The Australian-built Mustang New Zealand can’t have
Words: Richard Edwards
Ford has shown off the Mustang Dark Horse T8-Spec Pack, a track-focused special developed with Supercars team Triple Eight Race Engineering and finished at Ford’s own plant in Melbourne, and it is not coming to New Zealand.
The car was unveiled at Ford’s Uncovered event in Melbourne by seven-time Supercars champion and Triple Eight managing director Jamie Whincup, with Ford Racing chief programme engineer Justin Capicchiano confirming it as an Australian exclusive.
Production is capped at 250 cars, all manual, priced at A$138,888 before on-road costs. Each one starts as a standard Dark Horse, with its 350kW and 550Nm 5.0-litre V8 and Tremec six-speed manual, and is then upfitted by Ford Australia at its Plant 2 facility in Broadmeadows, where it receives a sequentially numbered build plate.
The pack was shaped by Ford’s local design and engineering team. It brings 19 by 10.5-inch front and 19 by 11-inch rear alloys, previously unavailable in Australia, wrapped in Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tyres measuring 305/30 at the front and 315/30 at the rear under widened guards. The MagneRide suspension has been retuned with stiffer springs, stiffer anti-roll bars and adjustable top mounts, alongside a revised steering rack, and the driver sits in a Recaro seat with Indigo bolsters.
A larger rear spoiler carries a Grabber Blue gurney flap, and a front splitter is supplied unfitted for track use only. All 250 are painted Avalanche with a black roof, Triple Eight branding on the rear applique and bonnet, Notorious Blue Brembo brake calipers, Triple Eight scuff plates and a unique gear knob.
“Triple Eight’s history with Ford actually goes way back to 2003. Ford is where a lot of my own story in the sport was written,” Whincup says. “To have our name on a Ford road car is something different again. Every part of this Mustang from the suspension tune to the tyres to the badge on the back reflects what we do on the racetrack. When a customer drives this car, they’re feeling real race engineering.”
Every T8-Spec buyer is invited to a track day at Queensland Raceway, Triple Eight’s home circuit, in the first half of 2027. Whincup says the team’s technical director, team manager and drivers will be on hand to walk owners through the car.
Triple Eight returned to Ford this season as Red Bull Ampol Racing after a long spell with Holden and then Chevrolet, and has won more championships than any other Supercars team.
Australian deliveries begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The 2026 Dark Horse is itself limited to 500 cars in Australia, priced from A$104,990.
In New Zealand the standard Dark Horse is priced from $116,990 plus on-road costs for the automatic and $118,990 for the manual. The first run of 150 cars sold out and a further allocation is due later this year. Ford has not announced any equivalent special edition for New Zealand. Given the appetite for hotted-up Fords on this side of the Tasman, we have little doubt a few of the 250 will find their way here through parallel channels.
