Above and Beyond!

Around the same time when one of the world’s most iconic sports cars was in its first generation and gaining popularity in America, what is today one of the world’s busiest space ports was then being built and developed near Chennai in India. One is a car and the other is a launch site; and they are connected — logical right! So, a few full moons ago, on a balmy Sunday morning, I decided to uncover more about this coincidence personally by driving the Ford Mustang GT to Sriharikota.

The yellow Mustang with its shark nose peeking out of my garage was pleading to be taken out on the long straight stretches of National Highway 16 leading up to the famous island on which the Satish Dhawan Space centre is located. Saturday’s nightmarish traffic in the city had hurt the Mustang’s pride. As if to reinforce the urgency, the Mustang’s exhaust woke up with a roar when I punched the engine start button on the dash, before settling into a steady raspy burble. I started out early to make sure that I could leave the city behind quickly, and throttle down NH16 before the sun gets over-head.

Trot to gallop

Sriharikota is located in Andhra Pradesh towards the southernmost corner of the state’s coastline, and about 75-80 km north of Chennai. The drive up to the fringes of the island takes about two-and-a-half hours or so. Sometimes more, if one has to negotiate peak hour traffic or a political rally. Of course, on a Sunday morning and in a Mustang, that distance could be put behind in much lesser time. The route is a mix of city roads, dual-carriageway national highway and some kutcha roads in and around Sriharikota. Of course, the space centre itself is inaccessible to ordinary mortals, but there are other attractions in the area like the famous Pulicat Lake, which, post-monsoon, is a bird-watcher’s paradise teeming with pelicans, flamingos and other water birds.

I was driving the sixth generation Mustang — the quintessential Pony car of the last five decades. Unveiled simultaneously amidst much fanfare in six different cities globally back in 2015, it was the first time Ford was truly taking the Mustang to a global audience. This was the first Mustang to roll out of the factory specifically made for right-hand-drive markets. Quite a bit different in design from the previous generation Mustangs, this one sheds the square-edged brow in the front and the circular headlamps, instead replacing them with a 3D trapezoidal grille housing the iconic galloping stallion in chrome and a pair of sleek headlamps with the trio LED DRLs that has been a Mustang signature for decades. The Pony car proportion has only been accentuated in this sixth-gen model with a lower profile, but a continuance of the long hood and short rear deck.

The Mustang’s low 137 mm ground clearance was a bit of a worry when I set out. But there were no instances of the underbody scraping any speedbreakers during my drive.

Escape velocity

I was driving a model year 2017 Mustang with that sweet-sounding five-litre, V8 engine inside the bonnet. The transmission is, however, not the 10-speed that the 2018 model gets, but the six-speed auto with steering-mounted paddles. With nearly 400 horses bolting from the bonnet, the 80-odd kilometres to Sriharikota were a blur in the Mustang. I made quick time driving past Sri City, the industrial township and slipped into a nondescript lane running adjacent to the main island where the space port is located.

Sriharikota is an elongated barrier island, which is perfectly located right next to the Bay of Bengal and close to the equator. Launching rockets and recovering stages off from the ocean make it an ideal spot. By now of course, SHAR and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have become one of the most successful launch outfits in the world. Even earlier this week, a PSLV rocket successfully placed a navigation satellite into orbit. The area surrounding the island can get really crowded with space enthusiasts, students and locals lining the banks along the backwaters and Pulicat Lake on launch days.

The Mustang is great to drive on long straight stretches. It cruises effortlessly and there is enough power and torque available on demand should you want to leave the trotters behind. Also inspiring confidence are the Brembo brakes, which are great should the usual surprises on our highways decide to amble out of the bushes by the side.

Re-entry stage

But, the Mustang is not as much a track carver as some of the other performance cars can be. On a race track with back to back heavy acceleration and braking, the Mustang tends to get overwhelmed after a few laps and slips into limp mode.

Its appeal on the road remains undiminished; with its iconic design, great sounding exhaust note and the yellow livery that my test mule wore, the Mustang had eyes following it everywhere. But if you are planning a family holiday, it will be worth remembering that it is a four-seater, with a fairly compact boot. My test car came with a full size spare, so there was literally only enough space for a picnic hamper. I liked the few subtle additions in the cabin reminding me of the Mustang’s haloed status — like the lap timer and the fact that the speedometer mentions ‘ground speed’ as its measure.

As I drove back to the city, leaving rocket town behind me, that steadily rising three-digit speed on the dial was like a lingering after-taste.

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