Rear facia of the outgoing S550 Mustang is likely to feature in a redesigned form on the incoming S650.
With speculation having increased over the last few months ahead of its anticipated debut next year, Ford has sprung a surprise by confirming the debut of the new Mustang on 14 September at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the internally designated S650 could potentially bow on 17 April next year as a way of coinciding with the premiere of the original Mustang in 1964.
This past Wednesday though (27 July), an unnamed source disclosed to Automotive News that the Mustang will in fact show itself in Detroit in September before entering production at the Flat Rock Plant in the first half of next year.
In a subsequent post on twitter late last night, Ford CEO Jim Farley confirmed not only 14 September as the date-of-reveal, but also the retention of the manual gearbox under the #savethemanuals hashtag.
ALSO READ: Ford thumbs-up 2023 debut for next generation Mustang
Based on recent sightings of the prototype undergoing testing, and as per comments by Ford Performance Vehicle Head, Ali Jammoul, in April, the Mustang will continue to offer a V8 engine as its flagship, though with the possible inclusion of electrification.
“The V8 has been successful in Mustang and it has a certain image that our customers associate with,” Jammoul’s remarked to Australia’s wheels.com.au at the time.
“I don’t think the V8 is going away soon; at some point, with electrification and with BEV [battery electric vehicles] you can do a lot more in terms of performance and that might be the time that V8s start to phase out. But I see Mustang continuing to carry the V8 for now”.
As with the current S550 that received an update in South Africa three years ago, which, ironically, saw the manual transmission being dropped as it accounted for only five percent of sales, the S650 will continue to be made with right-hand-drive in response to strong sales in Australia and indeed South Africa.
According to Ford Motor Company Southern Africa, a total of 3 613 Mustangs have found homes across the country since the S550’s debut in 2015, which, at present equates, to an 87% market share of the ever dwindling sports car segment.
Despite discontinuing the manual gearbox, which remains exclusive to the Mach 1 for now, Dearborn’s local division also phased-out the 2.3 EcoBoost engine last year, which will remain in the S650 as the entry-level powerunit in the States and Europe.
Aside from the manual, the General Motors co-developed ten-speed automatic will prevail as the self-shifting option, though with a number of updates that debuted on the new Ranger last year.
One out, expect in-house tuner Shelby to offer an array of unique and even more powerful derivatives as evident by the GT500 and the GT500 KR, the latter this week confirmed for South Africa from next year.
Despite the reveal date being confirmed, don’t be surprised if details and/or images emerge in the form of leaks or official teasers before then
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
