Ford Mustang Horsepower

The Ford Mustang first appeared in the 1964 model year as a 1964.5. The pony car started a feud that would see Chevrolet answer with the Camaro. Of the ‘Stang Carroll Shelby famously said that it was a nice secretary’s car.

Mr. Shelby would then transform it to a much more power beast with the GT350 and GT500 models. The first generation of the car was very good as the horsepower wars raged and then it all fell apart with the Mustang II.

As you can see the second generation of the car had a large decrease in power. This is largely because of stricter government regulation that strangled the Muscle Cars of the ’60s and early ’70s. As a result Ford produced the Mustang II with a four cylinder engine that just wasn’t all that powerful. They did have a V8 version for some years, but that was not produced in very high numbers and power was down on that as well when compared to the first generation.

Things slowly got better in the ’80s and ’90s and then with the 5th generation power finally got back to the same level as the first generation car. Now the 6th generation car offers a pretty powerful GT with 435 horsepower and the Shelby GT350 offers 526 horsepower (there are even rumors of a 740 horsepower GT500). Even the V6 and turbocharged four-cylinder power plants offer at least 300 horsepower.

From a strict power stand point the Mustang has come full circle and this newest generation is the best performing example that Ford has built. It is also much better handling than the early cars making it (at least on paper) the best ‘Stang generation yet.