Escaping L.A. and Hitting the Desert in the 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt
Away from the clogged streets and traffic, the Bullitt gets the adventure it deserves.
Every so often, I end up having a boring, watered-down weekend doing nothing but lying on the sofa like Homer Simpson and binging random stuff on Netflix. After a while though, these sessions feel more like a mid-life crisis waiting to happen rather than relaxing respites from daily life, and I find myself begging for just an ounce of excitement. I’m tempted to cruise around town, or maybe hit Starbucks, but those are just temporary reprieves. What I need is to see something different, something less familiar. Luckily, I’ve been given the task of supervising a 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt for the weekend, and if anything could inspire me to get off the sofa, it’s a muscular green pony on 19-inch black wheels with a rock-star personality and a loudmouth exhaust.
My weekend companion ran a cool $52,890, a price that included the optional Recaro leather-trimmed sport seats, electronics package, and magnetorheological dampers. All the cool kids know that the reincarnated Mustang Bullitt is only available with a six-speed manual and to me, that’s one of the biggest highlights of the car. Not that I’d choose an automatic if it were available as it is in other Mustangs, but having that mechanical connection to the naturally aspirated Coyote V-8 engine is simply enrapturing, and allows you to better and more immediately conjure its boisterous sound with every press on the gas pedal. And with 480 horsepower from its 5.0-liter engine, the Bullitt doesn’t lack for thrust.
