Video: 2015 Ford Mustang -- 2014 Detroit Auto Show

The prior Mustang spent about 10 years emulating the 1964 and a half original. This Mustang now emulates the late 1960s Mustang Fastback. But lest you think that this is another throwback Mustang, Ford is on a mission to prove that it's a horse of a different color. So saddle up. Let's take a look. The redesign is more of an evolution than a revolution, but if you park this Mustang alongside the outgoing one it does look a lot sleeker. Kind of wider, ground hugging a little bit more. Certain elements along the front recall other Fords. We see a lot of Ford Taurus kind of in the headlights the way they sort of snake around. As you get around the side, the big news is the Fastback roof line. It goes all the way into the trunk. Combine that with a much smaller looking cabin, in terms of the glass around there. And this Mustang definitely looks a lot sleeker than its predecessor. Let's take a look inside and see how that affects visibility. Visibility is okay. The rear window still pretty big. Pretty easy to see out of back there and the C pillars are not too thick. Neither are the A pillars, but you do get a little bit of Chevy Camaro effect here with the windshield sloping all the way back. So it is kind of low, not a ton of glass to see through. The Mustang retains the twin cowl dashboard that kind of defined the earlier generations of the car. A lot going on here in the center controls. There's toggle switches here that actually come up to do things like turning off traction control or changing steering settings, or even activating the hazards. Very interesting here. This is Ford's MyFord Touch now that takes over, but it does have real buttons and knobs. Always appreciated versus earlier capacitive touch versions of MyFord Touch. Cabin materials, good. Could be a little bit more consistent though. There's soft touch stuff above the dash and even alongside the center tunnel here where your knees might knock against. We wish that those materials continued to the upper doors here, but this does look a lot nicer than it used to look because the old Mustangs upper doors looked very deliberately cheap. The last Mustang's back seat was a lot better than the Camaro's back seat, which was almost unusable. This Mustang gets closer to Camaro territory. I can't sit upright. That should tell you all you need to know. But saying you bought a Mustang for the backseat is like saying you went to Ruth's Chris for the salad. This is where the beef is. There's a 3.7 liter V6 with about 305 horsepower, Ford says. There's also the automakers familiar and potent five liter V8 with about 420 horsepower. But new this year is a new 2.3 liter turbocharged four cylinder. Now, before you say that driving a four cylinder Mustang is like listening to a Tupac song with radio edits, the four cylinder is going to be the optional engine. It actually makes in excess of 300 horsepower between the V6 and the V8. They're lining up in terms of power and more than 300 pounds feet of torque. About 30 pounds feet more torque than the V6 in early power estimates, Ford says. Other notables, for the first time in the Mustang, since the early 2000s Mustang Cobra, there is now an independent rear suspension in all Mustangs, Ford says. Transmissions include a six speed manual or a six speed automatic transmission and axle ratios across the board range from about 2:77 to 3:73. Coupe and convertible versions of the car will go on sale in 2014 sometime after the Mustangs 50th anniversary in April. Now, inevitably GM will redesign the Chevy Camaro, Dodge will redesign the Challenger and the muscle car wars will heat up again. But Ford fired the first shot and from the looks of it, it probably brought some heat. Stay tuned for our driving impressions once we get a chance to get behind the wheel. (engine revving)