Ford Mustang Mach-E: Bullitt-proofing the Mustang legend for the EV era | Daily News Byte

ALONG with ‘legend’, ‘literal’ and ‘unprecedented’ – and I’m sure you can think of others – ‘iconic’ is one of those words that gets thrown around so often that it’s become unmoored from its proper meaning, written by William Scholes.

Language changes over time, I think, even if some of us don’t like it. And the same goes for icons. For me, the Ford Mustang is one of the few bona fide motoring icons, a legend (ahem…) that can take its place alongside an elite group that also includes the Range Rover and Porsche 911.

Longevity – the Mustang model line dates back to 1965 – and careful evolution over the decades are among the reasons the Pony Car continues to endure.

Nor was the indelible connection to Steve McQueen – a Hollywood legend and icon if ever there was one – tarnishing the Mustang’s reputation.

In the 1968’s BullittMcQueen’s taciturn San Francisco detective Frank Bullitt drives a Ford Mustang GT – painted Highland Green and with a rumbling 390-cubic inch V8 muscle lump under the hood – as he duels with the bad guys, who almost amazing. Dodge Charger R/T.

No matter how many times I’ve seen it, BullittThe 11-minute rollercoaster ride of a car chase remains a visceral thrill.

More than 50 years later, the marriage of McQueen and Mustang remains the benchmark by which all other car chases in film are judged.

Steven Spielberg, no less, is doing something new Bullitt movie, with Bradley Cooper as Steve McQueen/Frank Bullitt. Not much is known about it, but rumors suggest that it will be a continuation story rather than a remake.

Would a 21st century Detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt still drive a Ford Mustang? Probably, but that’s no longer as true as it was in the Sixties because today Ford offers two rather unique Mustang models.

You can still get the proper petrol-fuelled coupe and convertible Mustang – in fact, an all-new model will launch next summer – but now you can also get an all-electric Mustang, called the Mach-E .

This, as you can tell from the pictures on this page, is not a sports car, although it must be said that it is quite fast and you can get versions that accelerate faster than McQueen’s steed.

Instead, the Mustang Mach-E is a sort of large five-door hatchback-meets-SUV. It’s interesting that Ford, for its first custom EV, raided nearly 60 years of Mustang heritage for a different style of vehicle. There are almost no Ford logos to be seen anywhere.

The shift from internal combustion to kilowatts and volts has already created some interesting changes in the motor industry – the rise of Tesla and South Korean brands Hyundai and Kia succeeding Volkswagen’s EV efforts, for example – but the demise of the Ford Fiesta and the arrival of an electric Mustang are probably not among the more predictable changes.

Electric vehicles, as you may have noticed, tend to be expensive. Entry into Mach-E ownership starts at just under £51k, which is expensive for a Ford, even one as brilliant as this…

That gets you the ‘Select’ trim with a 75kWh battery (70kWh of which Ford considers ‘usable’) mated to a 265bhp electric motor with a chunky 317lb ft of torque. This rear-wheel-drive so-called standard range set-up yields a range of 273 miles in the WLTP combined cycle test.

As with electric vehicles, paying more money for your Mach-E will get you a bigger battery and more range.

Give the dealer £59,300 and you can get a Mach-E ‘Premium’ with an ‘extended range’ 98kWh battery (91kWh available). This version is still rear-wheel-drive and gets a more powerful motor, with 290bhp, and the same 317lb ft as the standard-range model. The range is an impressive 372 miles.

Add another £6k and, for £65,325, an all-wheel-drive Premium can be yours. It’s a dual-motor car, with increased power and torque, to 346bhp and 428lb ft respectively. Range drops slightly from the single-motor extended range model, to a handy 341 miles.

At the top of the Mach-E tree is the £74,460 GT. It has a large battery and all-wheel-drive dual-motor drivetrain, with power reaching 480bhp and torque at a whopping 634lb ft.

Top speed is pegged at 111mph for all versions apart from the GT, which is allowed to stretch its legs to 124mph. Ford provides two sets of acceleration times for the 0-62mph sprint, with standing start and rolling start figures. The standard range car takes 6.9 seconds/6.1 seconds, the rear-wheel-drive extended range Mach-E 7.0 seconds/6.2 seconds, the all-wheel-drive extended range 5.8 seconds/5.1 seconds, and the GT is a buttock-clenching 4.4 seconds/3.7 seconds.

Suffice it to say, in everyday driving, no version of the Mustang Mach-E feels what you would call ‘slow’. It won’t launch itself with the enthusiasm of a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, but the performance is there if you dip the throttle pedal more sharply. I think it’s a sensible fix, prioritizing a more subtle way of saving acceleration range over the temptation to take off like a scalded cat.

It’s also fun to drive, which is not always the case with an EV, no matter what story its performance figures may tell. The Mach-E’s steering is precise, and while the ride can feel a little firm at lower speeds, it settles down once you’re on the move. The heavy battery is located under the floor, low between the axles, so even though this family car weighs two tons, it doesn’t really feel like it as you take the winding and undulating roads. .

The interior is spacious and bright, the seats are comfortable and the quality of fixtures and fittings is probably just enough that you won’t feel short-changed in the surroundings of your £50-60k Ford. It has no Volvo or Audi here, and the indicator stalks from a Ford Fiesta look a little out of place in the future first row-topper.

The most striking element of the cabin is the large digital screen in the middle of the minimalist dashboard, mounted portrait-style a la Tesla and Volvo. Almost everything is controlled through this screen, and thankfully, it’s easy to read, easy to use and quick to respond. I still would have preferred harder buttons and knobs, but that feels like a defeat. In front of the driver is a smaller but good-sized landscape-orientated screen that brings up the things you really need to know, like speed and range. And of course, both screens can be configured to bring different combinations of information.

There’s a nice strip of tweed-like fabric covering the dashboard; I’d like to see more of it in the interior, to be honest.

Kudos to Ford for giving the Mustang a useful space under the bonnet to store charging cables. It’s disappointing that many EV makers (step forward Volkswagen, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Skoda…) think that storing cables in the boot or – even worse – under the boot floor is a good idea. Ideally, you’ll want to keep those messy cables out of your luggage… The Mach-E’s ‘frunk’ also has the same drain hole arrangement you’d find in the boot of a Ford Puma, meaning it can be cleaned if it is obtained. dirty

So the Mustang Mach-E is practical, good to drive, well put together (it’s built in Mexico) and has a really useful range. It’s undoubtedly expensive for a Ford, which probably goes a long way to explaining why it’s been loosely labeled a ‘Mustang’, a nameplate that carries more exclusivity and prestige than a Fiesta or Focus, despite their characteristics.

Whether or not the Mach-E is a true Mustang is one of those questions that will never end, in the same way that people still argue that BMW’s reinvention of the Mini is a betrayal of the original 1959 and should not own a Land Rover. dared to use the Defender name again.

The fact that the Mustang Mach-E can get really emotional also puts it in a different category compared to many other EVs that are essentially soulless fun-soaks. The Mach-E may not be conceptually different from, say, a VW ID4 or a Skoda Enyaq but it evokes an emotional response. Plus, no other EV lets you think you’re Frank Bullitt, roaming the mean streets in search of bad guys – even if you’re just hunting down the last available charging point in Enniskillen before the villain gets there in Tesla Model 3…