**The Mach 1: A New Era of Handling**

As I stood beside my Mustang, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and nostalgia. The Mach 1 is a car that has been around for decades, but it's only recently that Ford has given it the update it needed to stay relevant in today's performance-driven market.

Ford claimed that the Mach 1 was the best-handling Mustang ever to reach the UK, and after spending some time behind the wheel, I have to agree. The Mach 1 comes standard with MagneRide suspension, which is essentially a type of magnetic fluid-based damping system. This means that tiny magnetic particles in the fluid inside the dampers can be affected by electricity, resulting in a viscosity change that affects the damping incredibly quickly - fractions of a second.

Add to that the specially-calibrated steering, stiffer springs, and limited-slip differential, and you start to see why the Mach 1 feels so planted and responsive. I took it for a spin around some gently banked curves, and while I didn't need anything more than a smooth and stable ride, I did feel like I needed something more. That's when I decided to construct my own scientific test - dubbed "Richard's Loop" - to see just how well the Mach 1 handled.

I set up a figure-eight course in my driveway (yes, you read that right - a figure-eight!) and took it for a spin. Turning left, then right, and back again, I tested the Mach 1's handling capabilities and was pleased to find that it performed admirably. However, I couldn't help but wonder if there was more to be gotten out of this test. So, I decided to introduce a bit of speed - after all, testing a car is always more fun when you're moving.

With the Mach 1 turned up to a slightly higher setting (I won't say how much just yet), I took it for another spin around Richard's Loop. This time, I was pleased to find that the handling was even better than before - with a bit of extra speed came a bit more responsiveness and agility from the car. Of course, this is purely anecdotal evidence, but I'm willing to bet that Ford has put some serious thought into how the Mach 1 handles.

**A Legacy of Performance**

The Mach 1 has a long and storied history, dating back to the original model in 1969. While it may not have been as advanced as its modern counterpart, it was still an impressive performer for its time - with competition suspension that held up well to the demands of muscle car driving, as well as a limited-slip differential and more power than many of its contemporaries.

In fact, the original Mach 1 was designed to be a bit of a wild card - a version of an ordinary car (think your parents' car) with a massive engine shoehorned in and some other goodies bolted on. And while it may not have had all the bells and whistles that modern cars take for granted, there's something to be said for its simplicity and clarity of purpose.

**A New Era**

So, is the Mach 1 worthy of being called a "Mock One"? In my opinion, absolutely. While it may be faster and handle better than some of its predecessors, it retains the spirit of the original - that sense of raw power and unbridled performance that's at the heart of every Mustang.

But what really sets the new Mach 1 apart is its level of sophistication. With advanced technology like MagneRide suspension and a specially-calibrated steering system, this car is a far cry from its humble beginnings in 1969. And yet, despite all these advances, it still manages to feel like a "Mustang" - a sense of simplicity and purity that's hard to find in modern cars.

As I took the Mach 1 for one final spin around Richard's Loop (yes, really!), I couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to drive this amazing car. It may not be the most expensive or high-tech ride on the market, but it's certainly one of the most fun - and that's what truly matters.

**My Love for Mustangs**

For me, the Mach 1 is more than just a car - it's a connection to my family's past. My grandfather was a huge Ford fan, and his love of the brand has been passed down through generations. In fact, I bought my first Mustang (a '67 project car) as a way of honoring his memory.

Now, with the new Mach 1 in my sights, I feel like I'm carrying on that tradition - and I must say, it's a thrill to be able to share that passion with others. Whether you're a seasoned Mustang enthusiast or just looking for a fun and exciting ride, the Mach 1 is definitely worth checking out.

**The Science Behind Richard's Loop**

As I set up my test course in my driveway (yes, really!), I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I took it to the next level. So, I decided to get a bit scientific about it all - after all, that's how we figure out whether a car is truly as good as it claims.

My "Richard's Loop" test consists of three main components: turning left, then right, and back again around the course. Simple enough, right? But what happens when you throw in a bit of speed and see how well the Mach 1 handles? Well, that's where things get interesting...

As I took it for its second spin, I noticed that the handling was even better than before - with a bit more responsiveness and agility from the car. And while I couldn't say exactly what made the difference (that's still up to Ford to figure out!), I'm willing to bet that it had something to do with the MagneRide suspension and the specialized steering system.

