FOR TOO LONG South Africans have been denied some of the great character cars of the motoring world, all because the Yanks drive on the wrong side of the road. But now a company in Durban is righting those lefts.

MEAN MUSTANG IMAGE GALLERY

It’s a menacing car, this Mustang. Like nothing anything else I’ve driven before, no matter how fast or how powerful. It’s raw, it’s on the edge and it’s intimidating the hell out of me. But I also can’t remember when last I enjoyed driving this much.

The sun has just risen, glinting off the Indian Ocean, as we burble along the embankment, the V8 barely ticking over in fourth gear. As I approach a traffic light I gear down to third, the incredibly short and precise gearshift adding to the moment. The light turns green and I accelerate, still in third but barely moving. Instead of hiccupping, the V8 picks up the slack and begins to howl, the blower wheezing in the background and the speedo needle heading quickly to 60mph, past it, and on to 90. We hit a minor pothole in a corner and the sold rear axle gives a shudder, bumping the rear out of line and reminding me that this is no sterile German automobile.

What this is, is a 2009 Ford Mustang GT Coupe, modified and, more importantly, converted to right-hand drive. It’s street legal too, and driving the Durban boulevards, drawing crowds and giving its driver an immoderate amount of pleasure. In the States there’s a Mustang on every corner. A Mustang is a standard 21^st birthday present for the middle-class, and they’re no more prestigious than a Golf GTI here in South Africa. After driving this one, that’s hard to fathom.

But because they’re only built in left-hand drive, they’ve never been officially imported into South Africa. And that means that a Mustang driving along the streets of Durban draws more glances than would a Porsche, Ferrari, Aston or Lambo.

This particular Mustang started off as a stock standard, 4.6-litre, Grabber Orange GT Coupe. It was bought new in the States and then shipped to Manchester, England, for a few mods.

There it was lowered by 40mm, given black 20-inch Antera rims (with a little pony in the centre), an intercooled Paxton supercharger, a Roush airdam/bumper (to house the intercooler), a Hurst gearshift and short-throw linkage, and SLP dual exhausts. So what started out as a 300hp grand tourer was now putting out 500hp, or 373kW. Torque hasn’t been measured yet, but Ivor Lee reckons it must be close to 700Nm.

Ivor is the man behind the steering wheel of this particular Mustang, and the man you’ve got to call if you’re after one for yourself. A former mechanic and current car wholesaler, Ivor has had a lifelong passion for the cars, ever since seeing a Mach 1 Mustang, also orange, in the 1974 movie Crazy Mary, Dirty Larry. He decided then, at the age of 10 or 11, that he would one day own an orange Ford Mustang.