were sold in the late 60’s and early 2000’s, the Mustang had never been manufactured in RHD. That changed with S550, Ford deciding to take the Mustang global for the very first time. It’s safe to say Ford underestimated demand, especially for the Australian market! The combination of highly competitive prices, drop dead gorgeous styling and that thumping V8 beat, people were clambering to get their hands on a Mustang. The master stroke here being that Mustang was drawing people into Ford showrooms that would have never previously considered a Ford.

Back to the showroom, and after being clued up on the Mustang, I asked the salesman to give me a price for manual GT Hardtop in Race Red, no options…………….the cheapest V8 Mustang you could buy. He handed me the price, to which I said I would think it over, buying two cars in one day probably not a good thing to do…………………………………….

Two hours later, I was back at the dealer with my deposit in hand and instructions to put me on the waiting list. So yes, I bought two cars in one day.

Count The Days -



That Ranger arrived a month later, the Mustang being so far out, well I put it to the back of my head and forgot about it……………………..



As the days and months went by, I gradually got more and more excited. The first big milestone was hearing the car had come off the production line on the 21st of December 2016. Then, after being shipped from Baltimore in early 2017, the anticipation only grew. My uncle and I tracked vessel Figaro as it traversed the east coast of America, down through the Panama Canal, then onwards to Australia. The banter between us during this time I will never forget…………………..

“Figaro last seen off Mallacoota dodging large icebergs……….”

“FIGARO JUST HIT A PENGUIN OFF PHILLIP ISLAND……………..the penguin is sinking”

After the Figaro made deliveries in Brisbane, Syndey and Melbourne, my car was then quarantined by biosecurity for stink bugs. Just when I thought the wait was over, the car spent what seemed like an age to be decontaminated and released to the dealer. On Monday, the 27th of March 2017, my Mustang finally arrived at the dealer, delivered with two other Race Red Mustang GT’s. I of course made the trip to see the car for the first time…………..







Love at First Sight -



After rushing the car through pre-delivery, on Tuesday, the 28th of March 2017 at 9am, the Mustang was finally mine, 12 months and 7 days after ordering.







Firing it up in the showroom was an event in itself, and to my great pleasure, the hearty V8 reverberated off the walls and windows. I then snicked first gear and idled it out into the service department for the customary introduction to the service team…………….to which they rolled their eyes and said, “not another one”, reference to the 3 other Fords I already had passing through their service department. It was then time to get the show on the road…………………

A Love Affair -



It’s safe to say my relationship with the Mustang has been a Love Affair. Like any new love, your first interactions are of curiosity mixed with some trepidation, but over time you become more and more intrigued, more comfortable as you get to know one another. My first drive of the Mustang was like that, a bundle of nervousness as I adjusted to the ultra-low driving position and a hood that stretched right out in front of me. This was also my first (and only) performance car with a manual transmission, a world of difference compared to the manual daily driver Ranger with a diesel engine. In actual fact, it would take me months to learn how to drive a manual V8 Mustang, the clutch feel and automatic dial up of revs as the clutch was released was very unnatural to me.



WOW!



It didn’t take long to discover the attention a Mustang garnered. No other car on the road at that price point has the WOW factor to turn heads like a red Mustang. Young or old, it didn’t matter, everywhere I went, someone somewhere was staring, pointing or giving me the thumbs up. For someone as shy as I am, this attention was a somewhat foreign concept. I had spent most of my life hiding in the background, trying to avoid the spotlight. And it's this aspect of Mustang ownership that changed my outlook on life, because there was no hiding from view in a fire engine red Mustang. In the process, it began making me a more confident person, that sometimes it was ok to be the center of attention.



In Your Eyes –



I may be heavily biased, but in my eyes, the S550 Mustang is the best-looking Mustang since the original. The S197 was close but a little too retro, the New Edge and SN95 lacked that Mustang flavour, as did the Fox Body, and obviously no one liked the Mustang 2. The S550 captured the essence of the original 1964½ to 1967 models, but obviously with a modern touch.



