Ford Mustang Dark Horse 2023 Review | First Drive

When it comes to its most celebrated and revered name plate of all, Ford has never been slow to sweat the brand. Over years the Mustang has been available in a dizzying number of shapes, sizes, specification and variants. The previous sixth generation car alone could be bought as an EcoBoost, GT, Bullitt, Mach-1, Shelby GT350 and GT500. The one prior to that as a Boss Mustang, too.

Well now there’s another new arrival in the stable of the original pony car, freshly minted with this new, seventh gen car, which will also be the last Mustang ever built in classic, front-engine, rear drive, V8-powered configuration. It’s called the ‘Dark Horse’, and those wondering why on earth yet another name was needed when Ford already had so many to draw upon, the official line is that it wanted something that, a generation from now, people would come to idolise like those of a certain age today might drool over, say, the Mach-1 seen two-wheeling its way through James Bond’s 1971 caper Diamonds Are Forever. As for all those other Mustangs, who’s multiplicity within the range can cause even grizzled motoring journalists to scratch their heads, the good news for those seeking to understand what goes where in the seventh generation is that none of them exists, at least for now. The bad news is that the Dark Horse and how it related to the standard Mustang GT is hard enough to understand all by itself, particularly when the differences between US and European specifications are taken into account.

But it’s important that we do, so I shall put it as simply as possible. If you’re reading this in Europe you can, for starters, forget the 2.3-litre EcoBoost Mustang you may remember from the previous car: it’s not coming here. The only cars that are coming (at least to which Ford is currently owning up) and will be on sale early next year are the Mustang GT and its Dark Horse variant, both available with either a six speed manual, or 10-speed automatic transmissions. So far, so very simple. 

As we shall see in the next section there is a ‘Performance Pack’ available as an option in the US, but its standard on all cars crossing the Atlantic. However the ‘Handling Pack’ that’s also available over there is not coming here at all. Which, as we shall also see, is a shame. Still with me? Excellent. So the last thing you need to know is that while all Dark Horses are a little more powerful than all GTs wherever they are sold, all Mustangs – Dark Horse or otherwise – sold in Europe are required to meet more stringent emissions legislation and are therefore significantly less powerful than those sold in the US. This means that, despite its higher specification engine, a Euro-spec Dark Horse is actually quite a lot less potent than a bog standard US-spec Mustang GT. The final final thing you need to know is that there were only US-spec cars available at the launch in Charlotte, North Carolina, so all comments below relating to performance are based on assessments of US cars. No journalist has yet driven a European specification Mustang, Dark Horse or otherwise.

We must take Ford’s claims that Mustang Dark Horse is ‘all-new’ and that it ‘sets a new benchmark for American street and track performance’ with an entire mine’s worth of salt. The car is substantially based upon the previous generation, albeit usefully upgraded. The exterior appearance is more aggressive but changed little compared to the interior which genuinely is entirely new and by a distance the most changed aspect of the Mustang. Nevertheless the 5-litre ‘Coyote’ powertrain has been reworked, as has the suspension on all variants. So perhaps more ‘renewed’ than actually ‘new’.

So let’s take a standard Mustang GT and build upon it from there. Because the car is not yet homologated for Europe, there are no official figures for Euro-spec cars but it seems the naturally aspirated V8 will produce around 446PS (328kW), which is impressive, but perhaps 50PS less than the same engine produces in the US. If you choose the Dark Horse variant that figure rises to 461PS (339kW), still less than the 486PS (357kW) standard US-spec car, not to mention the 507PS (372kW) Dark Horse you can buy over there.

Both the GT and Dark Horse have six speed manual gearboxes as standard but, just in case you thought that could hardly be simpler, they’re not the same gearbox. At all. GT’s have a unit made by Getrag, Dark Horses get one built by Tremec and chosen by Ford for this application because it has shorter, closer ratios and is better for track work.

As mentioned earlier, all cars coming to Europe get the Performance Pack as standard, which includes a strut brace, magnetorheological dampers, bespoke spring rates, a Torsen rear differential, Brembo brakes and bigger wheels and tyres, but the Dark Horse gets its own suspension tune, with different damper programming, a thicker front anti-roll bar, additional cooling radiators for the engine and differential, a lighter radiator and stronger cooling fans.

We don’t have performance figures even for US-specification Dark Horse Mustangs let alone the detuned versions heading for Europe, so I have had to make estimates based on power, weight, the previous example and off-the-record conversations with engineers.

In US-specification the car’s performance is invigorating enough without unduly taxing your neck muscles. What’s more impressive is the flexibility of the motor which, despite a relatively high state of tune, doesn’t pack all its punch into a narrow powerband at the top end. On the contrary there’s decent torque at 2,500rpm, and the urge is maintained all the way past 7,000rpm. This is not quite the last naturally aspirated V8 to be sold in the UK – Lexus has one too – but there’s no doubting that this is a fast-dying breed whose tuneful voice, which can be varied in volume according to the whim of the driver from surprisingly civilised to quite painful if you’re outside the car, will be much missed.

