Quickest 4-Cylinder Stang We have Examined

• The 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost’s 4.5-second dash to 60 mph makes it the quickest four-pot ‘Stang we have examined so far.
  
• That mentioned, we by no means examined the final technology’s 330-hp hi-po with an automated, however we’re fairly assured the 2024 would put up a severe struggle.
• The EcoBoost we examined got here outfitted with the $3475 Excessive Efficiency package deal with summer season tires and upgraded brakes.

Welcome to Automobile and Driver’s Testing Hub, the place we zoom in on the take a look at numbers. We have been pushing autos to their limits since 1956 to offer goal knowledge to bolster our subjective impressions (you possibly can see how we take a look at right here).

When a flashy new Ford Mustang reveals up at C/D headquarters, loaded with performance-specific upgrades, you already know we should topic it to some vigorous acceleration testing. Now that now we have, it seems now we have a brand new king of the hill. With a recorded 60-mph time of 4.5 seconds, the 2024 Mustang EcoBoost is formally the quickest four-cylinder Mustang we have had the privilege of testing.

Drag Strip Mode Is Gold

We observed just a few fascinating issues throughout our examination. Over a number of makes an attempt, the Drag Strip drive mode proved price its weight in gold, saving a tenth or two on the best way to 60 mph. As testing director Dave VanderWerp places it, “Drag Strip mode actually bangs house the shifts.” The EcoBoost additionally chirps its tires on the one-two upshift, which is a enjoyable little flourish.

Now, it is price declaring that there is a small asterisk concerned—Barry Bonds model. Whereas this EcoBoost completely trounced the guide 2020 mannequin we evaluated as a part of a comparability take a look at, beating the persist with 60 by half a second, there’s a lacking variant that would give this 2024 a run for its cash. We weren’t capable of take a look at the outgoing technology’s Efficiency Pack-equipped, 330-horsepower, automatic-transmission variant, which is as intently matched to the 2024 mannequin as any earlier than it. The final EcoBoost automated we examined, a 2018 mannequin with 310 hp, was only a tenth faster than the Efficiency-Pack guide at 4.9 seconds to 60.

Stacking Up Stangs

Different factors of comparability favor the Mustang too. The brand new Stang continued its motive-force routing, besting the 2020 within the quarter mile with a 13.2-second run at 103 mph, with the earlier guide at 13.6 seconds at 102 mph and the automated coming in at 13.4 seconds at 100 mph. In the other way, our EcoBoost Efficiency Pack’s brakes clamped down from 70 mph in 149 toes, barely edging previous the 2020 mannequin’s 153-foot cease. The gulf widens barely at 100 mph, the place it takes the 2024 EcoBoost 293 toes to cease, versus the 2020 EcoBoost’s 308 toes.

When it is time to flip, the tide modifications; the 2024 EcoBoost fared worse on our 300-foot skidpad (0.95 g versus 2020’s 1.02 g). However that is as a result of the earlier automobile had much more severe tires; Pirelli P Zero Corsa PCZ4s versus P Zero PZ4s on the 2024 mannequin, and the brand new mannequin’s 255/40R-19s are barely narrower than the 265-width Corsas, too.

Whereas the most recent EcoBoost might not pack the identical 330 horsepower because the outgoing Efficiency Pack mannequin, the four-cylinder Mustang did obtain some powertrain bumps for 2024. The turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four below the hood makes 315 horsepower (up from 310) and 350 pound-feet of torque. That is good, as a result of its curb weight can also be up barely; at 3812 kilos, it is 62 greater than our 2018 automated take a look at automobile. Sadly, the guide transmission is now not supplied on EcoBoost fashions this 12 months, however as we have seen above, the 10-speed automated is loads good by itself.

Efficiency Pack Defined

So, what’s on this mysterious Efficiency Pack? Throw Ford $3475 and it will increase your Mustang’s avenue cred with wider wheels and Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tires, MagneRide adaptive dampers, beefier Brembo brakes, additional bracing within the engine bay, and a 3.55:1 Torsen limited-slip differential. Oh yeah, it additionally provides the “drift stick,” which is a correct lever for the digital parking brake that permits you to rise up to even dumber stuff than you in any other case would.

A closing enjoyable reality: This spec of 2024 EcoBoost is just one second faster to 60 mph than a 2023 F-250 SuperCrew 4×4. Watch out who you attempt to race for pinks, of us.

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Senior Editor

Vehicles are Andrew Krok’s jam, together with boysenberry. After graduating with a level in English from the College of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew minimize his enamel writing freelance journal options, and now he has a decade of full-time evaluation expertise below his belt. A Chicagoan by beginning, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Perhaps someday he’ll do one thing about that half-finished engineering diploma.