Welcome to the new 2024 Mustang GT. The GT trim has been an inbetweener trim for decades now, finding itself above the EcoBoost trim and below the Shelby/SVT/Ford Performance trims. As with any inbetweener trim, this is the model to get. Especially considering the fundamental leap that is this 2024 GT. I said that the Dark Horse is the best Mustang ever made but that may have been a bit premature…because this GT is as good or even better.
The achielles heal to the S550 GT was the awful, unprecise, breakable Getrag MT-82 manual gearbox. It was so easy to bounce out of 2nd and 3rd gear that you might as well just shift from 1st to 4th instead. It wasn’t just high performance shifting that got you, anything above 3/10ths driving was a recipe for the Bankhead Bounce of manual transmissions. Now for the S650 generation, the GT still has the MT-82 but it feels like it has been upgraded from the ground up. I can’t find anything that states that and waiting on Ford to confirm, it’s either that or our test model accidentally had Dark Horse’s Tremec installed instead.
No longer the bane of its driver’s existence this GT equipped manual has leap frogged itself to one of the best manual transmissions on the market today. It’s borderline perfect. Every gear is tactile and snickety to engage, the clutch delivers the perfect amount of feedback and the revmatch downshifting just plain perfect.
There is another beauty to the manual equipped GT, off the line torque. While the Dark Horse, to me, felt like it could use a few more ft/lbs off the line…the GT’s lack of a torque converter easily solves that issue. Our tester leaps off the line like a Olympic runner and that power builds to a crescendo level at 4K RPM. That’s when the VEETAK (or the Ford derivative) kicks in, moving the soundtrack up 3 octaves, moving the nose up another ½ inch in the air, rips the tach to the redline and shoves it’s driver into it’s seats. Oh it is glorious.
It’s not all performance and no refinement. Here is the really special thing of this 2024 GT. Equipped with the 19 wheel option, the tires are bulging and meaty. In other words, they have lusciously large and squishy sidewalls, which gives you nothing short of a sumptuous and comfortable ride. Yes, it will still handle and handle very well indeed but it’s the civility the GT affords that makes that magical difference. Especially in this droptop guise.
Dropping the top, you can have the epitome of a cruising machine with a burbly V8 soundtrack. Put on a pair of Randolph’s aviators and enjoy the ride. The new Mustang GT is everything that needs to be and nothing it shouldn’t be. It’s the best Mustang ever.