A week in the Mustang

I was fortunate enough to get to drive a Mustang for a week, thanks to Ford South Africa. Most of you who follow my blog will know that I drove it last year in San Francisco when I visited Ford’s Silicon Valley research centre. Driving a Mustang in the US is bucket-list stuff, and I absolutely had a blast, but there’s something different about driving it in South Africa. It’s nowhere as common as it is in the US, and everyone, I mean *everyone* stares.

It was pretty cool to witness the excitement it generated from onlookers, security guards, kids, drivers and well just about anyone. I had to wear sunglasses to hide because I felt I couldn’t deal with the attention, lol. Guys next to me at the traffic lights opened their windows to stare and listen as I took off… it was kinda weird smiling at strangers at traffic lights, haha!

The first thing I did with the Mustang, as I would with any Ford, is pair my phone to SYNC so I could listen to my Apple Music playlists over Bluetooth. I don’t have this setup with my own car, so if I get a car with this feature, I make full use of it. The music sounds better on a car’s audio system, which you can control via the steering wheel, or through voice commands (don’t know why there’s no sat-nav on the car). I must add though, sometimes it was just better listening to the Mustang growl, instead of my music 😉

I drove the 2.3L EcoBoost in manual, and let me tell you, it wasn’t the easiest car to drive. The clutch was too stiff. I prefer a manual to automatic in general, but this was the first time I wouldn’t have minded the auto. It took a while to get used to, and yes, I did stall a couple of times; not gonna lie.

But, I had a lot of fun taking off at traffic lights, and while I didn’t do anything on residential roads that woulda had me thrown in jail, by the time I looked at the rear view mirrors, everyone else was visible only in the distance 😂

There were numerous times where other cars would just get out of the way – not that I gave any indication I want them out of the way, *promise*, but it certainly felt awesome. Let’s be honest… you can’t ignore a Mustang if you see it on South African roads, and all those folks knew it was only logical to give me way (except maybe one jerk person).

The Mustang has a cool feature called Track Apps, located in a small 4.2-inch LCD screen next to the speedometer. Drivers can access fuel economy, and performance. It can also measure g-forces, acceleration and braking times. This blog post is by no means gonna help you buy a Mustang, but you can find plenty of reviews online. Also, I think anyone buying a Mustang isn’t reading reviews about it, never mind this blog 😉

The car is much wider than I’m used to, of course, so I parked in the middle of rows of empty bays but while driving on the road, I tried not to concentrate on this, so just carried on like I was driving any other car, and it kinda worked. I think if I obsessed over it, I wouldn’t have been as focused.

I took it on a little weekend away, and as the car is a four-seater, managed to fit luggage, food and the works for us four ladies. Actually, was impressed with the boot space.

The most surprising thing about driving the Mustang were the comments to me, “nice car”. So clearly my intention of dressing down in a hoodie intentionally didn’t have the effect I hoped 😀 Cos folks thought I owned a Mustang!

This blog post was largely a photo essay, thanks for reading. And thank you Ford for letting me drive the Mustang for a week!

Photography: @hellospaceman