The Lommel Proving Grounds

By now you’re likely aware that Ford is taking the Mustang global with the upcoming S550 platform, which will debut sometime in the next six months. Ford has not sold the Mustang officially worldwide in quite some time, although those wealthy enough to afford it have been able to import them wherever they choose.

Ford of Europe recently released this video of a test drive in a current S197 Mustang, we’d say a 2013 or 2014 from the looks of it, at their Lommel Proving Grounds in Belgium. Lommel is to Ford of Europe what the Dearborn Proving Grounds is to Ford in the United States. Cars can be subjected to a large number of tests at this vast facility. Everything from high speed oval track testing, hill roads, rough surface roads, long straight aways for high speed and braking, a skid pad, dyno center, car sized freezer for cold weather testing, and more are here for Ford’s use.

The video plays like something out of a British comedy show, or candid camera reality show. The passenger in our car, we’ll call him Bob because his name is never given, is riding along with Ford professional test driver Joe (yes that is Joe’s name). Bob has never been in a Mustang before, and he seems very excited from the beginning of the video. As things progress though he makes comments like “We’re going quite fast now.”

Joe first takes Bob around the 4.3 km handling track, which has 20 curves. Joe gets the car into oversteer a few times as part of the experience, this in turn causes Bob to scream out to the Almighty, as well as the Almighty’s Son, and the Son’s earthly parents. Bob asks Joe how he does it, to which he replies “It’s just driving,” and Bob quickly comments, “They never taught me that when I was learning to drive.”

Perhaps the most comical moment though is when Joe exits the handling course and informs Bob that they’re headed to the high speed course, “What do you mean high speed – we’ve been going high speed for 10 minutes!” Bob shrieks. Joe then takes Bob up to 140 mph on the 4.2 km banked high speed course, and from the looks of it Bob is about to loose his lunch.

The entire video is hilarious and worth watching. Europe, we hope you’re ready for American horsepower.