Ford Motor Co. is not well.

Last month, total passenger-car deliveries plunged 15 percent, while overall sales fell 4.5 percent. Year-over-year sales in the United States dipped more than 4 percent from 2016. The company has announced it will slash all sedans from its U.S. lineup.

But drive the 2018 Mustang GT Fastback—new this year—and you won’t detect a hint of trouble in Detroit.

This is an updated, faster, and more beautiful variant of America’s longest-running, most iconic car model. Ford has produced the Mustang continuously since 1964; it has sold many millions of units the world over, inspiring countless references in pop culture and art, along with a wildly devoted fan base of drivers and collectors. 

The Mustang is also—in addition to the lovely but peripheral $400,000 GT, which sold 10 units last year—the only actual car spared  Ford’s Reaper scythe (as opposed to trucks and SUVs).

No surprise: Global demand for the new 2018 model has driven the Mustang family to its third straight year as the best-selling sports coupe in the world, with global sales totaling 125,809 cars last year and two-thirds of those going to the United States. Over the past five years, Ford has sold half a million Mustangs in the U.S.

The most popular configuration of the Mustang worldwide is the GT. Which brings me to the version I drove last week in New York, a 2018 Mustang GT Fastback Premium that included the “Performance Pack 2”—Ford’s lingo for the best handling and engineering available in a Mustang.

The term “fastback” denotes that the roof slopes down in an unbroken line from the roofline to the rear. This is the style of the modern Mustang as offered right now, synonymous for our purposes with the word “coupe.” “GT” denotes one version that’s a slightly faster, more powerful version of the Fastback “Ecoboost” models.

With a 5.0-liter V8 engine that gives 460hp and 420 pound-feet of torque, the Performance Pack 2 comes with a racing-tuned suspension and handling systems for sharper, more aggressive driving. It was developed in secret because Mustang’s brass wanted to launch it with a bang. At just under $40,000, the combo serves a market that wants something very special but isn’t going to shell out for a 526-horsepower Mustang Shelby GT350. (That Ford track animal costs $57,240 and up.)

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