- When the next Mustang arrives, buyers can choose from three engine options ranging from 315 to 500 horsepower.
- Only the price remains a mystery. The current model starts at $27,470 plus $1,395 for delivery and a $645 “acquisition fee” no other automaker charges.
Some things are too good not to last.
By this time next year, the news from the auto industry will be an even more relentless parade of electric cars. But Detroit will also manufacture copies of one brand-new muscle car with big shoulders and a 500-hp V8 under its long hood.
The 2024 Ford Mustang is the purest expression of the American love affair with combustion and volume.
We’ve known the rough outline of the car since September.
This week, Ford filled in some details, releasing power figures for the next Mustang’s engines. The only mystery that remains is pricing.
315 to 500 Horsepower
Starting at the top, the high-performance Mustang Dark Horse will get a new version of the famous Ford 5.0-liter Coyote V8, making 500 hp and 418 lb-ft of torque. It’s the second-most powerful naturally aspirated engine Ford has ever put in a Mustang — the flat-plane crank model in the last GT350 made 526 hp without supercharging.
The Dark Horse will likely be rare and expensive next to the GT, which also gets a 5.0-liter Coyote V8. However, this one is less impressive and probably easier to live with as a daily driver. It makes 480 hp, with an available active-valve performance exhaust adding six more.
The base engine will once again be a 2.3-liter turbocharged EcoBoost 4-cylinder. It has 315 hp on tap — five more than the current car’s base engine. The 4-cylinder model, however, will be available only with a 10-speed automatic transmission. You’ll have to spring for eight cylinders if you want to shift your own.
Evolutionary Design, Drift Stick
It’s the seventh generation of the classic pony car, but you could get away with calling it number six-and-a-half. It borrows much of its chassis from the well-liked current (sixth) edition.
The new Mustang wears an evolution of that design, with slightly more pronounced curves to the rear fender bulges and the hood’s slope. But Ford had the good sense to leave the 60s-inspired grille intact.
The Dark Horse has a gimmick, but a good one — an electronic drift brake. You pull on the drift stick like a traditional mechanical hand brake but doing so doesn’t tug a cable tight. Instead, it signals software to vary the split rear brake calipers to make it easier to hold the controlled sideways skid that characterizes drift racing.
Oh, and you can rev the engine from afar with the key fob.
We expect to learn pricing in late spring, as the 2024 Mustang goes on sale next summer.
