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By Jonathan Crouch

There's nothing quite like Ford's seventh generation Mustang Convertible. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 94

They don't make convertible sportscars like this any more but, just for a little while longer, Ford still does. This seventh generation Mustang Convertible shares much with its predecessor, some of it good - the throbbing V8 up-front - and some of it less appealing - like the old-style fabric hood. As with the Fastback Coupe version of this car that we've tested separately, this S650-era version gains sharper exterior looks and a more modern cabin. But it remains authentic to the core and if you loved it before, you'll still love it now.

Backgroundword count: 151

Quick question for you. Name us a desirable classic sports convertible you can buy new with a V8 engine, a manual gearbox and a price tag starting below six figures. In this enlightened age, you might think there isn't one. But you'd be wrong; this is it - Ford's Mustang Convertible. Though Mustang purists would always choose this car in Fastback coupe form, Convertible motoring has been part of this hairy-chested muscle-bound model's legendary formula from the very beginning back in 1965. Ford calls this generation of Mustang the 'MK7' but the truth is that this S650-generation design, launched here in 2024, is really more a far-reaching facelift of the previous S550 model, which arrived here back in 2015. Ford hasn't changed the Convertible formula much in creating this seventh generation design. But this car has improved in quite a few other ways - as we're going to find out here.

Driving Experienceword count: 413

There's not a lot of extra weight with this Convertible body style - no more than around 80kgs - so you'd expect it to drive much like the Coupe and, by and large, it does. If you've paid the extra to have your Mustang with a fabric top, you're going to want to drive it roof-down as much as possible - which isn't as easy as you might think. For years, just about every other sports convertible you can think of has had a top that would operate at low speeds at the push of a button, but the 'Stang has never bothered with that kind of user-friendliness - and still doesn't now. So every time you want to put the roof down, you have to stop; wrestle with an overhead lever; then wait for 10 seconds as the roof mechanism does its thing; before you can set off again. Which in a climate as changeable as ours is hardly ideal. Just chalk it up alongside the many other things you'll have to get used to if you're a new convert to Mustang motoring. There are plenty of them. The lack of the kind of turbocharger that almost every other modern engine uses these days means a very different kind of reaction to your right foot. And if you've gone all-out with the whole Mustang thing and chosen manual transmission, then you might feel the years rolling back to sportscars of your youth as you clunk the 6-speed stick shift from gear to gear. We tried that manual 'box when we tested the Fastback version, so we thought we'd sample the auto on this cabrio that most customers end up with, a 10-speed torque converter set-up, via which the car gets to 62mph in 5.0s, a tenth slower than the Coupe and just under half a second quicker than even an expert driver could manage with a stick shift. Top speed is restricted to 155mph. Plenty of similarly-priced sportscars match those kinds of performance figures these days, but none of them deliver that speed much like a Mustang does. These days, for our market anyway, the classic 5.0-litre 'Coyote' V8 engine is the only one available, with 446PS and a glorious Dambuster-style rumble that of course you can hear all the better roof-down in this Convertible. With the roof down, there's a fair amount of buffeting, but you can just about talk to your front seat passenger at or around the legal limit.

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