The 2024 Mustang GT Manual PP is Pony Car Playtime (POV Drive Review)
and it does so beautifully here I don’t I don’t want to see the end of third it’s got uh it’s a lot of speed there hey crew I’ve got the key to that 24 Ford Mustang GT we are going to take it for a drive but first let’s check it how it looks on the inside and outside this new model here brings a new generation Mustang the Seventh Generation which is most visually distinct here at the front and at the back up front we’ve got a larger grill with gloss black accents and bronze accents for
the Mustang logo and some other details with the performance package there’s a functional front air dam and functional cooling at the right corner vent the left corner vent is blocked off at this premium trim level you get projector LED headlights with LED drls and turn signals there is is a functional heat extractor up on the hood in gloss black and this one is painted in Grabber blue which I love cuz it looks very similar to my Cadillac ct5v black wings electric blue at the side with the performance pack we get these 19-in bronze accented Wheels
wrapped in pelli P0 summer Tires sized 255 section front and 275 at the back along with that performance pack are upsized Brembo six piston front
lights and around back we see the higher sharper crease for the rear hunch performance pack models get a larger rear spoiler you of course have your GT badge in the middle for the LED tail lights there are sequential turn signals like last generation and down low is a very large plastic diffuser that dominates the two smallish chrome exhaust Outlets the Mustang GT is definitely a vehicle you need to see in person to judge because in photos and videos it really wasn’t doing it for me but here in the metal I like the front and the
profile views while the rear end still looks like someone took a wedge out of a block of cheese my question for you is of all seven Mustang Generations which is your favorite to look at let me know in the comments and let’s check out the interior opening up and looking inside this premium trim cabin with black leather seats that have contrast stitching and perforations with seat Heating and for the driver seat there are six-way power adjustments for the passenger seat you get four-way power adjustments there’s also an aluminum Mustang tread plate and aluminum accented foot
pedals all three of them for our standard six-speed manual to get to the back seats just pop off this magnetic holder for the seat belt and pull up on this lever that angles the seat for it it does not slide it Forward automatically so you have to get down here and do the dirty work if you want a wider access point to the rear seats but maybe that’s not such a big deal because unless you’re sticking kids or cargo back here you’re not going to use this rear seat area this is my seating position at
6 feet tall and the seats are pressed against my knees but even if you were a little bit smaller than me it wouldn’t matter because this this is the Headroom situation I don’t have a chance of getting my head upright or to any sort of headrest which isn’t actually there so no adults certainly no large adults back here you also don’t have any accommodations no air vents no USBC ports no armrest no door storage well I guess those aren’t doors but no storage over there yeah I’m definitely going to need to see the chiropractor after
that the front doors have injection molding up high perforated leatherette here leatherette with contrast stitching and nice padding for your armrest hard plastics down low a shiny bit of plastic there two one touch up down windows power adjusting not power folding door mirrors if you want to access the trunk tap that button it will just release it though it doesn’t raise it up at all so you’re doing all the hard work yourself inside we find 13 cubic feet of space plenty of room but it does have this cut out so hopefully your items fit inside
that easily if you need more room you can fold down the rear seats from inside the cabin 50/50 under the floor you don’t get a spare instead you get an inflation kit there also isn’t a handle to close the lid so just use the trunk lid itself and does seal up pretty darn easily hopping into the driver seat now ducking my head and now closing the large door definitely some rattle to that door close noise on this premium trim drivers get a heated leather wrap steering wheel with a flap bottom and feels really nice in
the hands got a bit of a squish to it beyond that for 24 it’s a big change you’ve got your 12 12.4 in digital gauge cluster and a 13.2 in touchscreen within a single housing really dominates the dashboard the gauge cluster has reconfigurations in the middle and it’s very Vivid the infotainment screen is also crystal clear and is quite responsive it has Wireless Apple carplay and Android auto and this fun feature where you can just spin the Mustang as much as you want before it slowly comes to a stop under that we don’t have any
physical climate controls those are all in the infotainment screen and I wish they retain a couple of them down here just for ease of use there’s a volume knob some hot Keys your start stop button two USB ports 1 A 1 C and a DC Outlet wireless charging pad some contrast stitching on this injection molded console glad this is no longer hard plastic it’s much more premium leather wrapping around your gear selector two cup holders and what looks like a mechanical handbrake but is in fact an electronic parking brake meant to simulate the interaction leather
is topping this console with contrast stitching and inside there isn’t a whole lot of space with another DC Outlet visibility looks good up until right about here where the headrest blocks the small window and then it’s just a big blind spot at the pillar the view at the back is good and there is standard blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic and Headroom for myself up front is excellent that gets the thumbs up and this cabin overall is certainly an upgrade for your front passengers at least those poor rear passengers are still getting the shaft
