Few cars have as huge and loyal a fanbase as the Mustang, and Ford is inviting owners to participate in the reveal of the next generation of its pony car.
The 2024 Ford Mustang will be revealed at an event called The Stampede at Hart Plaza in Detroit on September 14 at 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.
Hart Plaza is at the starting point of Woodward Avenue, North America’s first paved road and home to the annual Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise.
Ford will livestream The Stampede on its social channels.
It will be the culmination of an event called The Drive Home, which will kick off on September 6 at LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington.
Ford is inviting owners of all six generations of Mustang to participate in the annual road trip, which will see scores of Mustangs cross nine states before congregating at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn and taking the final leg together to The Stampede in downtown Detroit.
As we can see in these images of a camouflaged 2024 Mustang, Ford is celebrating all six generations of its popular pony car.
Even a King Cobra variant of the oft-maligned Mustang II generation is featured, along with a 1979 Mustang Indy Pace Car.
“Mustang is the world’s best-selling sports car because there’s one for everyone – from an EcoBoost convertible to 5-liter V8 GT fastback coupe,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley.
“Now it’s time to for a new stampede of owners, fans and employees to welcome the next chapter in Mustang’s legacy – the seventh-generation, which will be our best yet.”
The Mustang will retain the option of a V8 engine and a six-speed manual transmission.
Codenamed S650, the seventh-generation Mustang is expected to enter production in the first half of 2023. If this is true, this suggests an Australian launch in late 2023.
The S650 will reportedly have an eight-year lifecycle, which is roughly the same as the previous two Mustang generations.
For context, the outgoing six-generation Mustang debuted in late 2013 and hit the Australian market in 2015.
Ford has already said it will again make the new Mustang at its Flat Rock assembly plant in Michigan – subject to an array of recent multi-billion dollar factory upgrades.
Ford also specifically called it “Mustang coupe” when discussing 2023 production plans, which calls into question the timeline around any convertible offering.
The new rear-wheel drive Mustang will remain internal combustion-powered in its seventh-generation guise. The existing 2.3-litre EcoBoost turbo-four and 5.0-litre natually-aspirated V8 are likely to be offered.
A hybrid version is reportedly being worked on for a later arrival.
While the rival Dodge Challenger will be replaced by an electric vehicle in 2024, previewed by the Charger Daytona SRT Concept, the core Mustang range will stick with combustion power – though Ford has the Mustang Mach-E SUV for those who want electric power.
The Mustang is also expected to lose its other direct competitor, as Chevrolet will reportedly end Camaro production in 2024. It’ll be the second time the Camaro has been retired, with Ford the only automaker to continuously produce a pony car since 1964.
We’ve already seen some leaked exterior images of the new Mustang, which include a redesigned front end.
Although we haven’t seen yet, expect to see some substantial interior changes with a more modern-looking infotainment setup.
Hopefully there’ll also be some additional safety features to ensure a better ANCAP result than that of the current car.
Before the current, sixth-generation model’s time is up, Ford is giving it the special edition treatment.
The Nite Pony is a blacked-out version of the Mustang, with the name selected from online submissions. Why Ford didn’t go with the infinitely cooler Dark Horse nameplate, which Car & Driver notes the company trademarked, is unclear.
The mechanically unrelated Mustang Mach-E electric SUV also receives the Nite Pony treatment.
Ford has temporarily closed orders of the current Mustang in Australia as it tries to fulfil a backlog of existing orders.
“The global semiconductor chip shortage and supply chain challenges for various commodities continues to impact vehicle production for all automakers,” reads a notice on the Ford Australia website.
“The challenges facing the industry are fluid and we are doing our best to fulfil current customer orders on Mustang as quickly as we can.
“As such we are pausing any new orders for Mustang until we can get through the existing customer order bank.
“We understand this is frustrating and we will re-open for orders as soon as possible.”
MORE: Everything Ford Mustang
