Full rescue here: T3008069_Lead the song

2026 Ford Mustang Dark Horse PVOTY Review: Whoa There, Big Pony Ford’s high-performance Mustang is blessed with stupendous braking power as one of its several standout features. Mike FloydWriterMotorTrend StaffPhotographerJul 12, 2024 001 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse Lead Pros Wow, those brakes Ample Coyote power Excellent manual transmission Cons Starting to feel big Strange rev-limiter behavior Why’s the handling pack optional? Eighty-six feet. It’s a number usually only approached by a handful of the greatest sports cars on the planet. That’s how short a 4,028-pound 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse stopped from 60 mph in our testing—better than any other production car we’ve ever tested. While far from the only metric that has made the darkest of Ford’s new Mustangs special, the Dark Horse’s immense stopping power, headlined by a Brembo brake system featuring a set of six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers, was the talk of the Chuckwalla Valley during our Performance Vehicle of the Year hot lap sessions. (The car we had for PVOTY stopped in 90 feet during our testing.) ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW “The brakes are preposterous,” senior features editor Kristen Lee said. “You feel like you can stop a tsunami with how powerful they are.” And so it went throughout our Dark Horse logbook. There wasn’t a judge who didn’t wax poetic about how exceptional this Mustang was at whoaing itself down. Deputy editor Alexander Stoklosa, among others, had to essentially reorient his approach to the track: “They’re so strong, so responsive, they forced a recalibration of my braking points on Chuckwalla, often moving them past the final cone marking the braking zones ahead of each corner.” Aiding the Dark Horse’s stopping cause were a set of super-sticky, supercar-level Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS hooves shod on the car as part of its optional $5,495 handling package. Camber-adjustable strut-top mounts, special wheels, and aerodynamic elements including a rear spoiler with a Gurney flap are among the other upgrades. ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW 016 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse Engine When you put the spurs to the Dark Horse, a tuned version of Ford’s naturally aspirated Coyote V-8 pushing an even 500 horsepower howls through a standard active exhaust. In our testing, we hustled a manual-transmission-equipped model like the one we had at Chuckwalla to a 0–60-mph time of 4.1 seconds. (We got it down to 3.7 in an automatic-equipped car.) There were no complaints about the car’s power on track. But there were a few heads scratched about what was reported as a cutout at several hundred rpm before the car’s 7,500 limit, which could be attributed to the car perhaps misreporting revs given our drivers were in full-blown hustle mode. ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW Shifting to those limits is achieved through a Tremec-sourced six-speed manual, a notchy, sturdy unit specific to the Dark Horse that garnered its share of plaudits. Ford added no-lift shift and rev-match features the judges also had some fun using. “I’m so glad they put the right transmission in this one,” features editor Scott Evans said. “This Tremec is so much better than the other manual. The shifter and pedals are both better set up great for doing this kind of stuff.” 013 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse Interior Other than a few minor quibbles about lighter-than-expected steering feel and a general sense of its added heft over prior Mustangs, nothing, um, stopped us from naming the Dark Horse as a finalist. Ford achieved its goal of creating a track-attacking special edition capable of feats no other Mustang in history has achieved, and that deserves applause. ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW But here come the buts. To win a MotorTrend Of The Year award, you must nail all the criteria in every environment where we test it. Out on our open-road loops, the Dark Horse’s sense of width and heft started to show. We know, it’s evolution—cars always get bigger and heavier with every generation, and to combat the bloat, automakers bump the power and add other countermeasures. But they can’t hide it all. In the case of the Dark Horse specifically, those Trofeo RS tires worked against the car some on the road depending on conditions. Yes, we also know you can get a set of more street-oriented tires, but then you can’t get the car’s handling pack, which in no way would you not want to get if you ever wanted to take it to the track. And you pay extra for the Dark Horse appearance pack and the Recaro seats. Compromise alert. Several judges thought that when you really drilled down, for as uncanny a performance machine as the Dark Horse is in most areas, it isn’t quite a true-blue special edition. For instance, why make the handling pack optional? Why not make it standard and develop both sets of tires around it? Admittedly, it’s a little thing, but little things make the difference in reaching the top step of our podium.