I especially love that hard crease line that runs from the front quarter panels, through the doors and into the rear quarters. The flared out lower doors contribute to a sharply contoured physique. And those wide hips, sheer delight to look at from any angle, but especially when viewed from the rear-view mirrors. And mine being the earlier model, I loved looking out and over those double raised sections on that long, long hood.











I also loved what Ford did with the lighting package. I just wish Australian cars got the sequential rear lamps, and the illuminated tri-bars at the front.





Some Kind Of Bliss -



In anticipation of its arrival, I made sure to book two weeks annual leave. What would come as one my best “holidays”, those two weeks were bliss, a honeymoon of sorts. The first few days were spent getting familiar with the car, followed by an epic road trip to see my aunt and uncle in Merrimbula. I had made that trip a few times, but taking the Mustang made the drive an event. Taking in a variety of roads, from stretches of 110 kph highway to the steep winding roads of the Snowy Mountains highway, the road trip was the perfect way to break the car in.



Of course, being an Obsessive Car Detailer (OCD), the prospect of getting my brand-new car messed up was always front and center, especially when the final hour of travel was in truly terrible road conditions. But you know what? It sort of freed me of that anxiety of having a perfect car, getting those first stone chips out of the way, in effect allowing me to just enjoy the car. It did take some restraint to not go full-send on those winding mountain roads, but even so, a V8 powered grand tourer on an empty mountain road really was Some Kind Of Bliss!

Upon return, I got those stone chips sorted out and settled into Mustang ownership.

Fragile -



Contrary to what the above depicts, I was dealing with some pretty heavy sh.t at the time. To cut a long and complicated story short, a variety of problems were weighing me down, and taking others with me. From family problems to heath concerns, not to mention the chronic pain that I’m still chasing to this day. I was Fragile. On the insistence of a family member, I started seeing a therapist in the hope of finding ways to better understand and deal with these issues.

As I began to open up, discussing both the good and bad with my therapist, my shiny red car would become an important coping mechanism. Be that going for a drive, parking in front of my favorite café on a Sunday morning, meeting new people who also loved cars, or going completely obsessive in the name of keeping it clean and shiny. Cars, Cake and Coffee soon became a mantra for happiness.



We all deal with problems differently, sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad. Finding that happy place can be hard, but when you find it, it’s the best thing in the world. This bright red Mustang became the shining light in my life, a beacon of happiness and exuberance.

The first verse and pre-chorus from Love At First Sight very much applies every time I drive or even think about my Mustang……………….

[Verse 1]
Thought that I was going crazy
Just having one of those days, yeah
Didn't know what to do
Then there was you

[Pre-Chorus]
And everything went from wrong to right
And the stars came out, filled up the sky
The music you were playing really blew my mind
It was love at first sight

Indeed, everything went from wrong to right at every interaction with this car.



Obsession -



Part of my coping methods involved expanding my online presence by writing about and documenting my passions. The whole process of sharing my experiences became what I called “distraction therapy”. Believe it or not, unbeknown to me I was echoing a certain Youtube identity. In mid 2019, a member here commented that I was becoming Obsessed Garage-level, or an Aussie Matt Moreman.

https://www.fordforums.com.au/showpo...&postcount=226

At the time, I had never heard of the channel or Matt, so I went and looked it up. Turns out I was late to the whole Obsessed Garage thing, I was just doing my own thing and dealing with my problems in my own way. Initially, I dismissed the channel because the videos were of the long-format type. But there was just something about him that resonated. As time went on and I learned more about him, I began to understand what I was doing and what I was feeling was not unique to me. I started to go easier on myself, stopped pandering to what society “told” me what I should be doing with my life. By mid-2020 and the whole pandemic thing, I was “Obsessed” with Obsessed Garage. I leaned into my obsessive tendencies, celebrated them even. And at the heart of all this, my Mustang became the muse.

I would later go on to assist the OG team in getting some of their signature products into Australian stores.

Red Blooded Woman -



In addition to the Cars, Cake and Coffee, the colour RED joined that list of positive associations. Choosing Race Red for my Mustang wasn’t actually a choice, rather a mere formality. In my mind, Mustang’s and the colour red go hand in hand. I actually wanted my XR8 in red rather than burgundy, so I finally got that fire-engine-red I had been wanting for a while.

