This week I'm testing a 2011 Ford Mustang GT with the new 412 horsepower 5.0 liter V8 -- and once again I find myself marveling at how far far high-horsepower V8s have come.

I'm old enough to remember when 300 horsepower engines were moody at best, and 400 horsepower engines were fire-spitting beasts that were hard to start, difficult to keep tuned up, and impossible to keep cool.

I remember arriving at my local cruise-in one evening (Carmine's in Henrietta, NY) to see a beautiful 1967 Corvette with a 427 big-block V8 obscuring itself in a rapidly-growing cloud of steam. I went inside and asked if anyone owned a blue 'Vette. "I think your car's exploding," I said.

The owner came outside, put his hands on his hips, and contemplated his car, which was now angrily sputtering coolant from its lower radiator hose.

"Wow," he said. "It's never done it that badly before."

Turns out what set the Corvette off was a ten-minute traffic jam between the freeway and the restaurant. And the Corvette wasn't the only ill-tempered car I encountered. My first ride behind a 426 HEMI came in a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. The owner noted that I wouldn't be getting maximum thrills because it took a half-hour drive to get it warmed up -- "If the plugs don't foul on the way," he added. (Jeff, if you're reading this, that was some ride -- twenty-plus years later and I'm still smiling.)

So that's why it amazes me when I get my hands on a car like the 2011 Mustang -- and not just because someone has actually handed me the keys to a 400+ horsepower car.

No, what amazes me is that it runs like any other car. Just today, I went outside, started it up, put it in first gear, and drove off without a second of warm-up time. Back in The Day, I might have gotten half a car length before the engine sputtered and died.

Not only that, but the other day I got stuck in a nice long Los Angeles traffic jam, and the temperature gauge didn't even move. And all this tame behavior is coming from an engine that doesn't require much routine maintenance beyond regular oil changes and a new set of spark plugs every 100,000 miles.

Today, we take driveability like this for granted. But back when I was watching that Corvette blow its stack, if you had told me that just 20 years I'd be driving a 412 horsepower car that would start, idle and drive just as well as my friend's 90 horsepower Nissan Sentra*, I would never have believed you. Pretty impressive, eh? -- Aaron Gold

* You're probably wondering why I'm using the example of my friend's car and not my own. The reason is that I had a 1987 Dodge Omni, one of the last cars to use Chrysler's dreaded 2-barrel feedback carburetor. It was a wonderful car in its own way, but starting, idling and driving were not really among its strong points.

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