The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Can't Replace the GT350
The sheer lunacy of the high-revving Shelby GT350 always meant it'd be a tough act to follow. The Mach 1 doesn't quite reach that car's heights, but it's a more reasonable package.
By Mack Hogan
Mack Hogan
It's hard to take this car as anything other than a disappointment. Sure, it's brilliant, growling and mean, smart and raucous. It's among the most charming things you can get for less than $60,000, behind the Mazda Miata and a cabin in the woods. But the Mustang Mach 1 walks in the shadow of a giant, because it's supposed to replace the irreplaceable Shelby GT350.
And that is a blank check car, an angry, angular, affirmative answer to the question of whether a Mustang could be motivated by rage itself. That flat-plane crank Voodoo heart shakes your chest until all there is to think about is the road and the 8250-rpm redline and the sledgehammer shifter that restarts that rush. Muscle car brutality with sports car precision, an exhaust equal parts supercar shriek and Shelby staccato. The GT350 is an event.
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The Mustang Mach 1 that has to follow it is, in many ways, a better product. Cooling and other componentry from the GT350 and GT500 parts bin make it nigh-invulnerable to all racetrack assaults, and the formidable Coyote V-8 provides smooth, effortless power. There's more going on down low here than there ever was in the Shelby, more charm in the town center. It's a more proven formula, too. The GT350's Voodoo engine suffered early reliability problems as the automaker worked out the kinks on its new flat-plane crank design. No such tinkering has been necessary for the Coyote. For all of its problems launching cars these days, Ford knows with certainty how to build a proper naturally aspirated cross-plane crank V-8 with variable camshaft timing and direct injection.
The end result is a 480-hp bruiser with 420 lb-ft of torque. You'll have to stretch your 'stang to 7000 rpm to access peak power, with max torque kicking in as you crest 4600 rpm. In today's world of everything-everywhere turbocharged power, these numbers are incentives to actually push the Mustang into a full-press sprint. When you do, you get a bellow that'll bounce off canyon walls for ages, a frequency so low and powerful we should use it to talk to humpbacks. It may be unable to compete with the village-waking thunder of the GT350, but the Mach 1's exhaust is, in any other company, exceptional.
Cornering speeds remain as shocking as they were when the GT350 first hit the scene. Yes, many will argue that the sixth-gen Camaro has the Mustang beat in the bends, but in the absence of any considerable effort by Chevy to upgrade, market, or tweak the Camaro, we must be grateful for Ford's consistent improvement. The Mach 1 is engaging, confidence-inspiring, and friendly, easily coaxed into casual slides and easily adjustable on throttle. And unlike so many self-proclaimed sports cars in the over-$50,000 range, it maintains serious pace without ever feeling serious, moves quickly but with theater. Even without the $3750 Handling Package, our $59,390 Mach 1 tester is among the most engaging new vehicles we've tried this year.
That's despite fighting with one hand tied behind its back. As the painful price suggests, the Mach 1 I tried was fitted with the optional $1,595 ten-speed automatic transmission. I'd rather use the money as kindling; at least it'd serve a purpose. Sure, the automatic is good. Great, even, as torque-converter automatics go. Shifts are unspeakably snappy on the way up and suitably prompt on the way down, with special care added to make sure they still feel momentous in sport and track mode.
Yet if any new car currently on sale demands a manual, it's the Mustang Mach 1. This is no luxury car, its interior ripped straight from the Hertz lot premium section. It is not subtle, not interested in conceding serious performance to make it feel particularly relaxed. You can use it every day, even take it on long trips, but the whole time it will feel like a special thing built for something better. It's stiff and a bit loud and already filled with annoying usability quirks, like a driver's seat that auto-slides backward for egress even if there's a pair of human legs behind it. This car is stupid, in part because it's supposed to be stupid. They haven't thought out every detail of practicality, because that's not what this car is for. And going for an automatic here simply lessens the impact, especially when the manual option is the brilliant Tremec yanked right from the GT350. An authoritative and substantial shifter all too good at making you feel like the action-movie hero the Mustang is built for. There's no amount of traffic that would make me want to lose that. That's why the GT350 never offered an auto.
This is where the pining of enthusiasts and journalists comes into contact with the reality of automotive product planning. The automatic version was not some afterthought, its existence in the press fleet no mistake on the order form. The real story is that the Mach 1 primarily exists because of this automatic. As a source in Ford PR told me on launch day, the company needed a special-edition top-end Mustang they could sell in international markets. The GT500 was too expensive and thirsty, and nearly everything else special the company had built thus far had come with a manual. Enthusiast worship of the manual transmission in the U.S. makes that work here, but for various reasons related to emissions, social issues, and mere convenience, the folks spending their equivalent of $60,000 on a Mustang in foreign markets don't want to shift their own gears.
That's a crying shame, because in opting for an automatic you lose something. You also lose something when you take off the Shelby badge, and with it, all that it has come to mean: a one-word answer that'll make any American instantly understand why your car is special. And you lose a lot when you switch from a once-in-a-generation 8250-rpm screamer to the brilliant yet familiar Coyote V-8.
So the Mach 1 is good. Great, even. But I've felt the GT350, sat dumbstruck as it rattled my bones, assaulted my ears, awakened my senses. It just doesn't matter what the Mach 1 is. We've already seen what it could be.
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