‘Why has Ford decided its EV newcomer needs the Mustang name?’
We’re in Tim Pollard’s Focus estate, my friend and I, and he can’t hide his enthusiasm for the Ford. I’m driving and gushing uncontrollably at the same time, for the current Focus is a pretty outstanding example of how to do it right.
‘Honestly mate, it’s exceptionally good…’ (Short-shift out of the business park, toss the Ford into a wet roundabout.) ‘I mean, this…’ (Stop talking momentarily so that he might better feel the Ford’s just-so blend of beautifully tuned damping, roll resistance and keen, grippy turn-in.)
‘What’s under the hood?’
‘Glad you asked…’ (Foot flat to the floor, the Ford’s punchy 1.5-litre turbo triple drops the trac in our mirrors with disdain, and goes on convincingly hoovering up the tree-lined stretch of dual carriageway ahead.)
‘…a 1.5-litre triple. Good, no?’ ‘Diesel?’
‘You what? No, petrol.’
‘I’d have an auto.’
‘You what? When the manual’s this sweet?’ And sweet it is; sweeter than a caramel-stuffed donut the shape of a puppy. With huge eyes.
He’s sold. He tells me as much. But then, right on cue, there it is: ‘I couldn’t, though, not with a Ford badge…’
It’s a telling comment in the light of Ford’s bold decision to brand its new battery-electric crossover, the Mach-E, a Mustang, with no Ford badging. Doubly telling given the recent arrival in cinemas of the film Le Mans ’66/Ford v Ferrari, a Hollywood version of the GT40 story.
Ponder that tale for a moment and it’s hard to understand how the Ford badge came to be seen not as an asset but as a potential barrier to success. The GT40, of course, was Ford deciding to knock together a world-beating sports racing car and, well, promptly beating the world with it.
And just a year later, in the back of Colin Chapman’s Lotus 49, Ford debuted the Double Four Valve V8 Formula 1 engine. The motor won first time out, and would go on winning for 16 seasons, its last win coming in 1983 (and its last race two years later).
Given all this, not to mention the Group A Sierras, rallying Escorts and Fiestas and incredible, Le Mans-winning modern GT supercar, why has Ford decided its crucial new electric newcomer (the most important new Ford since the first Focus, surely) needs the Mustang name to succeed?
In part because of all the mediocrity that immediately preceded that original Focus, no doubt. Generations of Escort, the gen-four Fiesta… those cars did a lot of damage. And in part because long-range battery-electric cars are still expensive – Mach-E pricing will kick off at £40k, and rise to nearly £60k – and the world’s only happy paying either naff-all for its new Ford or £420k (the GT), not £50k. And partly because, if you believe the team behind the Mach-E, this electric crossover feels like a Mustang… That’d be a miracle. But then, from beating Ferrari at Le Mans to winning F1 races with the same engine for one and a half decades, Ford has previous when it comes to miracles.
Enjoy the issue.