2025 Ford Mustang GTD vs Dark Horse: Completely Different Animals
The Ford Mustang GTD and Dark Horse aren’t really comparable, but we couldn’t help but put some specs side-by-side for fun.
The supercar-sparring $300,000 2025 Ford Mustang GTD's halo effect worked on me instantly. As soon as I saw those grainy leaked pictures a couple of days ago, I thought "Whoa, Mustangs are way cooler than they were yesterday." The reality is that the GTD is barely a Mustang as we know it, but I figured it still might be fun to start comparing specs against the current top-tier S650 'Stang, the Dark Horse.
All Mustangs, including the new GTD, are being built at Ford's plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. GTD units will then head to Multimatic's facilities in Markham, Canada, "where it will be handcrafted for racing-inspired precision by the Ford Performance and Multimatic teams," per Ford's announcement.
Casually observed, Mustang GTD could just come off as a standard 'Stang with an over-the-top Need For Speed: Underground body kit. Ford has not released comprehensive specs and stats on this new road-going race car, but from what has been announced, it's clear that there is much more than "an upgraded Mustang" here. Not only is the GTD's suspension, engine, aero, and running gear extreme, but its very architecture is unique. As I said—they're barely the same car, and there's not really any universe in which you could take a Mustang GT or Dark Horse and mod it up to mimic the GTD (though I know there are more than a few 800-horsepower Mustangs in the world).
We dug a little deeper into the specifics of what makes the Mustang GTD special in a post yesterday, but I really wanted to see what we could easily compare between this supercar and the also-impressive Dark Horse. Here's a little table to get us started.
| 🐴 | Ford Mustang Dark Horse | Ford Mustang GTD |
|---|---|---|
| Construction & Materials | Unitized welded steel body, aluminum vented hood and steel front fenders | Carbon fiber fenders, hood, trunk replacement cover, door sills, front splitter, rear diffuser, and roof |
| Engine | 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 | Unitized welded steel body, aluminum vented hood, and steel front fenders |
| Horsepower | 500 | 800+ |
| Torque | 418 lb-ft | TBA (likely 600+ lb-ft) |
| Transmission | 6MT Tremec TR-3160 or 10AT SelectShift | 8-speed dual-clutch transaxle |
| Suspension (Front) | Double-ball-joint MacPherson strut with stabilizer bar | Short long-arm dual wishbone |
| Suspension (Rear) | Integral-link independent with coil springs and stabilizer bar | Multi-link pushrod |
| Dampers | MagneRide | Multimatic spool-valve |
| Tire Size (Front) | 255mm | 325mm |
| Tire Size (Rear) | 275mm | 345mm |
| Rear Track Width | 63.9 inches | ~68.7 inches |
| List Price | $59,270 | $300,000+ |
The Mustang Dark Horse—heck even the now humble-looking Mustang GT—is a lot of car for the asking price and really very cool in their own right. But from what we know about it so far, the Mustang GTD is a true halo car existing in its own orbit above every high-performance vehicle Ford has in its current stable.
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