As that positivity grew around my red Mustang, so did the colour in general and I went on a red binge. Red shoes, red clothes, red tools, red underwe……………..you get the point.







Padam Padam -



The heartbeat, or Padam Padam, of any car is its engine. And a V8 engine has a very unique heartbeat, one of the key drawcards to the Mustang. Trouble was, the early S550’s had been choked down with noise restrictions, to the point where I was driving the car harder than I should have been to simply hear the exhaust. Something had to be done!

I should point out that I was never into modding cars. The key word there being WAS…….the Mustang’s tame exhaust changed that. The key requirement though was for it too look stock, not some slap happy arrangement that my local exhaust shop was suggesting. After countless hours listening to a variety of exhaust systems, it was down to either the Roush, Borla S-Type or Borla Touring, all having very similar looking chrome exhaust tips to the ones that came out of the Flat Rock factory.

For some reason, I wanted this car to sound like my XR8, a symphony of metallic pops and crackles. The Roush had that hard edged metallic rasp that fulfilled that need, but the single wall exhaust tips didn’t meet my requirements. The Borla’s on the other hand had those double walled chrome tips, while offering several tonal options depending on taste. I dismissed the axle back options, if I was doing this it was going to be all in. In Australia, we had choice of Atak, S-Type and Touring. Atak was simply too much, it certainly makes lots of noises, but none of them very well executed. The S-Type with the X-Pipe produced more volume than the Touring with that raspier tone that I was aiming for. The Touring came in two flavours, the US-spec version having an H-Pipe, the EU version replacing that H-Pipe for a resonated H-Pipe. In both cases, the Touring produced a smoother, deeper tone, in turn removing the natural rasp from the Coyote.



In the end, I didn’t want to be “that guy” with the noisy car, so I went for the Borla Touring in EU spec. And while I didn’t achieve that snap-crackle-pop sound I was aiming for, in hindsight, going for the deeper sounding Touring provided me with two very different sounding Coyote engines at my disposal. Important to note that none of these Roush or Borla systems meet noise emission standards in Australia, even the resonated Borla Touring. However, the resonator removes a lot of unwanted frequencies, while also making it very tame under 3000rpm, allowing me to fly under the radar when needed, then raise all hell in the appropriate situations.

My choice of cat-back exhaust arrived in short order and was then fitted by the exhaust shop on a grey July morning. The very second I fired it up in the carpark, my concerns of choosing a too tame system were allayed. Wow! What a difference it made, especially on a cold start. I could now hear the exhaust at idle, a classic V8 thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. In sedate driving, the exhaust was now present in the cabin, but obnoxiously so………….probably a good thing in a heavily policed country town. But clear 4000 rpm, and all hell broke loose. A crisp, rorty crescendo as the engine wound out to red line. It was perfect!











Despite being pretty tame in the grand scheme of Mustang exhausts, I have no doubt the neighbors didn’t appreciate 7am cold starts. My family always knew when I was on the way too, to the point where my sister remarked at loud the car was……………I wore that as a badge of honour.

Meanwhile, the factory cat-back still takes up space in storage, complete with the black tar they douse export Mustang’s with.







Like A Drug -



I always wondered why people would gush about a V8 engine with a manual transmission. This Mustang with that exhaust, well something finally clicked…………..I got it now!

Playing tunes with my right foot on the gas while shifting gears became my new favorite thing to do. It didn’t matter if it was pottering around town, or thrashing down my favourite road, every drive was a delight to the senses. When the red mist descended, nailing that perfect upshift and having the engine bark back through the firewall became addictive………….almost Like A Drug.



And it’s with this car that I discovered why a naturally aspirated engine is so special. No, a Coyote V8 won’t thump you in the back like a turbo or supercharged engine would. Yes, you do have to wind it up and make use of every last rev. In other words, you must work for it! And is that not the point of a rewarding performance car experience? That crisp throttle response, the linear building of power and torque, that purity of induction sound with no need for fake noises to be pumped into the cabin. People would often tell me I should supercharge the Mustang, but I already had a supercharged Coyote under the hood of the XR8. No, the naturally aspirated, high revving V8 in the Mustang was the perfect contrast.



