I made sure I was on company time when I opened a personal email from Ford. My eyes widened when they scrolled across the words , motivating me to jump out of my desk chair and fast walk to the boss’s office to inform him that I would be taking a few days off.

Some people save their paid time off for a vacation or a spontaneous day of playing hooky. I reserve it for special occasions like taking Ford’s Crown Prince pony car on a mid-week escape from the concrete gridlock of city living to the unforgiving but scenic landscape of West Texas.

Sometimes, you need to drop a gear and bellow out of town for at least 48 hours, leaving only a set of Pirelli elevens in your wake. A car like this deserves more than to sit in rush hour traffic. By coincidence, I was feeling cooped up by the city and its maze of traffic cones and had a sudden yearning to travel across a desert on a Dark Horse with no name and feel the relief of being out of the figurative rain that is corporate life.

I set off in the morning and pointed the Mustang Dark Horse’s satin hood graphic west. Why west? Because it’s far away from major cities and their ever-expanding populations that turn interstates into treadmills of chain restaurants and mascot-marketed gas stations. I didn’t want population; I wanted isolation. I wanted empty mile markers with time to think, space to breathe, and room to run.

Driving through the desert during peak summer months in Texas meant I could feel the sun’s UV rays stinging my hands, face, and forearms through the windshield. I was grateful the car’s indigo-blue suede Recaro bucket seats weren’t wrapped in shiny black leather. It was so hot I had to use leather driving gloves as ergonomic oven mitts to operate the stainless steel gear shifter.

This V8 ramble across the desert was not without destination. I was searching for a paved paradise that offered the fundamental essentials of a great driving road: no traffic, scenic views, and a series of dynamic bends, turns, and straightaways to exercise a vehicle’s brakes, steering, and RPM vocal range. 

I found that slice of motoring heaven near Fort Davis, TX, known as the Davis Mountain Scenic Loop. This 75-mile route travels along Highway 118 and 166 between the rural town of Alpine and the 80 mph section of I-10 interstate heading towards El Paso. It cuts through the valley of the Davis and offers a direct path to the McDonald Observatory.

It’s a route that offers twisting bends and rising elevation as you travel up and down the mountains before charging down a straight two-lane blacktop with inspiring views that never leave the windshield. It was sunset when I reached the scenic loop, which gave me just enough time to get acquainted with this hidden gem wrapped around a mountain. At night, I lay restless in the cheap motel bed, anxiously waiting for dawn so I could ride again in golden hour light.

The morning was spent driving up to the observatory to get a full lay of the land and admire the view while taking mouthfuls of fresh air. It was still too early for the heat, and I enjoyed being out in the sunlight without feeling beads of sweat across my face.

However, it was time to get on with the task at hand. I turned off the AC and gave the seat belt a reassuring tug before selecting Track mode to alert the Dark Horse’s adaptive suspension, Brembo brakes, and 500 horsepower tuned Coyote V8 that it was time to run before stabbing the throttle with my spurs.

The 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse is a prized pony that runs like a champion thoroughbred. Driving down the mountain at speed, ear popping from the change in elevation, focused on the next bend, remembering what gear the shifter is on. Down into second gear, feeling like McQueen with the car rev-matching for me. Hard on the brakes with smooth movements at the wheel to keep the car planted through the turn.

All natural V8 muscle screaming to 5,000 rpm before slipping the short-row shifter into third and feeling the continuing surge of acceleration down the straight before jumping back on the brakes and into second before the next turn.

At the base of the mountain, there are a couple of miles of straight temptation to keep your foot glued to the floor at full gallop. Past 125 mph, I felt the Mustang’s acceleration go linear, meaning I’d need way more distance and a better lawyer if I wanted to reach its claimed top speed of 168 mph. So, I backed off and exhaled with the mischievous smile of someone who got away with highway delinquency.

For the most part, every trip involves a return. Not wanting to ride the mind-numbing interstate back home, I went the same way I came across the Chihuahuan desert along the Mexican border. I played it cool for the cowboy hat-toting Texas Highway Patrol, looking for a bright red excuse, and respected the 18-wheelin convoys along the way.

