Ford’s Next Mustang May Offer a Killer Performance App

Up until 2020, the idea of a Ford Mustang being anything other than a two-door, rear-wheel-drive coupe or convertible would have been, well, heretical. After all, that was the format Ford pioneered with the ‘Stang back in 1964, and it served the brand well for more than five decades, helping the Mustang become the world’s best-selling sports car time and again (although, admittedly, under a slightly generous interpretation of the term “sports car”).

But then came the Mustang Mach-E. Where past Mustangs were all gas-powered, the Mach-E was all-electric; where previous Mustangs all had two doors, it had four; where prior Mustangs all sent power just to the rear wheels, it could send it to all four; and, most controversial of all, where all its predecessor Mustangs had been coupes and convertibles, it was an SUV.

And people loved it. (Helped largely by the fact that, well, it’s a damn good automobile.) Sales have boomed, to the point that Ford has all but run out of ones to sell during the current supply chain problem era. It’s even popular enough that the carmaker is back-burnering plans to start cranking out other electric vehicles in order to free up production capacity for the EV Mustang SUV.

So, in comparison with that, the rumors that the next-generation of traditional Mustang may pack all-wheel-drive seem rather insignificant by comparison.

Especially in light of the latest report from CarBuzz, which brings details of a new all-wheel-drive system that Ford recently filed patents on. According to the report, the carmaker is locking down rights to a performance-oriented AWD system that uses three separate clutches to quickly engage or disengage the driveshaft and axles alike: one clutch would handle the driveshaft, divvying up power forward or aft; the other two would handle power distribution to either side of an axle, presumably the rear.

If this all sounds like a torque vectoring system, well, that’s because it basically is. If it also sounds a bit like the system Ford used in the dearly departed Focus RS, which used twin clutches to push power out to the rear wheels well enough to give the car a literal Drift Mode, well, it does kind of sound like that, too.

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The big difference here, though, is the third clutch on the driveshaft, which could couple or decouple power from either the front or rear wheels. (Considering we doubt Ford would ever choose to create a Mustang that was front-wheel-drive for even a moment, we’re guessing it would disconnect power from the front axle.)

Putting the pieces together, it seems as though this AWD system could give the future Mustang (or whatever car it could be found in, but let’s face it, probably a Mustang) capabilities much like the current BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E 63 S: all-wheel-drive grip for efficient acceleration and better handling when needed, but tire-shredding rear-wheel-drive fun for making the donuts and other hoonage. In other words, a performance gamechanger — especially for what could well be the last gas-powered Mustang.

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