V8-engined muscle cars are very thin on the ground in the UK, your only options being the Chevrolet Corvette (which is really more of a sports car anyway) and the new Ford Mustang – a 440bhp bruiser that you can now buy for a shade over £55,000, making it the cheapest V8 car of any kind on the market.
And that’s where muscle car USP comes in – something that the Mustang has mastered over an uninterrupted 60-year production run and sales amounting to 10 million. It’s a cheaper, charismatic and ultimately more charming way of matching key rivals on performance and perhaps beating them on sheer kerb appeal.