Blazing Saddle

SO you want to stand out from the crowd. Look a bit tough. Look a little menacing. Walk with a swagger that says you could take any guy who tried it on and have any girl you fancied. And all for the price of a mid-range BMW 3-Series.

Two things can happen: an industrial accident can leave you looking like Steve McQueen or you can get behind the wheel of some American muscle.

The galloping horse on the Mustang says it all. It's an American icon. Turn the key and you half expect the V8 to break into a verse of the Star Spangled Banner. The twin spots fitted to the front grille add the sort of menace that wards off people in suits. This is denim country.

It's gained its cool status, if for nothing else but that McQueen raced a 1968 Mustang GT in one of the greatest car chases ever to grace the silver screen. In Bullitt, they managed not only to capture some pretty neat driving, but the soundtrack of the chase is worthy of a CD release.

So what's the Mustang like in the flesh? On a bright summer day sitting in the car park at Stansted airport, there's nothing meek about this American metal.

In left-hand-drive - there's no right-hand-drive option - it stands out amid the Vauxhalls and Rovers like an American tourist in a 10-gallon stetson.

The first thing to note is the badging. You'd be hard pushed to know this was a Ford. It seems the folks at Mustang see themselves as a cut above the blue oval.

Dominating the grille and right through to the logo on the big steering wheel is the magnificent galloping horse. The only Ford symbols we spotted were on the wheels but even they weren't standard fit.

However, there are some telltale signs inside. The interior trim is regulation US Ford, with retro dials that wouldn't look out of place in a 1950s Cadillac.

The clunky but positive gearbox switches into first and the engine gurgles along through the car park. Out on the open road, however, touch the throttle, drop it down a gear and it's like we've kicked the sleeping V8 beast up the ass. It wails and shudders, scaring off polite Fiestas and Puntos into the inside lane.

Unlike more sophisticated European sports coupés that glide through the decimal speeds, the Mustang sits back on its rear hunkers, sticks its nose in the air and roars forward.

The most amazing thing about the Mustang is not that the GT version offers 300bhp from its 4.6-litre gurgling V8 - this engine has already featured in several low-volume sports cars, such as the MG SV-R - nor the brutish looks. Nor is it the impressive fuel consumption. During our travels we achieved an unexpected 13.8 l/ 100km (20mpg), which is surprising for such a seemingly thirsty beast.

The great surprise is the fact that in the US at least, all this iconicry and meaty performance is available for just $24,995 (€20,600). In Ireland, that's the price of a Focus 1.6 LX.

Admittedly Revenue will have its calculator out at the first mention of your 4.6-litre power source, but even then, with the Customs duty, VAT and VRT, you're likely to get your hands on the Mustang GT for the princely sum of just over €46,000.

There is a downside - you may have to do all the organising yourself, or get a friendly car dealer to do it for you . . . no doubt for yet more of your hard-earned euros.

Despite its global structure and supposed worldwide appeal, Ford never thought about marketing the Mustang to Europeans. As the queue of interested parties grows on this side of the Atlantic, reviews of the car's production has led Ford to realise that to homologate the cars for Europe would have required going back at the initial production phases. Basically, it's too late now.

The Mustang has some significant flaws. Despite the sticker on the side window courtesy of the United Auto Workers, which states that "quality is our number one", the interior is truly American; this means that the plastics make the Streetka look plush - and the retro dials may appeal to you for a while, but you soon long for a more informative system when trying to keep your licence clean.

Practicalities? All right - yes, you can fit a set of golf clubs in the boot. However, the Mustang is more bowling alley than 19th hole. It has a release lever in case you get locked in the boot - which suggests the sort of company the Mustang keeps.

You can use the back seats if you must, but you'll have to get up close and personal with your knees.

Yet for all that, it's a comfortable cruiser. The enormous steering wheel suggests that it wouldn't be the best car in the world for our twisting roads, but on English country lanes it tucked in nicely with only the mildest of tail wobbles. Conditions didn't really allow us to start drifting it round corners, and there was the unnerving feeling that with 1,580kg of metal on the move.

POWERING away from a standing start, the rear shimmies slightly as it struggles for grip, amid a cloud of tyre smoke and the stench of burning rubber. It's yobbish behaviour, but impossible to resist.

In traffic, kids twist and turn in the back seats of other cars to get a better look. You can't help blipping the accelerator to give them an acknowledging growl.

So, is it all about show? Of course it is. There's nothing discrete about it, particularly in bland European traffic.

You can't help feeling that parking your Mustang beside the BMWs, Audis and Mercedes in the company car park could make them all think twice. They might just think you've got street cred. Of course, they might also think you're an image-driven idiot who has spent too much time watching American cop shows and car chases. You call.

But in terms of bang for your buck, the Mustang has a lot more presence than the similarly priced BMW 3-Series or Audi A4.