I Drove the Dark Horse to One of the Largest Mustang Shows In The Country And It Was a Star

I Drove the Dark Horse to One of the Largest Mustang Shows In The Country And It Was a Star originally appeared on Autoblog.

A stallion in a field of Mustangs

When you’re driving to one of the biggest Mustang shows in the country, you need to arrive in style. You need something special. Thanks to Ford, I was able to drive the Mustang Dark Horse to the Mustang Club of America (MCA) National Show: Horsepower in the Queen City.

This show was special to me in several ways. It was in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio (a northern suburb) and I was invited to speak about the Ford Mustang history and discuss my book, Mustang by Design. The book highlights the Mustang from the design studio perspective and highlights the career of Gale Halderman, who was the principle designer of the original Mustang and worked 40 years in the design studio.

Knowing I was a guest speaker and arriving in the Horse, the show organizers had a special area of the parking lot available for me to park. It was right smack in the center of the nearly 300 other Mustangs on display.

Mustangs from all seven generations were at this show. Shined up, looking pretty, and ready for judging. Each and every Mustang from the original generation in the 1960s to Mustang II to Fox Bodies to the new era were all represented.

Shelby, Bullitt, Boss, Mach 1 – fastbacks and convertibles – they were all there, so the Dark Horse kept some really good company all day. All day, in the hot summer sun, it stood out with the hood popped, just beckoning enthusiasts to come take a look. Of all the current Mustangs, the Dark Horse is now the most powerful. It has 500 horsepower, but it’s so much more than just those numbers.

What is the Dark Horse?

Not since maybe the GT500 has there been a more track-ready, street-legal Mustang. Having driven the GT500 previously, I can say that car is a little more animalistic, with a more uncaged persona than the Dark Horse. But it’s not to say the Dark Horse is boring – far from it.

If you think this is just more of the same Coyote engineering that Ford has milked for many years, that’s not 100 percent accurate. It is a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 engine. No, there’s no supercharger, although I’m sure any Ford dealership can factory install one. A glance at the Ford Performance Supercharger Kit available for the Dark Horse would take the output up to 810 horsepower. Count me in!

Truth be told, it doesn’t need the supercharger. It’s got a guttural, throaty tune and an unbridled driving personality as it is. You can even change the exhaust tunes through the oh-so-exciting “Mustang button”. Here you can bring up track apps, including timers, brake performance and exhaust tune. In “normal” mode it’s loud and in track mode it’s wake-up-the-neighbors loud.

This is what you want from a muscle car. There are so few true muscle cars left on the road. It’s refreshing to see Ford remaining committed to the Mustang and its muscle car heritage. When Gale Halderman sketched out the original Mustang and Lee Iaccoca twirled his cigar in approval of it, nobody knew how that original Mustang would evolve to what it is now.

The Dark Horse represents the Mustang’s evolution

What I loved most is how much the Dark Horse holds up to the iconic Mustang design elements. Present are the three taillight slashes (another tip of the hat to Gale Halderman's design concept). There’s a trunk-mounted spoiler that is bold, but not garish. Below that are quad exhaust pipes.

The grille has large intakes to help cool the engine as well as keep the Brembo brakes from heating up. While functional it also adds to the aggressive styling. As you’d expect from something named Dark Horse, there’s dark accents across the front fascia and the words "Mustang Dark Horse" are embossed running up the hood. It garnered plenty of looks everywhere I went, including the MCA show.

Criticism of the Ford Mustang Dark Horse

I read some criticisms about the Dark Horse that I disagreed with, and one was about the transmission. There is a six-speed Tremec manual transmission which seems to resonate with the purists. My tester came with the 10-speed automatic transmission which in my opinion shifts better than any human can. There are paddle shifters available, too, if you must take control. Ford’s 10-speed automatic is a solid, consistent performer and it holds up well in the Dark Horse.

The other complaint was about the light steering. On this, I couldn’t disagree more. The steering is tight and responsive. The squatty nature of the Dark Horse holds it to the road and there’s no oversteer present that I noticed. With that kind of raw power, I want as much as control as possible.

Final thoughts: the Dark Horse won best in show that day

Okay, not really as it wasn’t eligible for any of the awards given out by the MCA judges. My friend’s beautiful red with white stripe Shelby took home some honors, and as much lust as I have for her Shelby, the Dark Horse is just as lustful and just as award-worthy. Ford has done well with their new track-ready Mustang. The icon continues. The legend continues. There’s a new Dark Horse leading the Mustang herd!

I Drove the Dark Horse to One of the Largest Mustang Shows In The Country And It Was a Star first appeared on Autoblog on Jul 9, 2025

This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Jul 9, 2025, where it first appeared.