The exit appeared sooner than expected. After downshifting, stabbing the throttle, and blasting past the traffic, escaping the highway was imminent. Flicking the turn signal stalk, those unmistakable sequential taillights announce my departure. Approaching the off-ramp’s arc, it was time for a quick grab of the shifter and flick of the clutch pedal as the PCM revved the 2024 Mustang GT Performance Pack’s Coyote engine at just the right time for the shifter to glide into the lower gear.

The car decelerates just enough as the suspension plants and the car effortlessly whips around the corkscrew. Then it’s time for those big brakes as the slower street traffic awaits.

We spent some time getting reacquainted with the latest Mustang GT in the form of this 2024 Premium model optioned with the Performance Pack, Bronze Appearance, and Matte Clear Film options, among others. It was a blast to drive, and its Atlas Blue finish looked stunning, with the matte film delivering a classy, reserved appearance. We couldn’t get enough of how good this combo looked, and it was a hit wherever we took it, especially with the valets, who hopefully didn’t take it for a Ferris Bueller-style adventure.

Familiarity Breeds Improvement

It all felt so natural. Even though it had been a while, it was like we’d been driving this car for years. In a way, we all have, as the seventh-generation, while it meets Ford’s standards as “all-new,” borrowed heavily from its S550 predecessor. Much like the transition from Fox to SN-95, this move allowed engineers to leverage years of experience with the platform, including the final performance variants, to optimize every facet of its personality for a new era.

“What we really liked about Mach 1, and we all enjoyed working on that program last was that you should you know, you brought a very serious amount of track capability to a customer that has a car that they can drive every day. We found that there weren’t very significant trade-offs to make that happen, so why don’t we offer that to the customer?” Adam Brecher, Vehicle Dynamics Engineer, told us when we first drove the car.

And deliver that, they did. It’s been several months since we belted into the driver seat of an S650, so it was exciting to get behind the wheel of not just any version, but a 2024 Mustang GT Premium enhanced by the Performance Pack option, among others. Checking, the PP box adds a litany of upgrades — including specific chassis tuning; performance Stability Control, Electric Power-Assist Steering, and Anti-Lock Brake calibrations; Torsen differentials; and more — designed to deliver that penalty-free track capability.

Performance Packed

To be fair, our brief stint in the car was only on the street, but we took every opportunity to safely enjoy the 480 horsepower and 418 lb-ft of torque pumped out by the howling 5.0-liter engine underhood when there was open road or compelling curves. Paired with a Getrag MT-82 six-speed manual transmission, the Gen 4 Coyote sends its output to a Super 8.8 rearend filled with 3.73 gears and a Torsen limited-slip differential.

Having driven our share of S550 and S650 models over the years, the familiar improvements of the latest models, wheeling this Mustang GT reaffirmed those upgrades. Its MagneRide suspension impressively balances planting the power with controlling the ride quality, and the sharper steering remains a hallmark of the seventh-generation stallion, which picked up where the last Mach 1 left off by honing both the hardware and EPAS calibration.

“It’s even better here than Mach 1 because now you’ve got no more disc isolator in the I-shaft at all, so it’s fully metal. It’s still collapsible in crashes, but we leveraged a lot of good structural things and paying good close attention to all the stuff we learned over time about the chassis and the structure of the vehicle,” Brecher said of the steering shaft when we first drove the S650. “So leveraging that knowledge allowed us to use the airbag to dampen some of the vibrations, get the stiffness back, and leverage the software learning on the EPAS.”

Balanced Diet

In practice, the 2024 Mustang GT with the Performance Pack oozes balance. It has the muscle to plant you in the seat and break the tires loose if you so desire, but it can also plant the power in the turns and not beat you up in the process. For a car of its dimensions, it also feels quite tossable in the tight turns and stable in the sweepers.

Fortunately, our tester was equipped with the optional Recaro sport seats, which hold driver and passenger fast as the later g-forces increase. They are also more comfortable for more mundane pursuits. From the driver-side throne, the once off-putting wall of screens became both familiar and useful. From toggling between settings to offering a widescreen GPS presentation, the latest 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster and 13.2-inch SYNC 4 center stack are bright, crisp, and easy to read, enabling the quick delivery of plenty of information, which can come in handy when you are quickly banging through the gears while working through modern traffic.

Fitted with the Active Valve Performance Exhaust, our 2024 Mustang GT’s personality was easily identifiable based on the Drive Modes we selected. While Sport is always our default, we toggled between Normal and Track as well to enjoy the nuances in performance and sound delivered by the changes in calibration offered. They were all fun, but Sport provides the balance of performance and street legality that works for everyday use.

Of course, having a manual transmission with the aforementioned rev-matched downshifts makes the experience more visceral and fun — as long as the traffic doesn’t get so dense as to transform shifting from a pleasure to a chore. The latest automatic transmissions are great, but there is just something about rowing your own gears that makes the driving experience more intimate and exhilarating.

Clear Winner

The real surprise and delight of returning to the driver seat of the S650 Mustang GT was our first quality time with one optioned with the $5,995 Matte Clear Film.

“Mustang has been about driving freedom and freedom of expression for 60 years, and our new Matte Clear Film provides a whole new way for customers to make Mustang their own,” Laurie Transou, Mustang Chief Program Engineer, explained when the option was introduced. “The 2024 Mustang Matte Clear Film is a product of PPG. It’s designed to withstand harsh detergents used at hand or touchless car washes, as well as road salt, bird droppings, bug splatter, and asphalt residue.”

Inspired by a jet fighter’s cockpit and imbued with video-game graphics, the modern Mustang’s dash delivers information and customization in a pleasing and easily digestible manner. It took us a while to adapt to the forsaking of the classic double-brow dash, but these days we feel right at home in the S650 interior’s tech bubble — especially when we are strapped into those form-fitting Recaros and banging through the gears with a six-speed manual transmission.

Atop the Atlas Blue finish on our tester, the matte clear film transformed the outward personality of the S650, delivering a toned-down, classy visage. The look really emphasizes the muscular lines of the car’s sheet metal, and its presence gave us peace of mind while driving the borrowed ride, as it offered protection from the inevitable road debris.

They say you shouldn’t own a car if you don’t turn around and take one last look at it as you walk away. The total package of this 2024 Mustang GT Premium with the Performance Pack, Bronze Appearance Package, and Matte Clear Film options had us turning around multiple times at each stop to take in its glory — especially the last time as we returned the car and headed home.

If an S650 is on your list, you’d be hard-pressed to go wrong with this combination, but a fully loaded example like this one does come at a formidable cost — $68,130 before destination and delivery fees — but, why not, you only live once.