New Zealand can’t get enough of the new Mustang!

29 May, 2015

With the impending arrival of Ford New Zealand’s 2015 Mustangs later on in the year, hype is clearly building here in little old New Zealand — more than 300 orders have already been placed for the new Mustang. The most popular choice so far seems to be the Mustang GT Fastback, equipped with five-litre V8 and six-speed automatic, which makes up around 60 per cent of overall orders.  

“Just like in America, we are seeing great early demand for the V8 GT models,” said Corey Holter, Managing Director of Ford New Zealand, “But, we anticipate the EcoBoost model will be a bigger seller longer term … as people see its great combination of performance and fuel economy.” Prices for the new Mustang start at $56,990 for a Fastback with 2.3-litre EcoBoost and six-speed automatic, climbing to $76,990 for the range-topping Mustang GT Convertible with five-litre V8 and six-speed automatic.

Performance art

Shelby’s targets were Superformance — a South African company that wanted to sell its versions of these cars in the US — and the US-based Factory Five. Their defence was that the name and shape of the Cobra car were abandoned when Shelby American ceased production of these particular models back in the 1960s.
Shelby countered with: “We spent millions of dollars creating the name and the car and winning the world championship. These knock-off-car guys don’t deserve the credit or the profit for what my team and Ford accomplished in the ’60s.”
Superformance painted an even bigger target on its back by also producing a version of Shelby’s Daytona coupé. Other cars in its production stable were Mk1 GT40 and 1962 Corvette Grand Sport replicas, but we’ll focus here on the Daytona.

Design accord

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.