New Mustang Dark Horse SC gets GTD's 5.2 V8
Think a £315k Mustang wildly over the top? Ford has just the thing...
Awesome though the Mustang GTD undoubtedly is, it’s hardly a Ford pony car for the everyman. And previous Mustangs have always featured some kind of supercharged flagship that was rather more accessible, typically something like GT500. Pleasingly, that Mustang niche hasn’t been forgotten about for the current S650 era, because now Ford has this: the Dark Horse SC. Consider it a halfway house between the 5.0-litre Dark Horse and the 5.2-litre GTD, more closely resembling the former while taking power from the latter.
Exactly how much power hasn’t been announced for the moment, but given a DH is 500hp strong in the US (or just the 460hp here) and the GTD can muster more than 800hp, a midway point would yield in the region of 650hp. More than ample, especially with the torque boost that forced induction would bring. A ‘heart-pounding soundtrack’ is said to be guaranteed. This new Mustang gets the seven-speed DCT from the mighty flagship.
But the SC is about far more than power: it’s pitched as a proper track-honed road racer, with development said to have taken place alongside the GTD and GT3 competition car at places like Sebring and VIR to get the best bits from those cars. Taking the carbon ceramic brakes and Michelin Cup 2R tyres from the GTD would have seemed obvious, but development of the SC is said to have benefited the GTD also, with a new boot design (that improves the efficiency of the rear wing by 10 per cent) now making it to both cars.
Aero is a big deal for the SC Dark Horse, with a newly vented aluminium bonnet enhancing the cooling and ‘front-end dynamics’. The Magneride suspension has been totally overhauled as well, there are 3D-printed parts from the GTD to reduce weight, and there’s a new Variable Traction Control system to dial assistance up (or down) on track. And for those who really want to push the limit on circuit, there’s a Track Pack for the SC - represented by the blue car pictured here. That brings the carbon wheels (like the old GT350R), ceramic brakes, the chunky rear spoiler (281kg of downforce at 180mph, apparently), a magnesium strut brace and some forged suspension components. It takes 68kg out of the as-yet-unknown kerbweight (a Dark Horse is 1,762kg, a GTD 1,989kg, for reference). Even without a price announced yet, you can surely bet on plenty of takers for the Track Package. Look at this thing.
Inside, the supercharged Dark Horse gets the GTD’s flat-bottomed wheel, with some carbon and Alcantara thrown in for good measure. The Recaros seen here are optionally available on the standard car, or included with Track spec (told you people would want it). As with the GTD, as with pretty much every racy Mustang that’s ever existed, the money has been spent on the hardware rather than interior ambience.
Arie Groeneveld, Chief Engineer for the Dark Horse SC, said: “It is a high-powered Mustang that I don’t think the world saw coming, but it is exactly what happens when you let racing engineers design a road car.” Given how good the standard Dark Horse is, and how well received the GTD has been, there’s surely cause to be very excited about the best-of-both-worlds version. Let’s hope it makes it to the UK…
Does make me laugh it's now 17 years since Clarkson lamented the death of big performance ICE cars in that V12 Vantage piece and yet here we are another 10% along the evolution of the automobile timeline.
Does make me laugh it's now 17 years since Clarkson lamented the death of big performance ICE cars in that V12 Vantage piece and yet here we are another 10% along the evolution of the automobile timeline.
Also not a massive fan of the name, would have been a good opportunity to bring back the Boss or Terminator Cobra nameplate
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