Of course, this is all purely anecdotal evidence - but hey, who needs science when you've got a car as good as the Mach 1?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm in my 67 mustang on my way to ford's secret test facility just off the a127 next door to billericky town football club for the world's first remote control test of the brand new ford mustang mach 1. that's right rather than me wax lyrical about what i like about the car it's your questions you should be addressing today with me behind the wheel under your remote control i asked you to tell me what you love about mustangs and the responses flooded in some of them were a bit off topic drake logan's question concerning the new mustang was where's the new episode of the grand tour someone called mills rose made the astute observation horse go very fast yes nelson i'm sure it does this is it the new mustang mach one to the untrained eye it might look like a run-of-the-mill mustang but as any enthusiast will tell you the mach 1 is no standard model this new one comes with many subtle improvements courtesy of a load of borrowed performance parts from the very most excellent gt350 up front there lives and breathes a 5 liter v8 churning out 454 brake horsepower and a mighty planet twisting 390 torques oh there it is all hunkered down and mean i'm gonna be literally the first person outside of ford uk to drive this thing and i am so excited but today isn't about me it's all about you and me have they taken any sort of design cues from the original 1969 model and if they have how have they implemented it into the new modern design well joe it's bristling with design cues recalling the mustangs of old just the stance of it the headlights might be a different shape now but it still has hooded eyes to give it that mustang fran there are bonnet vents the sculpted sides but specific to the 69 mach 1 either outer edge of this broad grill they've recalled the original fog lights it's got similar graphic treatment and then as we move along its flanks at the back there's a little lip spoiler it has chromed exhaust tips so the design references to the original mach 1 are there plus it's got mach 1 written on it several times hello richard i just want to know two things does it come with a blowout punk what's the gas mileage like well semi interesting the whole ski instructor meets famous crocodile wrestler vibe as for your questions it has a 12 speaker b o premium sound system and if you're that worried about mpg this probably isn't the car for you one thing you'll have noticed is that i as your remote control car tester i'm about to get into the wrong side of this car but don't worry when it goes on sale in the uk they will put the steering wheel on the proper side for you right oh boy here we go oh yeah it works uh and off we go it doesn't feel good this thing it's fast because it's fast got a massive va hi richard my name is vlad i'm 24 years old and i'm driving mustang for two years the special thing which i loved it it's the custom exhaust how loud is the new mustang well vlad you can hear for yourself now what do you think well i say you can hear the mach 1 actually has an active value performance exhaust which varies the level of noise according to what mode you have the car set in there's even a quiet mode i think to be used if you live on a busy street and leave for work early in the morning and in quiet the v8 rumble is suppressed to just 72 decibels which is about the same level of noise a sleeping dorm as makes put it in track and it gets a whole lot louder as well as firming up the suspension and backing off the trash and control oh come on richard mach 1 is 343 meters a second or over 760 miles an hour so no no it can't do that you'd need rockets on your car to do that and that sort of thing generally ends badly for me ford haven't released naughty 60 figures and top speed for it if they have released those by the time you watch this they will appear here hi richard i haven't got a mustang but i've always loved them how does the mach 1 handle in the corners because it is still a mustang after all well darren to be fair it's some time since we've been able to laugh at mustangs for handling like a grand piano on an ice rink but the current generation ford have sorted it they've dragged the mustang kicking and screaming into this century that's established fact ford claimed the mach 1 is the best handling mustang ever to reach the uk but well they would say that they make it however there is some evidence to support it the mach one comes as standard with magnehide magne that word suspension basically what you get is tiny magnetic particles in the fluid inside the dampers if you then introduce electricity you get magnetism and that affects the particles and affects the fluid the viscosity of it and affects the damping incredibly quickly in fractions of a second it is very very clever add in the mac one specially calibrated steering stiffer springs and limited slip dip and you start to see why actually it feels all those lovely yummy things taught and planted that said all i've done so far is swoop rather elegantly around these gently banked curves i feel like i need something more i think i shall construct a scientific test and here's what i made if you look closely it actually resembles a figure eight and it's a very scientific method of testing a car's handling it shall forever be known as richard's loop so here we go into my new mustang testing device i can test a left-hand turn turn the wheel anti-clockwise works well straighten it up if i then try and turn to the right yep that absolutely seems