√Ford Mustang V8 wins 2022 Drive Car of the Year Best Sports Coupe

Sports coupes like the Ford Mustang are automotive emotion in motion, with curves to excite and the power to exhilarate.

Sports coupes are the fast-beating heart of a car company. They may never sell in big numbers – unless the name is Mustang – but they play an important role in convincing buyers that Brand X’s econohatch or seven-seat SUV may just have a dash of the same spirit to make daily driving marginally less banal.

But that matters little for anyone shopping for a sports coupe. This buyer wants a car that drives as fast as it looks, and looks damn good sitting in the garage. They want a car that rewards them every time they look at it or turn the key, and they want a car that will remind them of the sheer joy of performance motoring when the houses give way to forests and the road begins to wander.

This year, the Ford Mustang V8 proved that it is the Best Sports Coupe in Australia.

The Ford Mustang we had at DCOTY was the mighty Mach 1, the epitome of the Mustang breed, and the most potent Mustang Ford offers in Australia. It launched in June but buyers had to wait until the back end of the year for delivery, and there’s every chance it’s sold out by now.

The Mustang Mach 1 is based on the Mustang V8, and while it has heightened capabilities, we know that the Mustang base beneath those add-ons is an eminently capable and competent vehicle.

That’s why the Ford Mustang V8, not just the Mustang Mach 1, won the 2022 Drive Car of the Year Best Sports Coupe category.

Driving a Ford Mustang feels special, it feels like an occasion, even if you’re just tootling down to the shops. Everything from the way it looks in your driveway to the way the 5.0-litre V8 barks hungrily when you fire it up makes the hairs on your arm tingle.

The sensations continue as you move the cue ball gear lever through its gate. Then if you’re lucky enough to have a racetrack like we did at Drive Car of the Year, you’ll get to see what the Mustang V8 can really do.

The Mustang’s biggest trick is disguising its weight; this car does not accelerate or brake or dive into corners like an 1800kg heavyweight. It is a tactile and thunderous sports car that immerses the driver in the action right up to the eyeballs.

That’s the foundation of a great sports coupe, but it takes more than that to win Drive Car of the Year.

Running costs and value are important considerations. The Mustang V8 starts from $64,390 (plus on-road costs at the time of writing), which undercuts the Toyota Supra considerably, making the Mustang great value when you also take into account that it is bigger and more practical yet has better power-to-weight, and is considerably cheaper to service over the life of its warranty.

All of those elements are taken into account at Drive Car of the Year because as much as we wish every day was a racetrack, it’s not. We drive our sports cars on mundane roads in everyday traffic far more often than we do our favourite country road. So the Best Sports Coupe award has a liveability criterion that must be considered along with all those elements that make a sports coupe great.

Read about the Best Sports Coupe segment

Read about all the other 2022 Drive Car of the Year categories and winners