2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse First Drive: The Best New Mustang You Can Currently Buy?

MotorTrend

Is the Dark Horse the best new Mustang you can currently buy? We drive it to investigate.

Transcript

00:00 Who's got two thumbs and loves Mustangs? This Mustang woman. And oh man, we have the 2024

00:06 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to check out. So you can think of it as kind of like a spiritual successor

00:11 to the Boss 302 Mustang from 2012 in that it blends both daily drivability and on-track handling and

00:18 performance. So this Dark Horse is based on the all-new seventh generation Mustang. And honestly,

00:23 we got one question to answer. Is this currently the best Mustang you can buy? So the Dark Horse

00:31 isn't just an appearance package. It has a bunch of cool stuff on the outside that sets it apart

00:35 from the Mustang GT. For example, a Dark Horse specific front bumper, these lowered side skirts,

00:41 and around back, this fixed wing, this new diffuser, and these darkened exhaust pipes.

00:47 Also, in the future, you will be able to option it with carbon fiber wheels just like you were

00:51 able to with the Shelby GT350 and GT500. Overall, it is a car that looks like a Mustang, which to

00:58 say it looks great. So the inside of the new Mustang is a highly digital big screen space.

01:04 There are two things I want to call out though. The first is this 3D printed titanium anodized

01:09 shifter, which looks sweet and it's also exclusive to the Dark Horse. The second is a handbrake,

01:15 a real handbrake in 2023. To be fair, it's an electronic handbrake that looks like a physical

01:22 handbrake, but still it has a drift mode and it's meant to initiate those big smoky slides, you know?

01:27 And seeing as Mustang owners are historically a bunch that exercises great self-control and

01:33 restraint, I can't see that going badly ever, ever. Anyway, enough talk. Let's get to driving.

01:38 So there's a lot under the metal to talk about. The Dark Horse, first of all, has bigger sway bars

01:44 and better handling hardware and also Ford's MagnaRide suspension as standard. But the whole

01:50 reason to buy this car, the crown jewel of it all, is the powertrain. So the engine and the

01:55 transmission combination. Now the Dark Horse uses the 5-liter Coyote naturally aspirated V8

02:00 from the Mustang GT. However, in this iteration, it has been kicked up to produce 500 horsepower

02:06 and 418 pound-feet of torque on premium fuel. Those of you who are good at math can work out

02:11 that that is 100 horsepower a liter. We do like round numbers here at Motor Trend. We have the

02:16 Coyote V8, very nice V8, very familiar V8, has a bit of a lower redline than the Voodoo, but still

02:27 high enough that you can really reach up there. But this Tremec, man, this is where it's at. Like,

02:34 even if you don't need to shift, you do it anyway because it's so fun, it feels so good,

02:41 the tactile feedback is excellent. I don't want to say rifle bolt because that's so played out

02:48 and it's such a cliche, but then again, there are no more original ideas. So you know what? Yeah,

02:52 rifle bolt it is because that's exactly how it feels. So all that power is routed through

02:57 this Tremec TR3166 speed transmission that made the Shelby GT350, GT350R, and Mach 1 so good to

03:05 drive. It is a mwah of a transmission. However, if you don't want this one, that's totally fine.

03:10 There's also a 10-speed automatic available as well. So stuff I don't love, which is difficult

03:17 because everything else has been so great. Driving, handling, noise, tactile feedback,

03:25 all of that has been great. The first is how most everything has been relegated to this touch screen.

03:32 There is a physical volume knob, thank the Lord, but for climate, no such luck. And that annoys me.

03:39 I mean, I don't need to tell you, I'm preachers of the choir here. The second thing I don't super

03:45 duper like in practice is this titanium shift knob. Looks awesome, let me be clear, but my hand

03:53 has already slipped off of it twice and I've been driving this car for not very long. Now,

03:58 we cannot rule out the fact that maybe I'm just a big disgusting greaseball. In fact, that's

04:03 probably the case. But if you're like me and you tend to be greasy, be warned, your hand might

04:08 slide off of it. Unilaterally, I decided in 2019 that the Shelby GT350 was one of the greatest

04:15 automobiles ever made. But since its discontinuation in 2020, there's been a Mustang-shaped hole in my

04:22 heart. Thankfully, though, the Dark Horse fills that gap. True, it doesn't have the flat-plane

04:28 fury that was the Voodoo, but you know what? The Coyote in this form is pretty good. So you know

04:34 what? Yeah, you have it from this Mustang woman. The best Mustang you can currently buy that is

04:40 new and available today is the Dark Horse. Man, and like just what a hell of a way to celebrate

04:46 internal combustion engines.

Category

Transcript

Recommended