@wheelsaustralia 65
drags, then a Mustang probably isn’t the best car for you
anyway. It’s a sorry realisation that more often than not,
you’ll be blitzed by an A45 AMG.
Placing these cars in any kind of order seems
invidious. The supercharged Mustang is by far the
biggest event, with charisma in spades and no shortage
of talent either. If pressed, I’d probably forgo the
suspension mods and just opt for the engine work. The
pitiful 61-litre fuel tank combined with its frightening
thirst inject a bit of tedium into the Tickford’s day-to-
day functionality, having you planning cross-country
strops like a Tesla owner. On balance, the highs this
supercharged Tickford delivers more than compensate
for the frequent servo visits.
The HSV Clubsport R8 LSA is endowed with far
more bandwidth. It can do grey Monday morning
commutes as happily as it’ll tackle a track day at
Phillip Island. It’s hard to knock the value proposition,
the Clubbie having been worked into a hugely
impressive all-rounder. It’s too big for its own good
as a sporting car and that places huge demands on
consumables like tyres and brakes but otherwise
grumbling feels churlish.
The Tickford Mustang Power Pack 360 progressively
wormed its way into our affections, however the V8
coupe’s appeal is as a budget sports car and piling
on extras soon sees the bottom fall out of your value
proposition. It never feels as quick as the manufacturer
claims but it now has that extra V8 attitude that
the standard ’Stang lacks. For $62K, if you just
opt for the exhaust and engine tweaks, it’s an easy
recommendation. For Australian roads, the suspension
work probably needs a do-over.
The car that everybody said they’d buy if they were
spending their own money was the unassuming SS-V
Redline. That’s as good as a winning definition as
you’re likely to get and it’s rare that the slowest and
least extrovert car of the bunch will win the popular
vote. We don’t subscribe to the ‘everybody gets a
medal’ school of thought here at Wheels, but these are
four very worthy performance cars. The Commodore
just gets more right more often, and for less money
than any of the others, and that’s testament to the
experience in local tuning. It’s no surprise that the
best car I’ve driven on a British B-road is a Lotus Elise,
the best car to tackle a French autoroute is a big, soft
Peugeot wagon, and the finest autobahn weapon I’ve
sampled is a Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG. For covering
kilometres in Australia, the SS-V just flat-out works.
The Mustang will doubtless come very good, but it’s
a work in progress, trying to hit the ground running
to finesse something that Holden has taken years to
learn. This VFII isn’t going to be around for too long,
however, and we’ll miss it when it’s gone. Whereas the
Falcon felt as if it had run its course, the rear-drive
Commodore is going out at the top of its game. Yet
the Tickford Mustangs lay down a heck of a marker in
this asymmetrical skirmish, and fans of blue-collar V8
muscle aren’t about to be short-changed. Setting aside
old allegiances? That might take a bit longer.SMOKING GUN:
CLUBSPORT R8 LSA
MARKS OBVIOUS
INTERSECTION OF
OUTRIGHT PACE
AND PRACTICALITY
BUT SS-V REDLINE’S
CUT-PRICE SPORTS
SEDAN SKILL SET
KEEPS IT FIRMLY
IN THE FRAME