wewt!

The folks over at Top Gear asked on Twitter this morning about the new Ford Mustang Boss 302, and if we thought it was faster than the European sports cars, as Ford claims.

Try as I may, I couldn’t come up with something succinct enough to fit in 140 characters, so I thought I’d jot down a little something here.

Do I think this car is faster than the M3? Yes, probably. The normal 5.0 liter (litre, for my brit friends) car was almost as fast as the previous M3. I think it was Road and Track or Car and Driver that tested the two side by side.. They concluded that despite the M3 winning in the road course sections of the test and winning overall, never had a loss felt so much like a win for the Mustang. There was also the some $20,000 price difference between the two, meaning you could go buy another Mustang with the difference, albeit a V6 model.

The new car had an ass-ton more power, and is all around more sorted out. I have to admit, reading TG’s article, I had to chuckle when they mentioned that the gear box was just upgraded to be stronger than the stock unit, when Jalopnik is reporting that the stock boxes are failing frequently, and Ford has no fix for them. So like.. what’s going on there?  So with all that power and all the glittering prizes, it’s safe to say that the 302 is a serious contender.  I’ll be interested to see if TG UK can do a straight review of this, since I know they are rather hard on USDM vehicles, especially ones with live axles under the rear.

That said, even if the Mustang beats all the Euro cars, at the end of the day… You’re still driving a Mustang. Here in Louisville, Mustangs are as ubiquitous as beige Toyota Camry’s. Ask pretty much anyone, and they can name a friend or family member who owns some sort of Mustang.  There’s just not really anything special about them. There’s also so many special edition, limited number, yaddi yaddi yaddi Mustangs that even that isn’t special. Maybe the Boss 302 is different, maybe it’ll be the crown jewel in a crowded selection of cars. But I doubt it.

Through all of that, I almost bought a base GT early last year. I backed out since the 5.0 was coming (was the last of the 4.6 cars) and the base car is blah in terms of features… but it was still a nice car, and it seemed to drive well.

I’d still rather have a Porsche.. you know, if money was not a factor.

Ten years ago today, I bought my first car. I had two vehicles before that, both of which I have fond memories of, but today I picked and purchased the first (of many) car of my own.

It was a 1996 Honda Civic CX Hatchback in Midori Green. The car was basic as could be. It didn’t even have a radio. I though this was because someone had took it out when they traded the car in. Nope. No radio, no speakers, nada. I had a radio for it, I wasn’t expecting to have to buy speakers too.

The very same day, I had the car totally disassembled. No need to wait!

[Show as slideshow]

I kept the car for about a year and a half. I sold it to my friend Dustin, who sold it to some guy in North Carolina, as I recall. It’s probably riced out now.