Pony gets more kick as Ford reveals new Mustang’s power outputs

Withheld from being revealed at the lifting of the wraps in September, Ford has now officially announced power and torque figures for the all-new Mustang that is likely to come to South Africa next year.

How much kick?

Poised to be the final Mustang powered solely by an internal combustion engine, the S650 internally designated model will reportedly go on-sale in the States around in July once again as a fastback coupe or cabriolet, powered by the same engines as the outgoing S550.

Styled to resemble the original Mustang from 1964 as well as the latter Boss versions of the early 1970s, the North American range kicks-off with the 2.3 EcoBoost that has been revised to produce 235kW/475Nm.

ALSO READ: All-new Ford Mustang let off the leash

Up four kilowatts from the mill that powered the S550, the blown four-cylinder, used in the North American market Ranger and also the brand-new Volkswagen Amarok, won’t, however, be equipped with the optional Performance Package previously offered.

At the same time, it will be mated solely to the recalibrated General Motors co-developed ten-speed automatic gearbox as the much vaunted six-speed manual has been reserved exclusively for the V8.

The normally aspirated bent-eight in question is Dearborn’s latest take on its long serving 5.0-litre Coyote engine that can trace its roots back to the Modular family that debuted as a 4.6-litre in 1990.

Now into its fourth generation, the V8 comes in three states of tune; 358kW/563Nm in the GT, 362kW/567Nm in GT derivatives fitted with the dual active exhaust system and 373kW/567Nm in the new flagship Mustang Dark Horse.

As mentioned, both the GT and Dark Horse are equipped with the mentioned manual gearbox as standard, with the automatic being a cost option.

It is worth noting though that despite its similar displacement to the GT, the V8 in the Dark Horse has been altered with pistons from the outgoing Shelby GT500, a dual throttle-body intake system, new crankshaft and the mentioned active exhaust as standard.

In addition, the Dark Horse also gets the Performance Package the GT can be optionally fitted with as standard, together with a Tremec sourced manual ‘box instead of the latter’s Ford-made unit.

For South Africa?

For now, Ford Motor Company South Africa has not disclosed any details on when sales of the new Mustang commences, but when it does, expect only the GT and possibly the Dark Horse following the dropping of the EcoBoost due to poor sales in the S550 last year.

Both coupe and cabriolet bodystyles are also anticipated, but it remains to be seen whether the Blue Oval will offer as the manual ‘box as, bar the limited-run Bullitt, Mach 1 and California, only the automatic could be specified on the GT as a result of it accounting for 95% of sales in the pre-facelift S550 that lasted from 2015 to 2019 in South Africa.

Additional information from motortrend.com and fordauthority.com.