In one brief situation, a wide-load truck carrying oil rig machinery was being escorted along the two-lane highway at 40 mph. Too slow for my liking, but not an excuse to be a hot dog. I waited until the solid yellow line dotted before shifting into second gear and charging into the opposite lane to overtake the commercial-grade procession. I made sure to flash the high beams at the first semi-truck coming the opposite way to warn them of the lane-hogging traffic up ahead.

On the road, the Mustang’s V8 averaged 24-25 mpg. During the one-week road test, I traveled a total distance of 1,460 miles, averaging 22 mpg in the Ford Mustang Dark Horse. 

The Dark Horse sits at the top of the six-horse stable in the Mustang lineup. It builds on the GT with multiple performance upgrades like larger rear sway bars, heavy-duty front shocks, and magnetically controlled adaptive dampers as standard.

Under the hood, the 480 horsepower 5.0L Coyote V8 featured in the Mustang GT gets fitted with forged connecting rods from the Shelby GT500 and a stronger camshaft to bump the power output to 500 hp. A set of 19-inch Pirelli P Zero PZ4s tires, Brooklyn style pizza sized Brembo brake discs and a Tremec 6-speed manual transmission are standard equipment on the Dark Horse.

The interior’s arsenal of options included the new electronic Drift Brake introduced for the 2024 Ford Mustang. It comes standard on the Dark Horse and can be optioned on the EcoBoost and GT variants as part of a performance package. It works like a hydraulic handbrake typically seen on professional drift race cars and stunt vehicles.

You have to select a specific setting to activate this feature. Otherwise, it just operates like a regular hand brake. Once engaged, the drift brake’s action works remarkably smooth, instantly locking up the rear tires to slide the car around like a professional stunt driver. Unfortunately, Ford didn’t supply me with a spare set of tires, so I could only “play” with the drift brake a handful of times before the guilt of destroying these expensive Pirelli tires got to me.

These drawbacks are not limited to the Dark Horse model alone. They affect the 2024 Ford Mustang in general, and they start with the new dual-screen digital dashboard layout consisting of a 12.4-inch instrument cluster and a 13.2-inch infotainment screen. Dual screens are a popular trend in automotive interior design that I do not appreciate because they make me feel like I’m sitting at an office desk while driving. 

I do like the new Fox Body 87- 93 instrument setting, which turns the screen behind the steering wheel into a digital throwback to the analog gauges of a Fox Body-era Mustang with the option to customize the color of the gauges—I went with green.

The car’s infotainment screen gave me a few headaches. For instance, when I turn the car on, I immediately want to change the exhaust setting from quiet to sport mode to fill my ears with that rock-n-roll rumble. Yet, I had to wait for the computer to load up and meet my demand. Being impatient resulted in a soul crushing notification on the screen that reads “not available, try again,” which is the last thing you want to see in a car that runs on nostalgia. 

Moreover, the Pony button to access all the drive mode settings is located on a small panel below the screen and feels cheap compared to the outgoing model’s silver, aviation-styled toggle switch. In another instance, the backup camera stayed on after I had shifted out of reverse and continued to project what was behind me until I arrived at my destination and turned the vehicle off. The infotainment screen was my least favorite feature of this car.

Mechanically, the V8 Mustang is still a guaranteed, one-way ticket to fun. The engine, brakes, clutch, transmission, exhaust, and air conditioning are top-notch. Apart from some electronic bugs, the essential character traits that make a Ford Mustang fun, stylish, and exciting are still going strong at 60.

Pricing varies significantly across the , starting with the EcoBoost at $32,000 and jumping to $42,860 for the V8 GT Premium. The Dark Horse starts at $60,635, and $64,630 for the Dark Horse Premium, which means you can easily spend over $70,000 on a top-tier Ford Mustang when you include options and taxes.

: 5.0L V8

: 6-speed manual transmission

: 4.1 seconds

: $42,860 (GT Premium)

: $69,210 (Dark Horse Premium)