The announcement was made alongside the official unveiling of the Mustang Dark Horse SC, a 5.2-litre supercharged V8 version of the iconic pony car, sitting between the standard Dark Horse and the Mustang GTD.
While the NASCAR Cup Series racer will have to follow the rules of the category with a naturally aspirated 5.8-litre V8, Ford’s move to the Mustang Dark Horse SC will allow it to update the aerodynamic package of its challenger.
After moving to the current ‘Next Gen’ (or Gen 7) rule set in 2022 with a Mustang GT500-based appearance package, Ford moved to the new ‘S650’-generation Mustang Dark Horse in 2024.
Ford won the first three championships under the Next Gen regulations with Team Penske (Joey Logano in 2022 and 2024, and Ryan Blaney in 2023) but missed out on making the Championship Four in the final race of 2025.
As reported by our sister site Torquecafe, Ford is yet to provide additional technical details about the Mustang Dark Horse SC such as power and torque, only announcing its supercharged V8 engine and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
Despite its optional Track Package including wheels made in Geelong by Australian firm Carbon Revolution, Ford Australia is tight-lipped on whether the Mustang Dark Horse SC will be sold in local showrooms.
The standard Mustang Dark Horse – upon which the new Mustang Cup Australia championship is based – was only limited to 1000 examples locally, all of which sold out before Australia’s allocation arrived in late 2024.
Ford uses the GT version of the S650 Mustang in the Supercars Championship rather than the Dark Horse and has not flagged any plans to update its Australian challenger.
The Supercars Mustang has, though, received minor aerodynamic revisions following the latest round of off-season parity testing in the Windshear wind tunnel that homologated the new Toyota Supra.
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