to work i have just one suggestion as you know in your control would this test work better if i went a bit faster just wondering i don't know i suspect it might just be more yeah yeah that is better ah this has improved the test no end all it needed was a bit more science actually i'm pretty sure the ford people can't see me which is good because i'm not going to give away my testing sequence our testing secrets so let's just keep this between you and me oh little bit of off the track testing there that's good very very scientifically rigorous i am the first person outside of ford uk to drive this car and this is what i'm doing important work my name is scott gibson um my love for mustangs comes from being raised in a family where a granddad and a dad both are huge ford fans i have a 67 project car that i bought uniquely because of that and then as i was working on it my granddad actually passed away about a year ago before i could get it running so still working on it now gives me that ability just to feel like um he's still there kind of with me but my question for richard about the new one is is it a a mustang that's been made to give you that sense of where it's come from uh where the history of it oh scott the tough one sense of history i mean this is a lot more sophisticated than the original mac one from 1969 but then 1969 was an era before adaptive suspension adaptive exhaust traction control even and the original mach 1 did have competition suspension that was good for its day had a limited slip diff it was available with more power it was a muscle car and muscle cars were essentially versions of ordinary cars such as your parents might have but with a massive engine shoehorned in and then some other goodies bolted on and in that sense this is still a modern muscle car it's not pretending to be a supercar so yeah i'd say there is a sense of history hey richard long time fan and a longer time fan of the mustang behind me is my dad's 1970 mach 1. it's a little hard to pinpoint exactly why i love the mustang so much but i think one of the big reasons is the community that surrounds it of course i've bonded with my own father over the mustang but i have also forged so many connections over the years i've met a lot of really great people all over a mutual appreciation for this car my question is is it worthy of being called a mock one well alex it's a faster better handling version of a standard mustang so in that sense yeah it does more deeply well it's a lot more complicated than the original but so is everything these days and it manages to be faster and to handle better without making a terrible fuss about it it retains the sense of simplicity of clarity of purpose so it retains the spirit of the original so yeah it does deserve to be called a mac one i'm gonna have one more go around the cones just to make sure just you know a bit more science to do hmm youi'm in my 67 mustang on my way to ford's secret test facility just off the a127 next door to billericky town football club for the world's first remote control test of the brand new ford mustang mach 1. that's right rather than me wax lyrical about what i like about the car it's your questions you should be addressing today with me behind the wheel under your remote control i asked you to tell me what you love about mustangs and the responses flooded in some of them were a bit off topic drake logan's question concerning the new mustang was where's the new episode of the grand tour someone called mills rose made the astute observation horse go very fast yes nelson i'm sure it does this is it the new mustang mach one to the untrained eye it might look like a run-of-the-mill mustang but as any enthusiast will tell you the mach 1 is no standard model this new one comes with many subtle improvements courtesy of a load of borrowed performance parts from the very most excellent gt350 up front there lives and breathes a 5 liter v8 churning out 454 brake horsepower and a mighty planet twisting 390 torques oh there it is all hunkered down and mean i'm gonna be literally the first person outside of ford uk to drive this thing and i am so excited but today isn't about me it's all about you and me have they taken any sort of design cues from the original 1969 model and if they have how have they implemented it into the new modern design well joe it's bristling with design cues recalling the mustangs of old just the stance of it the headlights might be a different shape now but it still has hooded eyes to give it that mustang fran there are bonnet vents the sculpted sides but specific to the 69 mach 1 either outer edge of this broad grill they've recalled the original fog lights it's got similar graphic treatment and then as we move along its flanks at the back there's a little lip spoiler it has chromed exhaust tips so the design references to the original mach 1 are there plus it's got mach 1 written on it several times hello richard i just want to know two things does it come with a blowout punk what's the gas mileage like well semi interesting the whole ski instructor meets famous crocodile wrestler vibe as for your questions it has a 12 speaker b o premium sound system and if you're that worried about mpg this probably isn't the car for you one thing you'll have noticed is that i as your remote control car tester i'm about to get into the wrong side of this car but don't worry when it goes on sale in the uk they will put the steering wheel on the proper side for you right oh boy here we go oh yeah it works uh and off we go it doesn't feel good this thing it's fast because it's fast got a massive va hi richard