Love it or loathe it, Ford Mustang Mach 1 gives you wings

The evergreen Ford Mustang remains the worlds most loved car … and the same time the world’s most hated car!

For every person who has one, or wishes that they had one, there are those that you will simply never entice into the brand. But you can say want you want, the Ford Mustang remains the most popular GT car on planet earth. And Ford has not looked back since 17 April 1964 when they introduced their 1965 model year pony car at the World’s Fair.

That was followed in 1968, for the 1969 model year, by the first Mach 1 performance package to hit showroom floors. This run lasted till 1978, only to return very briefly in 2003, and be gone again the next year in 2004. But in 2021, the decision was made to reinstate the Mach 1 nameplate.

Exclusivity

And only 90 of these limited-edition Fighter Jet Grey Ford Mustang Mach 1 models made it down to the tip of Africa, and they were all snapped up in a matter of days. Being one the very few publications that offer hardcore and detailed high performance road testing, we were given the chance to run one against the clock at the Gerotek test facility.

Before we get to the numbers, allow me to quickly tell you what has changed under the skin for this Mustang to wear the Mach 1 badge. This is no sticker kit upgrade.

You get a new two-piece upper as well as lower and side grilles for improved cooling. Plus a new front splitter, undertray, single-deck rear spoiler and performance rear diffuser for better downforce and aero balance.

Pedal to the medal

Making the Mach 1 sharper on the road you have electric power-assisted steering, electronically controlled MagneRide 2 adjustable suspension, stiffer front springs, anti-roll bars, subframes and toe-link components from the Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT500 models.

Making sure that the power stays on the ground you get sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres riding on five-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels.

Keeping things cool when you want to play comes in the form of an auxiliary engine oil cooler. It also features a new engine oil filter adaptor to ensure optimum oil flow, a dedicated oil cooler for the gearbox, a rear axle cooling system and limited slip differential.

There were a few Ford Mustang Mach 1’s that were offered with a trick six-speed Tremec box, but we got to run the more popular air-to-oil cooled 10-speed automatic.

ALSO READ: Ford Mustang Mach 1 – back to the future!

Getting the most out of your Mach 1 experience is easily facilitated by drive modes. It offers Sport and Track modes, along with a TrackApp that allows you to monitor your acceleration times and launch control features.

How fast is this pony?

Launch Control is pretty useless if you don’t have some horsepower under the hood. Here the Open-Air Induction System, intake manifold and 87 mm throttle bodies delivers more on the road performance than the on paper seven kilowatt hike in power to the 338 kW suggests.

Getting off the line was easy and in Drag Strip mode, the gearbox changed gears a whole lot faster and more aggressively than I remember it doing on the normal GT model I tested a few years ago. And this feeling translated into a proper 0 to 100k m/h time of 4.99 seconds, a good half a second faster than before.

The quarter mile was done 13.09 seconds at 179.92 km/h, the half mile at 20.35 seconds at 216.18 km/h, while the 1 km mark was crossed at 229.38 km/h. Top speed is electronically limited to 250 km/h. These are decent numbers for a 1 800 kg naturally aspirated GT car that now costs almost half of what the likes of a BMW M4 does these days.

Conclusion

If you could get one, the R1 203 800 asking price for this Ford Mustang Mach 1 would be money well spent for somebody who gets what it means to own a limited-edition Mustang.

For more information on the Ford Mustang, click here.