and the two-screen setup does give up the somewhat iconic double cow look of the dashboard so I’m not sure how I feel about that but I do want to take the Mustang GT manual for a drive all right let’s fire it up okay as Chimes go those are pretty darn cool not as cool as the sound of a 5.0 L V8 roaring to life though hello cabin crew thank you for joining me for this drive in the 24 Ford Mustang GT manual with the performance package we’ll start by selecting our drive mode here on the
steering wheel and we’ve got some pretty cool animations as we do that for normal Sports track Back Drag Strip slippery and a custom mode we’ll begin in normal mode and then as I pull up on the ring it over and up to go into reverse that’s going to bring up a very high resolution backup camera with trajectory lines for us so o I’ve got to release the electronic parking brake that just pushes down and then you pull it up to engage it and now over and into first where we will begin with our turning radius
test so lined up and now cranking the wheel and finding a pretty good turning Circle I’m surprised turn signal sound is up next WoW wow that sounds like the most lethargic turn signal it’s so very slow but I like it actually and the world famous horn test ooh nice and sharp people are going to understand you’re upset that is of course if they aren’t already aware of your presence thanks to the angry noises from this 5.0 L coyote V8 it’s here once again in the new Mustang GT but thanks to some tweaks to the engine
including to the double overhead cams and the intake system we have 480 horsepower and 414 PB feet of torque that is an increase of 20 horsepower over the last model year Mustang GT but we’re down 5 lb feet of torque did I say 414 it’s 415 pbet of torque now what’s interesting however is if you go back a couple model Years you’ll find that the Mustang GT was making 480 horsepower and 420 pound feet of torque that was before Ford had to make some emissions changes that then reduced the total output so it’s kind of
funny we are back where we started with this Mustang GT but you can go beyond that with the active valve performance exhaust it raises output to 486 horses and 418 lbet of torque either way even without that exhaust system you have plenty of grunt here and that is routed through your choice of a six speed getrag manual as we have here or a 10-speed automatic gearbox for additional monies and this get rag I know that the previous generation Mustang had some reliability concerns related to it but me not having experienced those right now I’m just
enjoying the fact that it is a good solid six-speed manual gearbox I like the stubb of the shifter the throws aren’t terribly truncated they’re a little on the longer side but as you Notch into each defined gear there is that clear communication that you’re in gear there’s not a mystery to it and the clutch engagement and release Point are also well defined if not a little long in the travel of a pedal you’re still pulling your footag before you finally engaging that the brakes are superbly easy to modulate come up to a smooth stop and
right now we don’t have a REV match function Eng gauge but that is something you can toggle on and off here so that you don’t have to match match your own revs on the downshifts it’ll do that for you demonstrate let’s go to Third and then I want to pull it down into second little blip there without me touching the throttle and that’s really nice in traffic if you don’t want to have to be blipping your own throttle all the time but as we get into a more performance environment I’m going to want to do
that rev matching myself now on to the ride quality so with the GT performance package that we have equipped to this car we get the Magna Rod adaptive dampers the magne geological technology that is the same as what I have in my Cadillac ct5v Blackwing and though the ride compliance the way that it moves over undulations in the road is not as smooth as my car it’s a little firmer a little more josly over those changes the dampening is almost just as good and it’s aided by the fact that these seats are incredibly comfortable like
possibly some of the most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in in a performance product they just cushion me perfectly the suppleness of the padding and hold me nice in place now the bolstering isn’t overly aggressive so we’ll see how they hold me in place we get into some more twisty stuff but for now I’m loving the chairs I’m loving the dampening of the suspension and the sounds from this coyote V8 just such a Hardy motor now I am noticing here in the lower part of the Rev range there isn’t a ton of low-end torque it
is a naturally aspirated motor you do have to kind of string it out a little bit but the power delivery is very smooth you do get up to speed if you stay in it with the throttle and in the normal drive mode at just some partial throttle at these speeds I’m going to quiet up we’ll listen for the nvh level we are always hearing the rumble of that 5 L coyote V8 not having the active valve exhaust system doesn’t get any quieter than this but we’re also hearing a fair amount of wind noise and road
noise the car is passing by me make a discernable noise and the wind is kind of whistling away and then at part throttle I do in certain situations hear a vibration above my head all of those little noises and the wind noise do sort of betray what would otherwise feel like a really expensive product just the way that it drives the way that it travels down the road but now let’s say you want to travel down that road just a little bit quicker well for you I’d recommend sport drive mode which I will now engage
