The Ford Mustang Mach-E has gotten the lion’s share of headlines in recent years—as it should, because it’s extremely bold and quite good—but now Ford’s here to show us that internal combustion can still throw a great party. The automaker today finally gave us official horsepower specs on the new 2024 Ford Mustang, and folks, for the working person’s performance/sports/muscle/pony car (it does a little bit of all of that these days) it’s… a lot.
Ford says that the standard Mustang GT will put out 486 horsepower and 418 ft.-lb. of torque if you opt for the Active Valve dual exhaust, which you should because V8 engines sound good and we probably won’t get to enjoy them for all that much longer. If you forego that exhaust option, you still get 480 HP and 415 lb-ft of torque.
Again: that’s on a Mustang GT. Just a base Mustang with the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 and some nice equipment. Not even getting into the really crazy and expensive stuff Ford is due to put out in time. I remember when a Mustang GT was a glorified boat anchor with some decent highway torque. Now it’s putting out almost-supercar numbers on the lower trims.
Even better news is that the new Dark Horse trim throws down 500 HP and 418 ft.-lb. of torque from the same V8, making it “the most powerful non-Shelby edition ever,” according to Ford. Good Lord!
And if eight cylinders isn’t your thing—to each their own, right?—the always-competent Mustang EcoBoost is also putting up some really impressive numbers these days. That 2.3-liter turbo four offers 315 HP and 350 ft.-lb. of torque, the mist powerful standard-trim Mustang ever made.
Even if you aren’t a fan of the looks (I actually like it, but I understand why other folks don’t) you have to admit this is a wildly impressive spec sheet for a performance car that’s still reasonably affordable. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet on these new Mustangs; the 2023 ‘Stang starts at around $30,000 for the turbo-four and goes up to about $40,000 for the GT model.
With any luck, the 2024 Mustang—a heavy revision of the current car’s platform, engine and technology, as opposed to an entirely all-new model—won’t get its price tag jacked up that much. (Ford can let its more unscrupulous dealers do that.)
Above all, there’s really something to be said here about the democratization and optimization of internal combustion power. This is a simple Mustang, not some high-end exotic, offering some very serious numbers.
Our own David Tracy made this graph (he’s an engineer, so he does shit like that; the other day he asked me to make a “decision matrix” and I had to Google what that was) and it perfectly illustrates how much Mustang power has skyrocketed even just fairly recently:
As you can see from this graph, Ford really got serious when the Coyote V8 dropped in 2011 and it’s only gone up from there. Based on current trends, some back-of-napkin math and what I call “general vibes,” I am confident in predicting the Mustang GT will put out more than 1,000 HP by the end of this century. I pray we all live to see that day. [Editor’s Note: If I make a linear trendline using the data above — which doesn’t make a ton of sense, but screw it — I end up with 1,360 horsepower projected by the year 2100. -DT].
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I like that the lead photo is an ecoboost, which looks better than the GT
I find the exterior rather unattractive. The pre-facelift S550 is probably the high point for Mustang styling in recent times. The biggest travesty with this newest Mustang is the interior that has two giant iPads screwed to the dash. It looks so bad.
Oh David Tracy, did you really start the Y axis at 200 and not zero?
It’s not empty space down there, it’s context. I’d reject your graph in a technical report.
If it’s graphical drama you want then start your graph at 300/2005 and use red.
I was 10 when Mustangs first hit the market. Loved them from the start and have owned 6 in my life. If this is how they’re going out, good for them. They’re doing much better at their age than I am. I’ve also owned two Camaros and three Challengers but Mustangs are the Alpha and Omega for me. It’s a little sad because anyone can see that this is the last real Mustang.
Any definitive word on if there will be a Shelby in the first year. I’ve heard rumors of yea and nay.
After reading so many dull uninteresting posts about the cost of insurance here i decided what this site needs is a columnist who writes helpful columns about the dull day to day uninteresting stuff that affects our day to day lives. And possibly hooks us up with discounts from a company who supports the site. I own a 2001 Isuzu Vehicross, i bought it new and still DD it. Another owner fan set up a site for this vehicle. And set up connections with an Isuzu dealership for support and 10% off parts. Well Autopian get a sales person to set up an insurance plan and parts supplier where membership has its privilege. It is a better plan to get sponsors as long as you get sponsors to sign to certain ethical agreements.
My first impressions were dismissive, because it looked like a lazy facelift. But I’ve come to really like the looks.
I’m not sure I could justify the big doors and the high insurance, and I’d be interested in the Ecoboost. Seems to me I’d rather a BRZ/GR86 instead, since I’m a fan of smaller and lighter.
It doesn’t matter to me how much power Ford squeezes out of the Coyote V8 when this is the interior I’d have to look at every time I drove the car:
https://www.slashgear.com/1008588/the-2024-ford-mustang-dashboard-is-a-shock/
And this is the ‘deluxe’ GT interior. This is the even more horrendous base interior:
https://www.carscoops.com/2022/09/fords-base-mustang-will-use-two-seperate-tablet-style-displays-instead-of-a-single-panel/
Ford might call it an ‘exciting new immersive digital cockpit experience’. But it’s still just a hot mess, and an appalling cost-cutting excuse for an instrument panel to just hot-glue a couple of iPads to the dash. I’d feel like a sucker every time I looked at it, and realized I actually paid money for the car.