Sadly, I never did fully master the art of heal-toe downshifts in this car, the throttle and brake pedals being awkwardly placed for such activities. And yet, in my Ranger I can do it all day long. Still, a hearty blip of the throttle during a downshift, the engine snarling back through the firewall, well that also became addictive.

Dancefloor -



Making a Mustang dance is a challenging past time. While the S550 Mustang included independent rear suspension across the lineup for the first time (loooong overdue), the Mustang is no “Dancefloor Darling”. At least in standard form.

All Australian market Mustang’s included the Performance Pack as standard, which included several chassis upgrades such as stiffer suspension settings, staggered tyres widths and Brembo 6-piston front brakes. Those brakes are exceptional, well up to the task of dealing with a big, heavy V8 coupe. The suspension though is strange. The ride is brittle at low speeds with quite a bit of jounce from the dampers. At higher speeds though, the body control is not quite there, and it turns a little soft. The steering is completely lifeless no matter what setting you chose, I ended up using the lighter “Comfort” setting in all driving conditions because it actually made the front end feel more urgent. The steering also has no self-centering affect, so you end up with some alarming moments attempting certain anti-social antics............. on private roads of course. The standard Pirelli P-Zeros let the whole side down, they made the car very sketchy to drive in the wet and sapped confidence.

Then there was the electronic chassis aids. Coming from the expertly calibrated Aussie Falcon's, where the DSC allowed a flattering amount of leeway before gracefully chiming in to save your ego, the Mustang I felt to be quite alarmingly calibrated. Even with the system fully on, there is waaaaaay too much rear end slip to be considered appropriate, it then clamps in so aggressively that you already have armfuls of opposite lock applied, which leads to that tank slapper effect. This is why so many Mustang's crash into hedges, poles and crowds. Turn it all off and you have to be awake and on your game. And if the car was that savage with the systems turned very ON, then I can only imagine what the car would do with them turned OFF. Probably crash into a hedge or crowd………….as is the Mustang way.

I will say, the fitment of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres transformed how the car felt. Not only did these provide considerably superior traction in ALL driving conditions, but they rode better, were quieter and overall boosted my confidence in the chassis. But……………..I never really trusted the chassis of this car. A lot of that came from the lack of feedback coming through the steering wheel, but the wayward stability and traction control calibration sapped my confidence.

At the end of the day, while the S550 Mustang was leaps and bounds ahead of previous Mustang’s, they were never intended to be a precision driving instrument. Driving a Mustang is like hitting the Dance Floor with the devil.

On A Night Like This –



A few years ago, a work colleague asked if I would come over one Friday night to celebrate her son’s 15th birthday. The plan was to bring the Mustang and take the boy and his best friend for a burn before dinner. My response was a quick YES. I don’t and won’t have children, so taking my work colleagues son for a drive in the Mustang was my waying of paying it forward.

At that age, I was absolutely obsessed with cars and craved any interaction with them! While Ford was my brand, overall, I just loved anything with an engine. My father was never into cars like I am, we therefore didn’t have exciting family cars, think base model Falcon’s and Subaru’s. But my father and Uncle (Ford spare parts manager) had me covered, organising several rides in high performance Ford’s. The first being a brand-new gleaming Venom Red AU III XR6 VCT Ute, closely followed by a the then brand-new BA XR6 Turbo Ute with all the options. I was hooked on Ford’s from that moment on, only strengthened when I bagged a flame thrower ride in the all-new FPV GT, a manual in Octane Orange with black stripes. As you can hopefully tell, those interactions cemented me as a Ford man and are vividly remembered and appreciated.



It's safe to say, the boy was very pleased with his birthday present, a flame thrower drive along my favorite roads. My only stipulation? That he didn’t tell his mother how fast we went! A few years later, I ran into his sister who would go on to tell me how happy I had made him, that he talked about that ride for weeks. Having grown up without a father, positive male interactions become very important. I can only hope that I provided that for him.

To be continued............................