and I will disengage rev match to dollop that throttle myself and pour it on oh yes third gear is so tall oh my God extracting a naturally aspirated V all the way out to 7500 RPM is something only a double overhead cam system could do and it does so beautifully here I don’t I don’t want to see the end of third it’s got uh that’s a lot of speed there what wow and the noise is enveloping that distinctive growl the way the power Just Wells up and hurdles you forward it’s just screaming at you let’s
go but of course if you do want to go you do need to be in the right gear cuz as I’m going to demonstrate here going into Fifth and just kind of putting my foot down at 2000 the buildup is painfully slow it’s it’s almost like a turbocharged engine where you’re waiting for Boost to build here there is no boost there’s no compressor none of that but the engine is just designed to be strung out and so let it but not all the way not all the way cuz that’s real fast just very close oh
I already hate the steering what is that but we’ll press pause and do a real world 0 to 60 first and for that 0 to 60 the Mustang GT does have launch control even with the manual here in the track apps you can set your RPM for launch I’m just going to keep it at 4,000 and then hit that launch control button you can clutch in Full Throttle it’ll hold the revs and then you let go of the clutch here we go race box is set up to record as well Full Throttle little bit of
Tire spin going Tire spin all the way to 4.89 seconds to 60 under five now if I’d been playing around with the RPMs you can set up for launch and doing it repeatedly until I got just that perfect launch I would see 0 to 60 in about 4 and 1/2 seconds that’s what independent test have achieved in this car but either way just being able to pull up at a stop light hit that launch control button and power away 260 and under 5 seconds is emboldening but I want to return to the Mustang GT steering
and in fact a discussion of its entire handling properties so for that I’m going to move into the track drive mode which is going to make things as edgy as possible turn off traction control and we’re going to sus out these curves the magnar ride dampers having firmed up as much as they can really cut that body roll feels very flat in the curves feeling lots of grip from the tires but only based on the actual adhesion not through this steering which feels so very elastic I get as much feedback as I would be pulling
on a rubber band here it darts into corners but it’s almost surprising in the way it does because you have no notice of that through the steering Remo breaks her up to Snuff cutting that speed power out of corners and it really is a shame about the steering because even from the last generation Mustang GT it’s been the thing that has kept this car from becoming a true and proper sports car transcending its muscle car DNA cuz I mean it’s got a decent gearbox it’s got the power it has braking strength it’s got body control
it’s got the Hardware this performance package gives us the tors and limited slip differential they can certainly get the power to the ground out of a corner it just lacks the communication that brings a driver into the equation that keeps them wanting more and more that puts it on par with sports cars and the sadder thing is that while the Dark Horse does get an even better gearbox that trimic six-speed manual doesn’t get a different steering system so though it has more power I doubt it’s going to change the recipe all that much very very
fun but flawed and I mean let’s be clear Ford knows how to turn the Mustang into a real true worldclass sports car anyone who’s driven a Mustang GT350 gt350r can tell you that for sure this one this still just feels like a throwback vehicle which is going to lead into my miles hour word of the day which for the 24 Ford Mustang GT is mesomorphic meaning having a muscular body build which is just another way for me to say a muscle car it’s just fun mesomorphic car what what segment is yours in I’m in the
mesomorphic class we are going to get into pricing and competition but first let’s go over the top speed and fuel economy for this Ford Mustang GT top speed is 155 mph and the fuel economy is 14 MPG in the city 23 on the highway and 17 combined the starting price for this 24 model is $43,000 for the GT if you want this GT premium trim it’s going to be about $48,000 and this one has tested is 56,000 buckaroos now on to the competition we’ve got of course the Chevy Camaro SS the 2ss trim would compete
with this GT premium and we only have the Chevy Camaro for this one final 2024 model year before it goes into The Ether that one starts at $49,000 it makes $455 horsepower it gets to 60 in 4.4 seconds has a top speed of 165 mph and fuel economy of 16 combined and sadly with the demise of the Dodge Challenger for the 23 model year I’m not even going to include it here so we’ll have to look outside the muscle car realm for competitors like the Toyota gr super 3.0 that starts at 58 or $59,000 it
makes 382 horsepower gets to 60 in just 3.9 seconds has top speed of 161 mph in fuel economy of 21 combined and then we also have the Nissan Z performance that starts at $53,000 makes 400 horsepower gets to 60 in 4.0 seconds has a top speed of 150 mph and fuel economy of 22 a combined so here is the story folks if I was just going to choose from those Vehicles the very best performance machine I’d have to go with the Chevy Camaro SS or the Toyota gr super 3.0 however if like most people shopping
vehicles I was going to introduce the concept of livability and comfort and dare I say the absolute best soundtrack you can fight me on that if you want then the Mustang GT would earn back a whole lot of respect so my question for you is which would you choose would you have the Mustang GT would you get the Chevy Camaro SS would you have the Toyota gr super 3.0 or the Nissan Z performance let me know in the comments and I hope you guys have enjoyed this POV Drive review if you did please like comment
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