1999 Mustang V6 Review

This is the one that turned me from a kid that played racing games into the lifelong enthusiast here today. Its been 5 long years since I grasped the wheel of this gem but I still remember the driving experience well enough to give you the most biased review you'll ever see. First, I'll give a rundown of what the Green Machine included from the factory and then I'll describe the mods my brothers and I tacked on over the 8 plus years we owned the car.


Engine: 3.8 "Essex" V6
Transmission: 5-Speed Manual
Options: Power Driver Seat...and that's about it
Mods: Pypes True Dual Exhaust, Bullitt-syle wheels, K&N Cold Air Intake

The first thing I will tell you about the '99 Mustang is that the difference between the base V6 and GT V8 is similar in magnitude as the difference between the space shuttle and a bottle rocket. There's a reason why people looked at the V6 model as the couldn't-afford-the-V8 model. While it worked fine for sorority girls and on rental lots, the V6 was hopelessly under-powered. So what did my brothers and I do when we realized that it wasn't going to win any stoplight races? We made it sound like the V8. The Pypes brand straight pipes were installed during my oldest brothers tenure and it transformed the mustang with trans-am levels of noise. The sound on start-up made all the right burbly noises and the crackle and pop on throttle down was insanely addictive. Next were the Bullitt-style wheels which were worth every penny spent on them as they gave it the deep-dish retro look of the 60's (and made it look like the GT model, which was important at the time).

So 0-60 felt like it took at least 8 seconds, how about the handling? The communicative nature of the hydraulic steering allowed even the smallest of rocks to be known to the driver and really did let you know when the traction limits were close. The handling was also better than you'd expect and while there was plenty of body-roll, the car was almost always neutral with oversteer possible if you were really aggressive with the right foot. The live rear-axle was really the only thing that could ruin your day as expansion joints would upset the car almost to the point of losing control. The long-throws of the 5-speed were straight out of the 70's and made it truly an effort to initiate a shift.

What made the '99 Mustang great was that it wasn't trying to be something it wasn't. There was something great about being able to hoon the mustang without having to worry about breaking the car or the speed limits. This goes back to the adage that its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. Being able to experience the limits of the mustang made it far more rewarding to drive than driving a Porsche at 50%. As you can probably tell, I miss the mustang more than I'll miss any car I'll ever own.

Fun: 10/10
Practical: 6/10
Fast: 5/10
Total: 21/30




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