Customer racing car version of the new Mustang launches for one-make race series.
Ford has revealed the Mustang Dark Horse R, a customer racing version of the new Dark Horse road car. The Dark Horse R has been created for a new, one-make Mustang Challenge race series in the USA, which kicks off in 2024.
The Dark Horse R is, as the name suggests, based on the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse road car. It has the same 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated V8 engine (main difference being an altered oil pan to cope with the high cornering forces in racing, and ancillary changes including a racing exhaust and additional cooling measures for the drivetrain), the same Tremec H-pattern manual gearbox and Torsen limited-slip diff.
It’s built using the same body-in-white, from Ford’s Flat Rock, Michigan factory, as the production Mustang, but is fitted with a racing fuel cell, with a large capacity for long races and track sessions, plus a full roll cage. Suspension includes two-way adjustable dampers by Multimatic, and adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars. Race-spec Brembo brakes are housed within the wheels, shod with Michelin slicks developed specifically for the Mustang Challenge series.
The Dark Horse R will be eligible to race in wider racing formulas, too; Ford is talking with the SCCA [Sports Car Club of America] and other organisations about the car’s eligibility to race in other series. The Mustang Dark Horse R’s price? $145,000 (AU$218,000) plus taxes. The cars will be run by race teams and individuals rather than it being an ‘arrive-and-drive’ series run by Ford. Insiders estimate the cost for a season to be around the $250,000 (AU$376,000) mark; racing is expensive.
We were present at the car’s unveiling inside the Ford Performance technical centre in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s certainly loud; ear defenders were essential for its rambunctious entrance. Like the US-spec Dark Horse R road car, the Ford Coyote V8 turns out approximately 370kW.