Has it really been over a decade since the Ford GT and the S197 Mustang platform debuted? Yes it has, and both have stood those years very well. The GT, Ford’s present to itself and to enthusiasts for their first century of existence, was a winner before it was even in production. Hearkening back to the original GT-40 that Henry Ford II commissioned with the intent of leaving Enzo Ferrari yelling nothing but “Cazzo!” during LeMans races…and did he ever nail the execution on that one. The modern GT was a touch larger all the way around, but not hilariously so, and it had grunt by the ton, courtesy of a mid-mounted 5.4L V8 packing a screamer of a supercharger on top. The GT might be the most BangShift-worthy exotic ever created, because it was even affordable…at least, by comparison to the peers it ran with, anyways…and wickedly potent even in stock form.

Then there’s the S197 Mustang. I owned one of these between 2011-2013 and the only knock I could give that car was that after two hours behind the wheel it reminded me just how messed up my back truly was. That’s it. That car took everything from daily driver duty to all-out punishment on canyon roads with no more than a whimper. The only time it threw a code, it was because I used too much oil on the air filter element and pissed off the MAF sensor. While it was still on it’s paper temp tag, I took it to Speedworld in Arizona and proceeded to rip off mid-13s all night long with the transmission barking second gear nicely. A decade on, and I’d own either one of these cars and still actively seek them out. The GT isn’t a bargain anymore (they trade at least twice their original MSRP now) but the Mustang GTs are a used-car lot steal.