Review: 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 (Hagerty)
Alright, here’s the story. There’s a great American performance car that comes in two flavors: the basic variety with a pickup-truck V-8 and the crazy version with a high-revving bespoke engine and insanely track-focused features everywhere you look. They’re both great cars, but one of them feels a little tame and the other one seems to have an affinity for unscheduled service visits. Near the end of the production run, the company that makes this great American performance car decides to take some of the special go-fast stuff and put it on the basic variant. The result is a home run that might cost a little more than it should but effortlessly makes it onto all the lists of Great Trackday Cars and the like.
Can you name the car? Well, it might be the sixth-generation Corvette Grand Sport, which had much of that Z06 swagger without the engine problems and fussiness of its outrageous bigger brother … or it might be the seventh-generation Corvette Grand Sport, which handled like a dream but didn’t overheat or chew through brakes like the supercharged Z06. Heck, it might even be the fourth-generation Grand Sport, which had a lot of the ZR-1’s visual presence without the cost. You get the idea. Chevrolet is no stranger to the tweener sports car.
Neither is Ford, actually. The “New Edge” Mustang Mach 1 offered an affordable alternative to the bonkers “Terminator” Cobra with just enough extra power to put the everyday Mustang GT in the rearview mirror. Seventeen years later, we have a new Mach 1 that promises to once again hit the sweet spot between 5.0 GT and the G.O.A.T. Shelby GT500. Oh, wait. Didn’t they have a car like that? Wasn’t it called the Shelby GT350?
Compared to that GT350, which is no longer in production, the Mach 1 is cheaper ($52,915) and has measurably less on-track pace. It loses the exotic and fussy “Voodoo” 5.2-liter V-8 with its 8200-rpm redline, offering a fortified 480-horsepower variant of the standard five-liter instead. Here’s where it gets interesting. The transmission isn’t the Chinese-made Getrag MT82 six-speed that comes standard on the plain five-liter Mustangs (and has also spawned a class-action lawsuit). The Mach 1 uses the beloved Tremec six-speed from the GT350 and offers a ten-speed automatic as an option.
Designed to be the ultimate five-liter Mustang, the Mach 1 answers virtually every criticism of the existing five-liter while offering the option of enhanced handling. How’s it work on track and on the road?
(photo credit: Kevin Madsen - Hagerty)
