Kosciuszko National Park needs more wild horse - of the Ford Mustang GT variety

It’s no secret wild horses are rampant in the Kosciuszko National Park, with at least 12,000 of the pests spread across the alpine wilderness. So would one more make a difference?

In case you think you’ve accidentally clicked on a story in National Geographic, the ‘horse’ in question is the new Ford Mustang GT, and I can almost guarantee it caused no harm to the stocky galaxias fish or the glorious northern corroboree frog.

Even if it may have startled them.

The centrepiece of a Mustang – like a spit boar at a Viking dinner party – has always been the V8 engine. In this case, a five-litre, known to the nerds as the ‘Coyote’. It’s why I’ve always struggled to see the point of its turbocharged four-cylinder ‘Ecoboost’ sibling. Just work harder, pay $12K extra, do it properly and get this one – the GT manual, for $78,990 (there is also a 10-speed auto, which is actually the better seller, but only if you must).

So obvious cheesy horse pun aside, the Snowy Mountains Highway is the real reason I’m out here. This horse needs space to gallop (sorry, last one).

It’s true some of the plastics inside are tacky. And there’s a weird buzz coming from the front of the dashboard, possibly due to the system that pipes the engine noise into the cabin.

It also kept telling me to “keep hands on the steering wheel”, which is its way of saying I was getting too close to the yellow lines (turning off the lane-keeping assistance shut it up).

Parking is painful, not helped by the fact that the mirrors are tiny, there are no proximity sensors, and you only have a rear camera.

Others have complained about the rear seats, and if you’re an average-sized adult with a head, I get it. They’re useless. But I will say my wife and I managed to get two kiddie seats into them and then an entire pram into the boot with room to spare. So it’s the ultimate (young) family car!

But these are petty concerns. Because the engine is causing all your hairs to stand up and new ones to form on your chest. I don’t think I’ve smiled in a car so much.

There’s a ‘quiet start’ mode to the exhaust, which I love because it implies that, naturally, it’s so loud it feels illegal between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am. In Race mode, the flaps in the pipes are fully open, and they bellow. To 80 km/h and 7500 rpm, in first gear.

But I never used that, of course, because I was on public roads, and this is for “track use only”, according to a message on the dash. It’s also why I never delved into the drift, burn-out and drag options available (I really didn’t, OK).

One slander we can conclusively end here and now is that American cars are only good in straight lines.

Coming from Canberra, I decided to dodge the most boring highway on earth (the Monaro) and instead go through Tharwa and along Bobeyan Road, which you begin thinking might be among the greatest driving roads ever – until the tarmac ends.

I put the Mustang in its ‘Slippery’ mode and drove on gingerly, but there were a few particularly gravelly patches where it felt a bit skittish.

Near Adaminaby, the road opened up into the most refreshing piece of tarmac I’ve ever seen – wide and sweeping and oh, so smooth – until it returned to dirt. But soon enough, we were into the national park and the Mustang back in ‘Sports’ mode.

As with the exhaust, the steering comes with modes – normal, comfort and sport. But try as I might to summon deep connections between my fingers and my brain, I struggled to tell the difference. They’re all perfect. As is the refined click from the gear lever as you slot it in.

The Mustang handles like a chef’s knife – perfectly balanced and with a precise cut. And perhaps the best bit, makes you feel like a chef.

The rev-matching feature might take a lot of the work out of the six-speed manual, but it also means it’s near impossible to stuff up a shift. And after taking off in third, thinking it was in first, it seems to detect when you’re an idiot and restart the engine for you. Face saved.

There’s no annoying computer involvement, and you’re still left feeling like you’re the one at the helm of a mighty old-school machine.

And best of all, it’s not going away anytime soon. The Mustang might be the last V8 sports car under $100,000 left in Australia, but earlier this year, Bill Ford (the great-grandson of Henry Ford) said the V8 will remain under the Mustang’s bonnet for as long as legally possible.

So it’s nothing like a brumby at all, really.

2025 Ford Mustang GT Fastback manual

• $81,990 (plus driveaway costs)
• 5.0-litre V8, 345 kW / 550 Nm
• 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive (RWD)
• 12.8 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption, 91 RON
• 0-100 km/h in 5.5 seconds
• 1813 kg
• Not yet rated for safety

Thanks to Ford Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with Ford Australia.