The American Horse is conquering Europe

Europeans are crazy over Mustangs, and guess which country loves them best...Automologist MAC brings us the details.

Until last year, Ford had not officially sold its Mustang in Europe, which probably was a good thing as the older models really didn’t match up to the hype. Notorious for less than excellent build quality and substandard handling ability, Ford had left its running pony very firmly back on the ranch in the good old US of A.

Last year, things changed and Ford somewhat lately realised that the Mustang was very much needed in its European line-up, and what a year Ford has had since then, selling 21,000 units thus far. Somewhat unexpectedly, Belgium is at the forefront of the sales when you look at the number of vehicles sold compared to the population of the country.

The largest number of Mustangs in the stable goes to Germany and the UK, where some 50% of all sales occurred, with 7,281 and 4,761 Mustangs sold respectively; France follows with 2,216 units; Belgium comes in fourth place overall, with one Mustang per every 4693 drivers, compared to one to every 7743 in Germany (Read also: German cars score low on reliability; Mustang trots in for the prize). Of course, the US is still Ford's biggest market for ‘Stangs, with 87,000 sold up to September this year alone.

Europeans are tending to opt for the hard-top V8 version, with only about a third going for the slightly under-powered 2.3-litre Eco-Boost option, but this is about to change as Ford has announced a new performance upgrade that can pump up the power to near the V8 level. The new kit will leave the Eco-Boost with about 335 horsepower, which puts it at the same level as the V6 Chevy Camaro and the same sort of performance ability as the Dodge Charger.

Ford claims that the increased power output will be felt throughout the rev range and not just at the peak output level, although at the higher end of the four-pot range, between 5500 and the 6600 redline, there will be at least another 75 horses to play with. What impresses real petrol heads like me though is the increase in the peak torque output, up to a whopping 390 lb-ft, which is just shy of the V8’s total twist. The best part of this news though is the cost of just US$699 at a dealer in the US of A and a full warranty package to boot.

Not to be left out, the V8 will get a similar package with bits scavenged from the Shelby GT350 upgrade package which, according to unconfirmed reports, will give you a peak output of about 495 horsepower from the eight-pot ‘Stang. Has there ever been a better time to add a Mustang to your Stable?