2003 Ford Mustang Review

Find your car!

provided by

Review:

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, Nev. -- Strapped into a wild ride, I cinch my helmet, blip the throttle, run through the gears just for practice, and watch as the Christmas-tree lights of the drag strip move from stop to... go-as-fast-as-you-can. With slightly wet palms, I steady this Darth Vader-black stallion to a straight course, mash the go pedal, watch for the red needle to hit 6200 rpm, mash, shift and watch for 6200 again. I'm a nose off of 104 mph when the time clock is tripped at the quarter mile. How's that for a working afternoon?

Slowing to round the pavement to the return, where I'll get to do this all over again, I am brazenly aware that I have shaken off the Bright Lights, Big City attitude of Veghast -- stripped of the fantasy of hotels that assert you're in Paris or Venice all almost at once. Who needs 'em? Here, at the motor speedway, the best show is a ponycar that wants to rock and roll one more time before it's put out to become adhesive.

Ford's Mustang Mach 1 lives again -- and still does the 23-year-old current Mustang, though it's only a short month or so before Ford shows the new one in Detroit.