You would have thought that of all the things in the world the new Ford Mustang didn't need, it was a new name tag.
After Boss, Mach 1, Bullitt, Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500, surely there were enough. Apparently not. Welcome, then, the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse. I know...
And if that’s not confusing enough, there are the differences between the Mustangs with Performance Packs, those with Handling Packs and the variants sold in the US and those heading in our direction.
I will try my best to clear the fog for you. Right now, the Dark Horse is the only tuned version of the new seventh-generation Mustang there is. Shelbys will definitely come, as will many, some or more of the others, but that’s all for the future. And when I say seventh-generation Mustang, read heavily facelifted sixth-generation Mustang, whose standout feature, common to all 'Stangs, is a much improved though still hardly plush interior with a two large digital screens where once there were real instruments.
The Dark Horse will cost around £61,000, adding about £10,000 to the price of the standard V8 Mustang GT when both go on sale in the UK early next year.
There's no four-cylinder turbo Ecoboost version of either car. I’m over it, too.
The Dark Horse’s 5.0-litre Coyote bent eight gets its own unique spec, featuring conrods from the old 749bhp GT500, enabling it to withstand higher internal pressures and therefore a more punchy calibration. The good news is that means almost 500bhp; the bad news is that in Europe, emissions legislation chokes that back to 449bhp, which is quite a lot less than a standard V8 Mustang has in its home market (although still around 10bhp more than it will develop in the UK).