I’ll just keep my 2015 Mustang GT.
That’s a real nice Camaro that Ford built.
I’m mostly a Ford guy, I love my S197, but every new generation of Mustang makes me realize how much better the previous one was. The S197 was peak design to me unless you go back to the late 60s.
This one looks like the designers knew the Camaro was getting canned and tweaked it to hit a weird stylistic middle ground in the hopes of luring a few non Chevy diehards over to the Ford lot.
Yeah I hate it
I really don’t mind what they did to the front end, but man oh man, that back end is whack.
Also, yay power
I had an 03 GT and it blows my mind that a new Mustang GT makes this kind of power AND the last few 4 and 6cyl vehicles I’ve owned all surpass its 260hp a well.
I don’t love the styling and I try to be conscientious of my own carbon footprint (although my Kona N’s horrific city mileage returns have proven my last move was less than effective on that front haha) so I doubt that I’d ever personally own a pony car like this…but I’m still happy that it exists. I agree with everyone else-it’s absolutely nuts that a car that the average Joe can dream of affording is putting down what was considered supercar power only 10-20 years ago. The Camaro remains similarly impressive as well, particularly in the LT1 guise that can get you the 450 horsepower 6.2 liter V8 in a car that’s more or less completely base otherwise at around 35 grand. Nucking futs.
These aren’t muscle cars anymore…they’re very serious performance machines that normal people can afford. I’ve driven both platforms and was very impressed at how engaging and communicative each was, and I only felt like the SS Camaro that I rented was getting away from one single time in a full 8 days of driving it like a monkey. The unsophisticated brute reputation these cars carry is dated as hell.
And something else I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention is the fact that the lower trim engines aren’t a joke anymore either. If it was my money I’d obviously go V8 or go home, but the current Ecoboost Mustang is surprisingly nice to drive. 300+ horsepower and RWD is 300+ horsepower and RWD…and the Camaro’s V6 option is inexcusably slept on.
At the end of the day I’m happy this exists. I’m not really a muscle/pony car guy personally for a lot of reasons, but I still think this needs to be respected as the serious performance car that it is, and I think enthusiasts would be foolish to shun it as an option because of the stereotypes surrounding these cars. This ain’t your dad’s Mustang. Some people might assume you’re super macho bro or whatever but who cares? V8 go brrrrrrr
I think they’re pretty good looking, and you can’t argue with the performance. Unfortunately there’s a stigma, and they’re also everywhere. I just can’t see myself in one. As someone that discovered the joy of plugging in a laptop and gaining 70HP and 100tq with a tune, I am eager to see what happens (in the aftermarket) with the new ECU they’re putting in that seems to be pretty heavily locked down. I’m sure Ford will release their own factory backed tunes, but all the cool stuff lives in the aftermarket.
But what about the curb weight? The S550 is already a porker (3,730 lbs for a manual GT and 3,868 for a Mach 1) and unfortunately diets don’t seem to be apart of the Mustang evolution.
besides all of the NHTSA drive for you requirements, the other thing that goes with great power is greater weight. At least if you want things to go 100K miles without massive work done. That seems to be the case with most things American anyway. the GT500 was over 4,000 lbs. I miss that from this new line up BTW.
Obviously, we need to do a more thorough statistical analysis. I would like to see hp/1000 lbs for each year. Maybe also $/hp (with and without adjustment for inflation).
According to the article, David Tracy likes to make charts…
Sweet! Decent numbers from regular models!
Similar numbers to the current bullitt & mach 1. Not bad!!
Pricing though… I know you get a lot for the money, but I can’t see the new one starting under 40k. Is it a lot for the money? Sure. But wow, what happened to these being affordable? I am in ford’s ‘prime’ demographic for one of these- my first car was a mustang, I have no current payment, love the new ones, have a decent job- and I can’t afford one without going car broke. Especially since I live in a part of the country where this wouldn’t do well 4 months of the year. Hard to swallow 500+/mo for it.
I guess I am now a 31 year old old man yelling at clouds.
I think they’re “affordable” in the sense that the average new car is like $48,000, and here you get supercar-ish power without paying six figures. But yeah, it’s hard to gauge what that word really even means in our current, weird car market.
I mean I’m a 32 year old who considered a pony car last year and ultimately decided it couldn’t work for my wife and my needs. The initial cost wasn’t so much an issue for me personally (not trying to flex or anything) but people don’t realize that pony cars cost a ton of money to own and operate. If you go V8 as god intended you’ll absolutely pay out the ass for gas an insurance. Mustang GTs and V8 and even V6 Camaros are, completely unsurprisingly, ludicrously expensive to insure because so many bozos wrap them around trees.
