kikimiqbalsoft - Imagine a large pyramid glass ball, very balanced. Pull only one ball to each other depending on the base of the pyramid ...
kikimiqbalsoft - Imagine a large pyramid glass ball, very balanced. Pull only one ball to each other depending on the base of the pyramid and the whole thing comes crashing down. In any complex system, one change can have devastating consequences.
Or you can send things in the opposite direction. During the development of the Mustang in 2015, the movement triggers a chain reaction that irreversibly changed for the better Mustang. Indeed, it was a big change: swapping the old solid rear axle for an independent. Some came from the aluminum and steel components of a tail support Ford Fusion sedan, the new independent suspension Mustang brings improvements unprecedented-unprecedented for Mustang, anyway.
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The new independent rear suspension consists of an aluminum knuckle attached to a rubber-isolated steel subframe by means of a lower control arm, an upper lateral link, and a toe-control link. A fourth locating device, which Ford calls an integral link, transfers acceleration and braking forces from the knuckle through the control arm to the subframe. Manual-transmission Mustangs have a cast aluminum differential carrier, while automatic cars use cast iron for that component.
Chief engineer Dave Pericak swears that a new front suspension wasn’t part of the initial plan for this sixth-generation Mustang, but after it had fitted the new independent rear, his team realized that the front suspension it had been working with was now outmatched. And once the team started down that rabbit hole, the result was a complete chassis tear-up. In went a new design with a completely different geometry and a new subframe, which just happens to be lighter and stiffer than the individual crossmembers on the old car. Pericak calls it a “significant time, money, and engineering investment,” but admits that the improvements would not have been as marked without it.
Atop the new suspension, Ford placed a new body that is also lighter and stiffer than the outgoing one. It is a beguiling design, too, inviting long stares and walkarounds, and devoid of the bloat that makes other retro designs look like old cars wearing fat suits. The result is a decisive abolition of the distinction be-tween pony car and sports car. In spite of an increase of about 150 pounds in curb weight—the inevitable result of safety and electronic gear, as well as the independent suspension and bigger brakes—the Mustang doesn’t feel fat.
Thanks to the stiffened front end, the steering wheel twitches in your hands, communicating textures, undulations, and grip levels as you drive down the road. Turn the wheel and the car responds as quickly as if you’d poked it with a needle. Wheel and body control are just as tight. Dive into a series of challenging turns in the Mustang and you’re not driving a car, you’re wearing wheels.
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Mustang's strut-type suspension has two lower locating links to accommodate significantly larger brakes.
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That connection is furthered by the GT’s smooth, responsive V-8. Five liters is small for the Mustang’s class, but the 5.0’s 435 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque aren’t inadequate by any measure. Snappy throttle calibration makes slight output adjustments easy, and the six-speed’s closely spaced ratios keep the driver engaged. Refinement has also come, finally, to the clutch and shift linkage, neither of which requires as much muscle to operate as in last year’s car. We do wish that Ford would have left the exhaust alone, though the polite factory-fitted stranglers will make those working in the aftermarket overjoyed.
Oddly but happily enough for us, amidst all this urbanity, Ford somehow decided that it would offer the first production car with line lock. Engage the system while stopped and the front brakes hold the Mustang stationary as burnouts not even your 16-year-old self could have imagined boil off the unbraked rear tires. We can’t figure out how that made it past the lawyers.
However they were distracted, the bean counters must have been with the legal team, because every detail in the cabin seems fussed over. With its stitched leather, matte-silver toggle switches, and faux turned-aluminum trim, this interior boasts meticulousness heretofore absent from mainstream American cars. There’s an element of toyishness in the sheen of some of the plastics and the Duplo-scale toggle switches, but that puerile charm gets to the heart of what we love about the Mustang. It reminds us that driving a great car can be play, something that even grownups enjoy
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