The 10-speed auto box is most notable for the number of gears it contains and is otherwise rather unremarkable. The Tremec six speed manual suits the car’s character far better; your hand doesn’t flick the printed titanium ball around the gate like you might in a Mazda MX-5, and it’s all the better for it. The change is a little slow and quite heavy and suits this car in the same way it would be completely out of place in a small, lightweight sports car.

For a car that is far from light and actually rides remarkably compliantly in the most road-optimised of its suspension settings, the Dark Horse handles well enough. Like other new generation Mustangs, it has new suspension arms and an all new, quicker steering rack, but don’t be fooled into thinking the result is going to feel like a cut price Porsche 911: it doesn’t. The steering still feels a little vague off centre, traction is no better than adequate while body movements are contained and controlled without ever leaving the impression that the car is nailed to the road. It likes to settle into fast, smooth, constant radius curves far more than anything more taxing, and while it will of course drift until the rear tyres pop, its natural handling state is actually pretty neutral, which is as it should be. It’s just a pity there’s not a bit more feel for what’s going on underfoot through the steering and chassis.

There is a solution, but you have to move to North America to find it. There customers can choose the ‘Handling Pack’ which features yet another suspension tune, massive tyres (up respectively five and four sections front and rear), front struts rotated by 180 degrees to provide massively more negative camber and a downforce enhancing tweak to the aero package. The result is remarkable: the most tied down, communicative, controllable and entertaining modern Mustang I’ve driven. It’s such a shame there are no plans to offer it in Europe.

Anyone familiar with the very traditional and somewhat scruffy cabins with their double bubble dashboards of previous Mustangs is in for a very big surprise indeed. Simply put, the driving environment of the new Mustang is unrecognisable.

All the old dials and clunky switchgear have gone, replaced by two screens, a 12.4-inch item for the instrument pack, the other of some 13.2-inch for the central SYNC 4 infotainment system. The options it presents for you to customise not just visuals but the car itself are almost infinitesimal, ranging from choosing one of four exhaust modes to choosing how you’d like your instruments to appear: if you’d like them to be facsimile reproductions of those used in Mustangs 30 years ago, you’re just a few button presses away and there they are.

But actually the bigger achievement is to provide such an astonishing level of configurability without completely bewildering the operator. Sure, if you’re going for a particularly detailed set up you will want to pull over and pay it proper attention, but it’s actually all pretty simple to understand and, for the most part, fairly easy on the eye too.

Otherwise the interior of the Mustang has improved the perceived quality of materials used, though you’re still not going to mistake any of it for true luxury, while the interior package – generous for those up front, anything but for those crammed into the back – remains unchanged.

You’d not think there was much to talk about in a car with an engine whose design dates back over a dozen years and which, with no turbos or hybrid system attached, really is as simple as can be. Even those trick sounding magnetorheological dampers, filled with a fluid which changes its viscosity (and therefore the damper rate) according the strength of the pre-programmed electromagnetic field in which it operates, are not exactly news and have been used by manufacturers such as Ferrari, Audi, Honda and Lamborghini for many years.

Which is not to say the Dark Horse is lacking the technology department, it’s just that it tends to manifest itself in a more, well, gizmological way. A few examples: the much loved ‘Line Lock’ function from the previous model is carried over, allowing those with no thought for the environment or their bank balance to spin the rear wheels with the front brakes locked on until the car disappears in the resulting bonfire of tortured tyre rubber. There’s a drag strip mode incorporated into the launch control, and for those who really can’t be bothered to lift a leg there’s a ‘flat-shift’ function too that will allow you to change up while your right foot remains resolutely buried in the carpet. But, as Ford personnel were more than a little keen to point out before we tried it, you still have to use the clutch. 

For those more interested in going sideways, there’s a new ‘drift brake’, essentially an electronically controlled parking brake capable of exerting many times the clamping force of a convention handbrake and guarantee to send you sideways in a trice, be it for good or for ill. And finally, and surely most flippantly, there’s a function on the key fob called ‘remote rev’, which allows you to blip the throttle – wait for it – when you’re not in the car. Quite what the purpose is other than allowing owners to annoy neighbours and show off to friends is not quite clear. It’s just to be hoped it’s not to be used by people hiding in hedges to scare passers-by witless… 

Unless something very unexpected happens in the meantime, when the new Mustang goes on sale in the UK early in 2024, it will be the only traditionally configured V8 left on sale. That is to say one with a naturally aspirated engine under the bonnet, driving the rear wheels, through the medium of a manual transmission. And those who have loved such cars for as long as we have, that very fact is reason enough to celebrate its arrival.

But, at least in American-spec Dark Horse configuration, it is more even than that. Its flaws are not difficult to see, but nor is the heart and soul of the die-hard team of enthusiasts responsible for its creation. It may be neither the fastest, nor the best-handling car this kind of money can buy – indeed it’s some distance from either – but for the sheer character wrapped up in those looks and spat out of those exhausts it has an appeal that cannot be found elsewhere. At least in the Dark Horse, we find the Mustang spirit is alive and well and, now it has no direct rival for a certain sort of traditionalist petrolhead, more compelling than ever.