They’re also ridiculously compromised as daily drivers. The doors are massive (like, you can’t open them fully in a parking lot massive) and heavy, the trunks are comically small, the back seats are useless for adults, and visibility is lackluster. They’re god awful as dailies unless you live out in the country and are only driving yourself or one other person around.
Doesn’t mean I don’t have a soft spot for em because I do, and if I had the funds for a pure weekend car a GT350 would be at the top of my list. But as your only car? They’re hard to make work and the initial price tag is only the tip of the iceberg.
The pricing hasn’t really changed. Adjusted for inflation, an ‘a ’96 GT started at about $37k, a ’05 GT about $38k, and a ’11 GT about $40k. But wages have not kept pace while other living expenses have gotten more expensive, hence the feeling of unaffordability.
I’d love to see what the insurance profile has looked like for the Mustang since the “modern” era (1980s to present).
The power has gotten higher every generation (and really so in the past 10 years), but the safety gear and (key here) new automated oversight of all that power has made huge jumps as well. I wonder if cost to insure kept going up until maybe a decade ago and then plateaued?
Surely we have from someone from the industry here who can give us at least a sense/order of magnitude?
Never owned a GT, but I paid $6-700 every 6 months for a 2012 GT500 from 2012-2015.
I pay approx. the same for my Viper now.
You know if you dont DD a specialty car and keep mileage under 5,000 a year you can save bank with collector car insurance? I used Haggerty was very happy never filed a claim but I am sure there are other companies offering this.
My Hagerty quote ended up being significantly more expensive on an annual basis than State Farm because:
-I get multi-car discounts with State Farm.
-Hagerty has no provision for winter storage, they charge you a flat fee for 12 months. From November to March my fun cars are under a storage-only policy at a fraction of the cost. The $700/6 months figure doesn’t account for this either, on an annual basis I probably pay ~$1100 to insure the Viper.
Wow. I wasn’t really shopping a Mustang, but I had been thinking of buying something a bit more fun. The Ecoboost is over triple what I currently pay to insure two vehicles (though my pickup has lower coverage, so maybe closer to one and a half or so).
I guess I need to be careful about what I consider a fun car.
This is one of the myriad reasons why hot hatches are so great. They’re shockingly cheap to insure since they have 4 doors and 4 cylinders. My Kona N is actually cheaper to insure than my GTI was…and my GTI wasn’t expensive.
I live in DC, which is one of the more expensive places to insure a car in the country, and my driving record is pretty good but not amazing. I pay about $600 every 6 months. For 286 horsepower it’s pretty damn good.
286 horsepower and very little weight. Really good combo. I currently daily a Niro and definitely looked a little at the Kona N when they announced it.
My biggest problem is that I still don’t really know what I want. Sometimes, I think I need to cut down to one vehicle, and it should give the most utility and comfort. Other times, I think I should sell my Niro and get a couple cheaper rides and keep my pickup (I don’t have a lot of room, but I could find a way).
Back in the early 2000s a lot of friends and I had Z28s or Mustang GTs, one traded his Mustang for a used late model Corvette and said his insurance actually went down. His agent said it was because there were much fewer claims for Corvettes, probably because so many owners were older and it was not a daily driver.
As a reminder, the GT500 had 500 hp as recently as 2009.
IT’S CRAZY
2009 KR was 540hp, but all 07-09 GT500’s have the stigma of running a 5.4 Ford v8. I imagine this is not your average 5.4 triton, and it might be a bit more repairable than say the 5.4 lightning pickup trucks, but I would much rather have a dark horse over a decade and a half old GT500.
You should be lamenting the loss of Gt350’s 526 hp, GT500’s since 2007, but the later 662 HP and up versions as well as
The 5.4SC lasted until 2012 in the GT500, albeit all aluminum in the later years.
I do lament the GT350’s engine no longer being with us as well, any NA V8 biting the dust is a tragedy to me.
I’m only noting how the regular GT has caught up to a GT500 power wise in barely over a decade. Not debating the merits of either.
The GT350 is an amazing car. Manual only, NA V8 that revs to over 8,000? Count me in. I haven’t driven one personally but I’ll occasionally see decent enough examples pop up in the 40s that make me go “hmmmmmm”. I’d never daily one because we need more space and I’m absolutely never putting up with a manual during my bumper to bumper commute…but as a weekend car? Perfection.
It’s definitely an attainable dream of mine. I just wish they made a damn convertible version. I want to hear that V8 in all its glory.
For as fun as the high-revving Voodoo V8 is, they have some major reliability issues when used hard. I’ve seen two GT350s grenade their engines at the track (road course) over the years, and there are plenty of similar tales online.
No Stigma. The only 5.4 that had a bad reputation was the old 3V heads (even that’s been massively overblown, I’ve done their plugs its not bad). The GT500 had different internals and 4V heads, that motor is extremely well regarded and can handle well over 700hp without so much as lifting a valve cover. The motors were almost as overbuilt as their 4.6 predecessor in the 03/04 cobras. In Ford GT guise 5.4 owners routinely exceed 1000hp albeit with more expensive internals.