<u>Battle of the 5.0s</u>

The 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 is heavily styled and attractive; the 1992 Mustang GT 5.0 is a plain box.

By John Pearley Huffman, Contributor | Published May 10, 2010

Well, it's a form of heritage, isn't it? When you see the "5.0" badge on the fender of a Mustang, you feel something, right? This can't be just some marketing exercise that has been churned through focus groups, consumer clinics and demographic researchers in order to get people to sign up for 72 monthly payments.

So why be cynical? When we heard about the 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0, we couldn't help but remember the 1979 Ford Mustang 5.0, when getting a serious 5.0-liter V8 under the hood of a Mustang was a big deal, and then all those 5.0s sold in the Mustang between 1982 and 1993.

So never mind the cynical talk. Aren't these 5.0 things wicked-ass cool?!

There was never any question once the 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 was introduced that our customary irrepressible enthusiasm for anything that smacks of wholesome, 1980s-style high-performance goodness would prevail, so we've done the right thing and put together a new 412-horsepower 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 with a 225-hp 1992 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 for a side-by-side comparison.

Bringing these two cars together is a reminder why the 5.0 badge is worth bringing back at all. Cynical marketing ploy or not, there are good reasons to be fond of the old Mustang GT. And those good reasons don't fade away simply because the latest Mustang GT is faster.

<u>Rounding Up the Herd</u>

With its relatively short overhangs, the 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 is a nearly perfectly proportioned muscle car.

When we asked to borrow a 2011 Ford Mustang GT from Ford, we assumed it would be one wearing the 5.0 fender badges. But instead what first shows up is a red Mustang GT equipped with the "California Special" trim package, which replaces the iconic badges on the fenders with some tape stripes. After some begging and pleading, another Mustang GT shows up, painted Grabber Blue and with the appropriate fender badges.

After our success a couple months ago in finding a perfect, low-mileage 1998 Acura Integra Type R, it seemed there would be no sweat to find a similarly preserved 1988-'93 Mustang GT 5.0. Turned out there are plenty of low-mileage Mustang GTs of the appropriate vintage out there — eBay Motors is full of them — but none were accessible to us near our base in Southern California. And for obvious reasons.

During the late 1980s and through the 1990s, the 1988-'93 Mustang with its fuel-injected 5.0-liter V8 was America's default street-racing machine. Back then there were a half-dozen magazines dedicated solely to the 5.0, and there were enough ad pages from suppliers of aftermarket hardware for the 5.0 to choke a pony. The subculture for the 5.0 Mustang was huge and even had its own hard-core heroes like drag racers Chris Kaufmann and Billy Glidden. And unfortunately this means that most of the 5.0s that Ford built have long ago been used up.

<u>The Faithful Remain</u>

The 1992 Mustang GT's interior is simple and easy to use. Styled after earlier Mustang dashes, the 2011 GT's is well crafted and nice-looking.

The 5.0 cult may have mellowed, but it's still out there. And 23-year-old Juan Navarro is a committed member. His 1992 Ford Mustang GT has survived the years more or less intact.

What the 1992 and 2011 Mustang GTs have in common is that they are simple cars, just like all Mustangs. Yes, it has Flowmasters, but you expect an 18-year-old car to need a new exhaust system. And why would anyone keep the stock Ford sound system? So that's been replaced. Of course it wears Cobra R-style 17-inch wheels and Nexen 255/40R17 tires. But it's otherwise mechanically stock right down to its choke-me airbox and the gear hunter atop its five-speed manual transmission.

But this is also a car that Navarro bought used for $4,000 and has near 190,000 miles on its clock. It's not a perfect 1992 Mustang, but it's representative of what's out there. And what's out there is still worth having.

Generating numbers on Navarro's car wouldn't have been fair to either it or its species. So for this aspect of our comparison we rely on sense memory (many of us at Inside Line are so old that we tested the 1992 Mustang GT back when it was new), not to mention the historical record.

<u>Pretty Pony</u>

The 2011's seats are more supportive than the 1992's and covered in leather.

Working from the automotive taxonomy charts, we know that the current Mustang GT descends from the old warhorse. But parked next to each other, it's tough to see much in the way of commonality other than those fender badges.

The 1979-'93 Mustang was designed back when dance music still called itself disco, which ruled the dark pit of the late 1970s. But this sixth-generation Mustang (depending on the way you count them) is a clean and simple design and the only Mustang iteration that's a complete stylistic break from the other generations (10 of them altogether, depending on the way you count them). There's no running horse in the grille, there's no C-shaped indentation along the flanks and the rear brake lights aren't in three segments. This is the only Mustang that is its own unique thing. And the GT came as a hatchback back when it was OK to be a hatchback.

The 1992 Mustang GT might not be a classic, but 31 years after it hit the street, the car still looks good.

<u>Half-Breed</u>

While pretty, the 2011's instrumentation is more difficult to scan at a glance.

The tenth-generation Mustang debuted as a 2010 model and this shape has been calibrated to push the Mustang lover's every button. There are so many horses running over this car that it's a challenge to hunt down the traditional blue oval of a Ford badge (we couldn't find one). Not only are the taillights divided into the traditional three segments, but also they blink sequentially. The headlights kinda, sorta look like the lamps on the '70 Mustang, and while the car has a conventional trunk opening, the rear window still screams fastback.

As calculated as the retro-theme styling of the 2011 Mustang GT is, however, it all works. This is a handsome car that manages to hold together and look contemporary despite its traditional styling cues. With its much shorter front and rear overhangs and swollen flanks filled with big 255/40R19 Pirelli P Zero summer performance tires, the 2011 GT looks more athletic and muscular than the 2010 car.

The 2011 Ford Mustang GT doesn't have the blinding visual flash of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS, but it's likely to age well.

<u>Big and Little Ponies</u>

This fender badge is why there's a fender badge on the 2011 Mustang GT.

The 1992 Ford Mustang GT doesn't qualify as small, since it rides on a 100.5-inch wheelbase and measures 179.6 inches overall. Stick it next to the 2011 Ford Mustang with its 107.1-inch wheelbase and 188.1-inch overall length, however, and it looks a puny pony. In fact, the 2011 Mustang is the biggest Mustang Ford has ever made. Even the controversially massive Mustang of 1971-'73 only rode on a 109.9-inch wheelbase and stretched 187.5 inches.

Ford has the 2011 Mustang GT coupe weighing in at 3,605 pounds, while the three-door 1992 Mustang GT tipped the scales at 3,144 pounds. That's a thick 461-pound difference, like having two guys nicknamed "Chubby" in the car at all times. Physics is physics, so the new Mustang has to work harder to deal with its relative gigantism.

Yeah, the 2011 Ford Mustang has all sorts of things aboard that the old one doesn't, like an airbag buffet, more computing power than existed at MIT in 1992 and a honking Mach 460 sound system. But imagine how much better it would be with a quarter-ton lopped off.