Steve Von Foerster.JPG

(Ford Media)

Nearly everyone can picture themselves with a pillow squished over their head as a neighbor's aggressive exhaust roars in the wee hours of the morning.

One of those guilty neighbors was Steve von Foerster -- Ford's former head of vehicle engineering and current leader of the user experience team.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker details a fateful morning in which the man and his V8 Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang had the police called on them for being too loud.

While a neighbor called 911, von Foerster left before officers arrived, avoided a citation and escaped with an innovative idea for the new Ford Mustang.

The 2018 Ford Mustang will come with a "Good Neighbor Mode," which will set out to do exactly what the name entails. The industry-first feature will allow Mustang owners to limit exhaust noise and to schedule when that GT V8 will roar at its loudest.

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"I love the sound of the V8, but it can be loud, and you can't annoy people like that in your neighborhood," von Foerster said in the release.

"It sounds so cool, but I thought, 'There has to be a way to give people more control over the engine's sound.'"

As for the feature itself, the Mustang's new mode will use steering-wheel mounted controls allowing users to toggle through the menu to select what time they want to start up their car. Ford lays out an example of a driver programming their car to start quieter between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. if they so chose. The Mustang GT's V8 will start, but without that signature -- spine-tingling -- roar.

"When sounds get up into the upper-70-decibel range, that's typically about when they start to bother people," Matt Flis, Ford's exhaust development engineer, said in the release.

"With quiet start activated, the decibel level of the new Mustang GT drops by about 10 decibels, to a much more comfortable 72 decibels - about the level of a household dishwasher."

It doesn't stop here as the Mustang;s driving modes will fire up with different exhaust volumes. The driving modes include Normal, Sport and Track modes, which the automaker is touting as a growth in control and freedom.

The 2018 Ford Mustang GT is being touted as the automaker's fastest version ever, as it will make 460 horsepower, 420-pounds of torque and go 0-60 mph in less than 4 seconds. Another impressive addition to the Mustang is the addition of the Drag Strip mode, which is said to optimize torque, transmission and its Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires to aid performance in straight-line driving.

It will make 435 horsepower and 400-pounds of torque.

Other changes to the Mustang GT include a new 10-speed automatic with the 5.0-liter V8, which the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker says comes redesigned. Ford says this new 10-speed results in driver's enjoying more responsiveness, performance and "more accurate, quicker upshift and downshift capability."

As for the non-GT Mustangs, those will come with a new front- and rear-end design, improved aerodynamics, no V6 option, and improved technology on the inside and out.

Some other expanded technology features include a memory function that remembers the driver's preferences, pre-collision assist and pedestrian detection.

There are three new paint color options and 12 different wheel choices, which gives "owners more ways than ever to customize the car to their preferences."

It comes with a 2.3-liter Ford EcoBoost engine, 5.0-liter V8 and a 10-speed automatic transmission. While the V6 option is no more, the manual V8 has been redesigned to offer more torque and to streamline clutch modulation.