I dive into the Mustang Dark Horse's engineering secrets, doing many burnouts in the process. Muscle car, pony car, sports car–Any of these terms are functionally meaningless when it comes to the Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Ford will have this camouflaged Mustang RTR on the show floor at the 2025 Detroit Auto Show.

The four-cylinder Ford Mustang has never received the same love as the V8-powered models, but that’s changing with the launch of the new Mustang RTR. Built in partnership with Vaugh Gittin Jr’s RTR, it’ll be offered directly from Ford and sold alongside the Mustang GT, Mustang Dark Horse, and the all-conquering Mustang GTD.

Set to make its formal debut on Friday at the 2025 Detroit auto show, the new performance Mustang is based on the latest Mustang EcoBoost and will be built by Ford on the same line as the regular Mustang. RTR has its own series of tuned Mustangs that it builds at its own facilities.

There’s a new, hot EcoBoost Mustang in town, and Ford chose to partner with Vaughn Gittin Jr’s RTR for the project.

Ford revealed its EcoBoost Mustang RTR, engineered in partnership with Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s Mustang tuning firm RTR, which stands for Ready to Rock. Designed to offer more power and performance than the stock model,