View Photos KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

Update: The 2015 Ford Mustang has been officially revealed. The 2015 Ford Mustang has been officially revealed. Click here for full info and photos.

Mustang is Ford’s oldest continuously produced nameplate (Ford might cite its F-series, but that didn’t bear the F-150 badge until a decade after the Mustang arrived). In its lifetime, Mustang has been many different cars: a reskinned Falcon, something closer to the Torino, a hideous and malformed mutant Pinto, and a Fox, the platform it shared with a variety of Fords, Mercurys, and even a couple of Lincolns across three decades. In its current form, though, Mustang has become something it flirted with from inception: great. We named the GT and Boss 302 to our 2012 10Best pantheon, and called the Boss “the best Mustang ever.” For 2015, Ford’s ungulate will undergo its most revolutionary redesign yet. We hear it’ll arrive Thursday, April 17, 2014, or 50 years to the day it originally went on sale. This should make for one helluva birthday.

KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

Dimensionally, the 2015 edition won’t differ much from the current car, but it will employ an all-new unibody. The next Mustang’s track, both front and rear, will be slightly narrower. Wheelbase looks to shorten up by less than an inch from today’s car. With more-stringent impact requirements pending during the car’s anticipated life cycle, overall length could creep up by the same amount the wheelbase shrinks to allow for suitable crash structures.

KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

With the brief exception of the SVT Cobra that appeared intermittently between 1999 and 2004, the Mustang has always relied on a solid rear axle—and since the advent of the internet, forums have been overrun with calls for an independent rear. Hark, bathrobe wearers, your cries have been heard. In addition to reducing unsprung mass, the 2015’s multilink independent rear will allow more space for the rear seat and cargo.

A strut setup will carry on up front, but with new geometry. Performance models will use aluminum lower control arms, while stamped steel serves in the base car. Big six-piston Brembo brake calipers will be stand­ard on serious performance models, optional on the semi-serious ones.

KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

Unlike today’s Mustang, which sees only limited export beyond the NAFTA zone, Ford has decreed that its next-generation pony car will be sold around the world. With this in mind, powertrain choices will expand significantly beyond today’s single V-6 and three V-8 choices. We’ve even heard that, for select markets in Asia, Ford will offer a naturally aspirated inline-four. Sounds screwy, we know. But Ford continues to challenge convention with its engine choices; who would have thought even two years ago that V-6s would make up the majority of F-150 sales?

The U.S. will get a four-cylinder, too—the first in a Mustang since 1993. A turbocharged, direct-injected 2.4-liter four will relieve an upgraded version of today’s 3.7-liter V-6 of its mantle as 30-plus-mpg champ. Mimicking the EcoBoost’s role in the Edge and Explorer, the 250-plus-hp four-cylinder will be priced higher than the more powerful base V-6 Mustang and be positioned as a balance between sport and fuel efficiency.

View Photos KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, TONY SWAN, PATRICK M. HOEY, JIM FETS, DAVID NEWHARDT, THE MANUFACTURER

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io