{"id":30772,"date":"2023-04-16T21:07:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T01:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=30772"},"modified":"2023-04-16T21:07:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T01:07:57","slug":"payne-riding-the-mustang-dark-horse-through-manhattan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/payne-riding-the-mustang-dark-horse-through-manhattan-2","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Riding the Mustang Dark Horse through Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 In the opening scene of the classic 1976 car movie, \u201cGumball Rally,\u201d a fleet of muscle cars explodes from a midtown Manhattan garage and storms up Gotham\u2019s wide avenues as the sun rises, their high-horsepower engines echoing off the steel canyons. Each beast carries two passengers \u2014 a driver and a navigator \u2014 as they begin their cross-country race to California.<\/p>\n

Riding shotgun in the menacing new, 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, I had similar visions.<\/p>\n

Pulling out of Pier 78 next to Javits Center (which is hosting the New York International Auto Show this week) on New York\u2019s west side, Mustang Vehicle Dynamics engineer and ace driver Adam Brecher selected SPORT mode. The V-8 gurgled menacingly. Brecher stabbed the gas peal. VROOOM!<\/p>\n

\"2024<\/p>\n
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And then we stopped, stuck in 2:30 p.m. city traffic.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to race through Manhattan without a movie permit. But that didn\u2019t diminish my first ride in Dark Horse, the first new Mustang performance bloodline since the Bullitt badge debuted in 2001. Dark Horse is due in dealerships this summer alongside familiar, base Ecoboost and GT models. Like the Bullitt \u2014 and the outgoing Mach 1 \u2014 the Dark Horse is a track-focused version of the V8-powered GT. Mustang\u2019s forthcoming GT3 race car shares its name.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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Dark Horse boasts 500 horsepower \u2014 20 more than the GT \u2014 and the most of any normally-aspirated, non-Shelby, 5.0-liter V8 Mustang ever, says Ford. But that\u2019s not the reason we were getting repeated stares from passersby as we rolled (slowly) through mid-day traffic.<\/p>\n

The ferocious Dark Horse looks like a possessed pony that burst through the gates of Hell. Long snout. Masked face. Swollen nostrils feeding air to the huge, twin throttle-body lungs under the blackened hood. Muscled haunches engorged with 11-inch, rear Pirelli hoofs pawing at the pavement. Tail punctuated by a black wing with Dark Horse logo stamped on the trunk below. We looked fast standing still.<\/p>\n