The 2024 Dark Horse Has The Swag To Match Its 500HP Muscle

Flashback to Ford’s Stampede reveal event for the 2024 Mustang line last September, and it was that empty spot on the stage that stole the show. Ford’s ‘one more thing’ moment shocked the world as to took the wraps off Mustang’s fresh special edition — the Dark Horse.

The sinister and track-hungry attitude of Mustang Dark Horse inspired us to curate colors and materials in a way that underscores the vehicle’s athleticism.  Carrie Kennerly, Ford

At that time we didn’t know much about the 500-horsepower S650, but with the opening of the Chicago Auto Show today, the company shared more about its interior and exterior styling features, which complement the car’s impressive performance.

“The sinister and track-hungry attitude of Mustang Dark Horse inspired us to curate colors and materials in a way that underscores the vehicle’s athleticism,” said Carrie Kennerly, Ford’s senior color and materials designer. “We spent extra time on the cockpit, ensuring the look, feel, and function of everything a performance driver could want conveys the performance Mustang Dark Horse is capable of.”

The most striking of the appearance options is the Blue Ember metallic paint seen on display at the Stampede and in many of the first images of the car. This color-shifting hue harkens back to the Mystic hue deployed on the 1996 Mustang Cobra, but Blue Ember features pigments of deep blues infused with a warm amber that allows it to shift colors depending on the type and angle of the light that hits it.

“If color is a reflection of a vehicle’s personality, Blue Ember transforms the Mustang Dark Horse and highlights a natural saddle-color horse hidden inside the strong chiseled fastback’s exterior form,” Kennerly says. “Multiple elements are combined to give Blue Ember its intriguing and stealthy appearance that really drives home how unique Mustang Dark Horse is.”

Accenting that color are two optional striping packages, one painted on and the other a vinyl appliqué. The accents continue inside for those who opt for the Mustang Dark Horse Appearance Package, which adds a range of Deep Indigo Blue accents and seat belts along with Bright Indigo Blue stitching.

In all the Dark Horse looks the part of a special stallion, particularly when sprayed in that special Blue Ember paint. It is set to gallop off dealer lots this summer, and the word on the Internet says its Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price clocks in at $57,970, which is $1,400 more than the outgoing 2023 Mustang Mach 1.