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Based out of the Washington, D.C. area, Joel Patel is an automotive journalist that hails from Northern Virginia. His work has been featured on various automotive outlets, including Autoweek, Digital Trends, and Autoblog. When not writing about cars, Joel enjoys trying new foods, wrenching on his car, and watching horror movies. 

Ford just dropped the new seventh-gen Ford Mustang at the Detroit Auto Show. While the new seventh-gen Mustang arrives with a new look, updated engines, and a hefty tech upgrade, Ford hasn’t forgotten about performance. We were expecting Ford to drop a new Mustang, but the American automaker surprised everyone with the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse. It’s a new performance-oriented nameplate that, for the time being, is the most powerful Mustang for the new-gen model.

Let’s start with the engine. The 2024 Mustang Dark Horse features an upgraded version of the brand’s Coyote 5.0-liter V8. For the seventh-gen Mustang, Ford updated the V8 by fitting the motor with dual air intakes and dual throttle bodies. But in the Dark Horse, the engine has been further upgraded with connecting rods and forged internal components from the Shelby GT500. Ford claims the Dark Horse is good for 500 horsepower, which in the automaker’s words, would make the V8 the most powerful 5.0-liter V8 from the brand. The engine is paired with a Tremec six-speed manual transmission, which is different from the Getrag transmission in the regular GT model, or a 10-speed automatic transmission. Power is routed to the rear wheels via a Torsen limited-slip differential.

Ford’s engineers have given the Mustang Dark Horse some serious chassis, suspension, and brake upgrades to ensure the pony car can spend all day on a track. Underneath the body, the Dark Horse features heavy-duty front shocks, upgraded sway bars, a new lightweight strut tower brace, and an enhanced K-brace. Ford’s MagneRide adaptive dampers are standard, as are Brembo brakes and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires. The Dark Horse is also the first Mustang outside of the high-performance Shelbys to be available with super lightweight carbon-fiber wheels. These will be optional and will have late availability. An optional Handling Package raises the Dark Horse’s track capability sticky Pirelli Trofeo tires, even larger front and rear sway bars, and stiffer springs.

Clearly, it was very important for Ford to showcase just how capable the new seventh-gen Mustang is, because the Dark Horse is a pony car that’s bad to the bone. Compared to the regular GT, the Dark Horse has a meaner mug with a unique front end that has larger grille openings, smoked lights, a large fixed rear wing, quad exhaust pipes, a prominent rear diffuser, a lower front bumper with “fangs,” and side skirts.

On top of the exterior changes, the Dark Horse features a unique badge of a horse’s head on the front fenders and decklid. The model also features a special exterior paint job that’s called Blue Ember metallic, which is incredible. Ford will offer the Dark Horse with applied or painted graphics, while the available Appearance Package adds blue brake calipers and Grabber Blue logos.

The interior of the Dark Horse benefits from all of the tech updates from the seventh-gen Mustang. The track-focused pony car will come with a 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster, a 13.2-inch touchscreen, a B&O audio system, and Ford’s latest SYNC 4 infotainment system. The cabin also gets a flat-bottom steering wheel, blue seatbelts, and contrast blue stitching.

Ford also plans to offer two racing versions of the Dark Horse: S and R. The S, according to Ford, is for “weekend track goers,” while the R is for pure racing. These models will be stripped-down variants of the road-legal model with the necessary safety equipment like a racing seat, a safety cage, nets, and a racing steering wheel. These variants also get Multimatic DSSV dampers and upgraded brakes.

Pricing for the 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse hasn’t been announced yet, but we expect the pony car to be more expensive than the outgoing Mach 1 that starts around $57,000. With the 2024 Mustang set to go on sale in the U.S. in the summer of 2023, we also expect the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse to become available at the same time.

Based out of the Washington, D.C. area, Joel Patel is an automotive journalist that hails from Northern Virginia. His work has been featured on various automotive outlets, including Autoweek, Digital Trends, and Autoblog. When not writing about cars, Joel enjoys trying new foods, wrenching on his car, and watching horror movies. 

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