The Ford Mustang is already a very versatile performance offering, with Ford currently offering eight different performance variations of the pony car. Most companies would be happy with that and call it a day. Ford has never been normal in that regard and is always content to find new ways to offer buyers even more performance.

A new report reveals that the company might be working on a ninth variant which would be seen as a possible successor to the iconic GT350.

Ford is breeding a different pony this time around

According to the report from Ford Authority, the company will build the new variant on the Dark Horse SC. The unnamed model would maintain the sharpened suspension and the exterior tweaks that model got, but do away with the supercharged 5.2-liter Predator V8.

While the only alleged confirmation came from unnamed sources within the company, the existence of this model would allow Ford to create a bridge between the base Dark Horse and the SC, which could offer the best of both worlds to buyers. The report says the new model would also get a six-speed manual transmission, which is something the Dark Horse has, but the SC doesn’t, with the latter getting a seven-speed dual-clutch exclusively.

No Shelby Involvement

In recent years, Ford has moved away from famous tuning firm Shelby American for its recent performance builds and has instead chosen to build them in-house. This appears to hold true with this mystery model, with the report not mentioning Shelby at all.

The continued absence of Shelby does raise some questions about what the new model (if it exists) could be named. We expect the Dark Horse part of the name to remain since Ford is clearly using that as a core part of its marketing identity. One potential naming direction would be the use of a letter at the end to help distinguish it from its siblings. Another is to use a name from the past with monikers like Boss, SVO, and more, all being available to use.