I won on Wednesday! - Mustang for the day!
Discussion
Following my win a few weeks ago Win On Wednesday I thought it only fair to Sportscar hire to write up the day - all I can say is it was so much fun!
Although we knew it was going to be a long day, we dragged ourselves up by 6am for CSully94 to collect us in his E92 M3, to travel from SE London aiming to arrive in Shrewsbury by 9am. Needless to say we were a little optimistic and arrived around 10am despite little traffic. On arrival the bright red Mustang was there waiting for us in the handover bay, for a hire car it was very clean!
The guys at SportsCar hire are brilliant, I cant recommend them highly enough! - proper petrolheads with some quality machinery in the unit, this orange Mclaren caught our eye! They encouraged us to treat the cars well but to drive them how they should be. Vs a package experience day this wins every day of the week.
Beyond the mustang & Mclaren there was a rather tasty Caterham, Maserati and Aston there waiting!
Given the car was in Shrewsbury I couldn't use it to drive repeatedly down the Kings Road as I'd replied in my entry but, given the location, we decided to run over the mileage, the hire hadn't cost me anything after all, and head over to the Evo triangle - be rude not to right!?!?!
After a measured drive over to familiarise myself with the car and we got there and had a cruise around to check for police, sheep and find a location for a photo opportunity!
The mustang provided a pretty good match for the M3, not just in colour!
Even Cindy had a go! - after a little bit of practice was rev-matching like a good-un! - not bad for the first attempt in a new (to her) car!
We spent the afternoon at the triangle interspersed by a good pub lunch. For a Friday afternoon in August the roads were very quiet, result!
I personally loved the car and vs. the M3 there is not much in it, although the way they achieve similar things is totally different. Stepping out of the Mustang and into the M3 whilst cindy drove, the BMW felt tighter and better finished although I'm not sure if it was as fun. With the DCT box in the M3 I couldn't have fun rev-matching the shifts (it did it for me!), it rode a lot stiffer and turned in better to, straight line there is not much in it. To all intents and purposes the BMW is the better car but is almost too good, too tight and not quite as much fun as a result. Where the M3 would just go and get on with it, the mustang gave a more raw experience, from the slight slip in race mode (TC off) and the sound to the more compliant ride! However although the mustang could be louder the M3 only compares here as its had the system part-welded so sounds pretty good too!
The looks this Mustang gets takes some beating too even travelling with the red M3 people pointed at the ford, getting bib's, thumbs up and photo's - we even came back to a group of girls cooing over it, despite being single and the subject of the question CSully94 made the cardinal error of admitting it was a hire car when they asked for a ride!
Only real negative I had for the car was the interior finish (bum coolers excluded, they were brilliant!), whilst I accept the majority as it's made to a (reasonable) price-point the biggest let-down is the steering wheel itself - just a nasty, faux leather/plastic job that's both marginally to big but also a little too thin. Nonetheless a small point but I can see the attraction and was on PH/Autotrader on the drive back and every day since and can see one being in the garage when they've depreciated a bit more - sub £20-25k these will make a great used buy!
Unfortunately, come 5pm the day was over and after a spirited drive back down the A5 We'd managed to use over a tank of petrol in only 175 miles....ooops! After taking it to its natural habitat to refill it was taken back to the garage with a huge grin on my face!
I can't recommend this experience highly enough, Cindy and I had a great day and may well be back once we've got a little more cash, thanks again Pistonheads & Sports Car Hire!!!
Although we knew it was going to be a long day, we dragged ourselves up by 6am for CSully94 to collect us in his E92 M3, to travel from SE London aiming to arrive in Shrewsbury by 9am. Needless to say we were a little optimistic and arrived around 10am despite little traffic. On arrival the bright red Mustang was there waiting for us in the handover bay, for a hire car it was very clean!
The guys at SportsCar hire are brilliant, I cant recommend them highly enough! - proper petrolheads with some quality machinery in the unit, this orange Mclaren caught our eye! They encouraged us to treat the cars well but to drive them how they should be. Vs a package experience day this wins every day of the week.
Beyond the mustang & Mclaren there was a rather tasty Caterham, Maserati and Aston there waiting!
