I thought respect is a 2-way thing

It's a car that does not respect your wallet or your budget at the fuel pump.

- Brendan Seery

You need to adopt a posture of veneration when approaching any icon. When it comes to Ford's Mustang, you don't have to remove your shoes before entering this Temple of Engineering Wonder, but you should stop and pause before getting behind the wheel.

I remember doing this as I met my hero for the first time back in the 1980s. With petrol flowing through my veins and hearing that V8 rumble in my ears, I should have been disappointed that the vehicle in front of me hardly made a sound and came with a silky-smooth but gutless 200 cubic inch (3.3 litre) straight-six engine.

Still, driving around Joburg in a left-hand-drive American car, I managed to turn heads. The only thing which turned faster was my own head when I had to put petrol in it, because it guzzled like a sailor on shore leave.

But, it was a Mustang, so who cared?

The latest Mustang GT on sale in South Africa is more like the heroes of the silver screen I had fallen in love with growing up.

One is the "Highland Green" Mustang Fastback which was Steve McQueen's mount in Bullitt and actually driven by him in what was one of cinema's finest car chases.

Then there was the Mach 1 Mustang piloted by one James Bond in Diamonds are Forever, in which the car was put on two wheels for a seemingly endless ride up an alley.