S550 Character - Fun?

[bennyboysvuk]

I currently drive an M135i and it's way too competent to be any fun at normal road speeds. The engine is barely audible at all and the DSC systems require a long press of a button to turn off.

I've not driven the S550 Mustang, but I wonder if it is more likely to be fun without having to be driven at high speed to get kicks. I guess for me, character could be defined as:

A bit of a handful exiting tighter corners.
Lots of engine noise entering the cabin - ie the V8 must always be audible, even at tickover or when cruising at 45mph following other traffic.
Generally more interesting to drive than a modern BMW

And not so much character, but something I deem as important - Easy to turn off the TC. Is it a single touch of the button or a long (3 second) press to turn it off?

[bennyboysvuk]

Gibbo205 said:

Hi there

I've driven M135i and found it a rather boring car, capable yes but very boring especially if its the AUTO one, just does everything with no fuss.

The Mustang out the box is a lot more playful even at legal speeds, but not as capable as the M135i unless your a very capable car. But the Mustang's handling can be transformed for around £2000 at which point I'd rate it better than the M135i in the dry and it still keeps the fun factor at legal speeds but is a lot more controllable.

In the wet though even with best suspension and tyres, the handling is still behind European rivals, but if your reasonably handy behind a wheel you will have great fun in the wet.

I'm much happier with DSC off and love a bit of drifting so I much prefer a car to have low limits and friendly over the grip limit behaviour. Wet weather driving in the Mustang sounds like fun!

The M135i is just capable and mundane. I long for a car with more verve to it that actually feels a bit more organic. All the new BMW stuff feels a bit electric. ie. more like the engines are merely for propelling the car and should be neither seen or heard.

[bennyboysvuk]

Thanks for the replies. I'll certainly test drive one as part of my narrowing of future car choice.

I've just popped into my local Ford garage and sat in a V8 and played with the throttle a bit. It's nice to hear that the V8 is clearly audible from the driver's seat and actually sounds quite throaty from anything over tickover. The exhaust note is fabulous too and I would imagine can be more clearly heard in the convertible version.

My only concern is that they're absolutely vast. I parked my M135i next to one and the Mustang dwarfs it. I love big cars on big roads, but some of the narrower parts of my commute might be a bit more tricky in the Mustang. I'll have to test drive one to find out for sure.

[bennyboysvuk]

300bhp/ton said:

I struggle to believe they are too big for a commute. Plenty of larger UK/Euro cars are used daily all across the UK without worry.

It's only too big if I don't want to alter my driving. There's a narrow railway bridge which is fine for two 1 series sized cars to pass through, but much bigger than that and it feels uncomfortably narrow. Then there are sections with overgrowing hedgerows where again, it's tight enough to be clipping hedgerows when there's oncoming traffic. Increasing the width of my car even by 10cm means that I'd be stopping more often to avoid scratching the thing terribly. Just for example, do you know the roads around Holmbury St Mary, near Leith Hill not far from Dorking?

[bennyboysvuk]

Gibbo205 said:

Actually this is untrue.

One flick of the TC switch only disables TCS, stability control is still enabled, to disable this you need to hold the switch up for 10-15s to disable ECS.

Best bet is to select race mode, then hold the TC switch up for 10s until it says ECS de-activated.

Now your in the no help systems mode!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this. It's slightly disappointing news, but better to be informed. It's one of those things that's rather difficult to try out on a test drive, rather like the electronic LSD in the M135i (which it turns out is next to useless).

Thanks all.

[bennyboysvuk]

300bhp/ton said:

I don't know those roads intimately no. But I have driven on roads all across the country and live in a village setting myself.

I think the Mustang is about the same width as a BMW M4.

It's ever so slightly wider, by only 4cm. That doesn't seem so bad actually. I found the F80 M3 a reasonable size, but then my test drive only took in A-roads.

mac96 said:

I do know the roads you are talking about, and yes they are quite narrow. I think a Mustang would change your driving style on those sort of roads, in my case probably for the better, but it is far from impossible.
You see plenty of transit size vans batting around the lanes, although height obviously helps!

Lol. Agreed, it's far from impossible, but like you say, it would change your driving style.

slowhand99 said:

I feel your pain. The comment about transit vans is well made but they will be the reason you end up in the hedge/kerb/pothole etc as they come flying towards you checking their next delivery. Even 40 section tyres are pushing it with the Surrey potholes too.

This is certainly my experience too, which is why I've stuck with narrower cars over the years.

Craigwww said:

This is genuinely comical... You post on here like billy big balls wanting a big V8 with an organic feel, say your handy at drifting and want something you can chuck about in the rain and hear that mighty V8 burble.... then moan about it being too wide on the roads???

If you claim to have the skill to drift a mustang in the wet with no driver aids, surely you have the balls to drive a pretty standard width saloon along a country road without parking it in a hedge.. maybe you should stick to the little BMW instead.

I would think there are a hell of a lot of other people out there happy to drift a Mustang too, in fact it's probably part of the reason many people bought them. I'm not billy big balls about it, it's just my preferred style. What I don't like is having to scrape the left mirror in an overgrown hedge to avoid a mirror clash with said transit delivery van.

I still like the idea of a Mustang as it's just got oodles more character than my current car and there are loads of positives. I'll have to get a test drive somewhere at some point and see how it drives. Thanks all for your thoughts.

croyde said:

Mine's for sale by the way. Don't want to sell it as I had hoped to keep it for ages like my e36 bought in 1998 but work problems

Much prefer playing with it around the Surrey Hills area and down to the South Downs and the coast. Them good 'ol boys in their '69 DodgeCharger had no problem with dirt roads and mine in Comp Orange looks good covered in dust and mud

Even a new 4 series or a Mondeo is as big as my GT.

I think it's the only orange one on PH classifieds so make me an offer.

Thanks for mentioning it. I'm not quite ready to buy at the moment, just doing my research and narrowing the list. Good luck with the sale.
Ahh, the Dukes of Hazzard. That show made a huge impression on me as a 7 year old. I loved it.