A new Mustang GT350 is reportedly coming with a naturally aspirated V8 and a manual only

Ford is reportedly developing a successor to the Shelby Mustang GT350, and the report says it would pair a naturally aspirated V8 with a manual transmission only. It would be sold as a coupe, with no convertible planned, and the focus would be on track work. Ford has not confirmed any of it.

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The details came from Ford Authority, which presented them as exclusive information, and Autoblog’s Pablo Salapantan relayed them on Nov. 8. Everything below is reported rather than announced, and the one output figure in circulation is Autoblog’s own estimate, not an insider number.

A Dark Horse SC body without the supercharger

Ford Authority’s exclusive says a GT350 replacement is in development for the S650 generation of the Mustang, built on the Dark Horse SC and sharing its wide-body setup. The engine is where the two part ways, and Autoblog says the successor goes “au natural,” in its phrasing. The Dark Horse SC uses a supercharged 5.2-liter V8, while the successor would go without forced induction, the way earlier GT350s did. The account reached readers through Autoblog’s summary of the scoop, which also describes the car as track-focused, with bigger brakes, more cooling capacity and upgraded suspension that may be shared with the SC.

The donor car is no slouch. Autoblog’s Oct. 8 test report cites Motor Trend timing the Dark Horse SC from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, from 795 hp and 660 lb-ft of torque. Its base price starts under $110,000, and the $36,500 Track Pack pushes the total toward $150,000. Prices differ by outlet: Autoblog’s own first-drive review lists a $103,490 base MSRP before destination and gas-guzzler tax, with a highest as-tested figure of $169,820, while The Drive lists $105,485 for the base car.

A naturally aspirated car is unlikely to match that output, and nobody has reported a figure for it. Autoblog guesses it could make upwards of 600 hp and labels that its own assumption. It would slot between the regular Dark Horse at 500 hp and the supercharged car at 795 hp.

Manual only, coupe only and the gearbox it would reverse

On the gearbox, the report is firm: an insider confirmed the successor gets a manual and nothing else, and whether an automatic follows later is unknown. That would reverse the Dark Horse SC, which has a seven-speed Tremec dual-clutch automatic. Cole Attisha’s Autoblog first-drive review of the SC called that gearbox the car’s most transformative component, and he offered a manual version as a hypothetical he found appealing, in the manner of a Porsche 911 GT3 Touring.

Byron Hurd came away from the same car with a 9.5 out of 10 rating. In The Drive’s review, which argues the perfect Mustang needs no stick, he measured a 10.947-second quarter-mile at 131.74 mph with the Track Pack and wrote that the SC is even better than the last GT500. The Track Pack car weighs 4,110 pounds, about 150 pounds less than the standard 4,263. Hurd lists the GT350 among the S550-generation specials alongside the Bullitt, Mach 1 and GT500, which shows how long Ford has treated a track-focused Shelby as its own slot in the range. A manual-only sibling would sell a different idea of speed, built around driver involvement rather than dual-clutch lap times.

The wide-body stance, bigger brakes and extra cooling would all be aimed at repeated hard laps rather than a single quick run. Each piece of track hardware on the reported list is a plausible response to the weight and heat a hard-driven coupe generates, but none comes with a part number, a supplier or a spec.

It helps to separate the layers of the report. The basing on the Dark Horse SC, the wide-body setup, the absence of a supercharger, the manual-only gearbox and the coupe-only body style are all presented as reported facts, with the gearbox detail credited to an insider. The 600-hp guess, the exact brake and suspension parts, and the name are inference or open questions. None of the reporting read for this article includes a statement from Ford.

Dark Horse Boss and what the badge may be

The name is unconfirmed. Ford Authority notes that Ford filed a trademark for Dark Horse Boss last year, which it considers the likely badge, and says the car will carry the Dark Horse name rather than GT350. Trademark filings often protect names that never reach a showroom, so that clue is suggestive and no more.

Several things remain open: the output of the engine, the transmission supplier, a model year, a price, and whether Ford will ever call the car a GT350 at all. Autoblog’s write-up of the report frames the car as an enthusiast play: a manual-only, supercharger-free Mustang next to a supercharged, dual-clutch sibling that Ford already sells. For now the strongest evidence is a single exclusive and one insider who spoke about the manual gearbox. If Ford confirms the car, the first numbers to watch are the engine’s displacement and output, since those will show how far a naturally aspirated V8 can be pushed against a supercharged sibling that already runs 795 hp.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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