Given the car was in Shrewsbury I couldn't use it to drive repeatedly down the Kings Road as I'd replied in my entry but, given the location, we decided to run over the mileage, the hire hadn't cost me anything after all, and head over to the Evo triangle - be rude not to right!?!?!
After a measured drive over to familiarise myself with the car and we got there and had a cruise around to check for police, sheep and find a location for a photo opportunity!
The mustang provided a pretty good match for the M3, not just in colour!
Even Cindy had a go! - after a little bit of practice was rev-matching like a good-un! - not bad for the first attempt in a new (to her) car!
We spent the afternoon at the triangle interspersed by a good pub lunch. For a Friday afternoon in August the roads were very quiet, result!
I personally loved the car and vs. the M3 there is not much in it, although the way they achieve similar things is totally different. Stepping out of the Mustang and into the M3 whilst cindy drove, the BMW felt tighter and better finished although I'm not sure if it was as fun. With the DCT box in the M3 I couldn't have fun rev-matching the shifts (it did it for me!), it rode a lot stiffer and turned in better to, straight line there is not much in it. To all intents and purposes the BMW is the better car but is almost too good, too tight and not quite as much fun as a result. Where the M3 would just go and get on with it, the mustang gave a more raw experience, from the slight slip in race mode (TC off) and the sound to the more compliant ride! However although the mustang could be louder the M3 only compares here as its had the system part-welded so sounds pretty good too!
The looks this Mustang gets takes some beating too even travelling with the red M3 people pointed at the ford, getting bib's, thumbs up and photo's - we even came back to a group of girls cooing over it, despite being single and the subject of the question CSully94 made the cardinal error of admitting it was a hire car when they asked for a ride!
Only real negative I had for the car was the interior finish (bum coolers excluded, they were brilliant!), whilst I accept the majority as it's made to a (reasonable) price-point the biggest let-down is the steering wheel itself - just a nasty, faux leather/plastic job that's both marginally to big but also a little too thin. Nonetheless a small point but I can see the attraction and was on PH/Autotrader on the drive back and every day since and can see one being in the garage when they've depreciated a bit more - sub £20-25k these will make a great used buy!
Unfortunately, come 5pm the day was over and after a spirited drive back down the A5 We'd managed to use over a tank of petrol in only 175 miles....ooops! After taking it to its natural habitat to refill it was taken back to the garage with a huge grin on my face!
I can't recommend this experience highly enough, Cindy and I had a great day and may well be back once we've got a little more cash, thanks again Pistonheads & Sports Car Hire!!!
Jasandjules said:
Great write up!
How was the handling of the beastie?
Thanks - wasn't bad at all - as it was my first time there (and public roads) I wasn't pushing limits by any stretch, partially as I needed the security deposit back to pay the plumber next week!How was the handling of the beastie?
For how I was driving it did feel very planted (race mode all day), and turned in better than my old 335i - didn't get any oversteer and only the slightest sniff of understeer once but this was easily adjusted. The ride suited our roads better, where the handling of my old 335i would get impacted by dodgy road surface the mustang just seemed to cope with it all with no bother.
Edited by kiethton on Monday 15th August 14:30
Gets provided with a full tank, have to return with a full tank - not bad really
There is a mileage limit - 120 miles IIRC - I ended up doing nearly 200 so there was an additional payment for mileage - made sense to do the extra miles to the triangle though, especially as the hire itself hadn't cost me anything
There is a mileage limit - 120 miles IIRC - I ended up doing nearly 200 so there was an additional payment for mileage - made sense to do the extra miles to the triangle though, especially as the hire itself hadn't cost me anything
kapiteinlangzaam said:
I don't mind the wheel on my GT to be honest..... but the standard fix is to install the wheel from a GT350 (alcantara). Job jobbed for about £400.
Yeah heard some people have done that and can see why.After looking at the GT350 the GT I drove looks like an SE in comparison, they just look even sharper!
One thing I did notice (coming from my E39 BMW) was how wide the car felt, made the narrow country roads that the inbuilt sat nav sent me down feel very narrow, especially when passing other cars. That and the bonnet felt very long making some obscured T-junctions a little difficult, both fairly surmountable in time & familiarity I guess.
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