my name is vlad i'm 24 years old and i'm driving mustang for two years the special thing which i loved it it's the custom exhaust how loud is the new mustang well vlad you can hear for yourself now what do you think well i say you can hear the mach 1 actually has an active value performance exhaust which varies the level of noise according to what mode you have the car set in there's even a quiet mode i think to be used if you live on a busy street and leave for work early in the morning and in quiet the v8 rumble is suppressed to just 72 decibels which is about the same level of noise a sleeping dorm as makes put it in track and it gets a whole lot louder as well as firming up the suspension and backing off the trash and control oh come on richard mach 1 is 343 meters a second or over 760 miles an hour so no no it can't do that you'd need rockets on your car to do that and that sort of thing generally ends badly for me ford haven't released naughty 60 figures and top speed for it if they have released those by the time you watch this they will appear here hi richard i haven't got a mustang but i've always loved them how does the mach 1 handle in the corners because it is still a mustang after all well darren to be fair it's some time since we've been able to laugh at mustangs for handling like a grand piano on an ice rink but the current generation ford have sorted it they've dragged the mustang kicking and screaming into this century that's established fact ford claimed the mach 1 is the best handling mustang ever to reach the uk but well they would say that they make it however there is some evidence to support it the mach one comes as standard with magnehide magne that word suspension basically what you get is tiny magnetic particles in the fluid inside the dampers if you then introduce electricity you get magnetism and that affects the particles and affects the fluid the viscosity of it and affects the damping incredibly quickly in fractions of a second it is very very clever add in the mac one specially calibrated steering stiffer springs and limited slip dip and you start to see why actually it feels all those lovely yummy things taught and planted that said all i've done so far is swoop rather elegantly around these gently banked curves i feel like i need something more i think i shall construct a scientific test and here's what i made if you look closely it actually resembles a figure eight and it's a very scientific method of testing a car's handling it shall forever be known as richard's loop so here we go into my new mustang testing device i can test a left-hand turn turn the wheel anti-clockwise works well straighten it up if i then try and turn to the right yep that absolutely seems to work i have just one suggestion as you know in your control would this test work better if i went a bit faster just wondering i don't know i suspect it might just be more yeah yeah that is better ah this has improved the test no end all it needed was a bit more science actually i'm pretty sure the ford people can't see me which is good because i'm not going to give away my testing sequence our testing secrets so let's just keep this between you and me oh little bit of off the track testing there that's good very very scientifically rigorous i am the first person outside of ford uk to drive this car and this is what i'm doing important work my name is scott gibson um my love for mustangs comes from being raised in a family where a granddad and a dad both are huge ford fans i have a 67 project car that i bought uniquely because of that and then as i was working on it my granddad actually passed away about a year ago before i could get it running so still working on it now gives me that ability just to feel like um he's still there kind of with me but my question for richard about the new one is is it a a mustang that's been made to give you that sense of where it's come from uh where the history of it oh scott the tough one sense of history i mean this is a lot more sophisticated than the original mac one from 1969 but then 1969 was an era before adaptive suspension adaptive exhaust traction control even and the original mach 1 did have competition suspension that was good for its day had a limited slip diff it was available with more power it was a muscle car and muscle cars were essentially versions of ordinary cars such as your parents might have but with a massive engine shoehorned in and then some other goodies bolted on and in that sense this is still a modern muscle car it's not pretending to be a supercar so yeah i'd say there is a sense of history hey richard long time fan and a longer time fan of the mustang behind me is my dad's 1970 mach 1. it's a little hard to pinpoint exactly why i love the mustang so much but i think one of the big reasons is the community that surrounds it of course i've bonded with my own father over the mustang but i have also forged so many connections over the years i've met a lot of really great people all over a mutual appreciation for this car my question is is it worthy of being called a mock one well alex it's a faster better handling version of a standard mustang so in that sense yeah it does more deeply well it's a lot more complicated than the original but so is everything these days and it manages to be faster and to handle better without making a terrible fuss about it it retains the sense of simplicity of clarity of purpose so it retains the spirit of the original so yeah it does deserve to be called a mac one i'm gonna have one more go around the cones just to make sure just you know a bit more science to do hmm you\n"