Today, we brought out the first Mustang Dark Horse with available carbon fiber wheels at the Chicago Auto Show. To help share this exciting option, we’ve put together some key points and first images for your audience needs. (If you’re around the auto show, they’re also on display at the Ford stand alongside the Dark Horse itself – come check them out in person!)
- All-new 2024 Mustang Dark Horse offers available carbon fiber wheels – historically reserved for supercars and high performance racing applications – to a broader group of driving enthusiasts, with lightweight wheels that clock in at an average of 20.1 lbs., roughly 37 percent lighter on average than Dark Horse aluminum wheels.
- These wheels have undergone over 200 tests for structural and environmental validation, providing strength and rigidity alongside weight savings.
- In collaboration with carbon-fiber wheel experts Carbon Revolution, the Mustang Dark Horse features several firsts, including Ford’s first five-spoke single-piece carbon fiber wheel design for Ford, Carbon Revolution’s first production wheel with lug nuts located between spokes – just like classic Mustang five-spoke wheels – plus the first production wheel to use blue carbon fiber material featured in the Mustang Dark Horse signature flat-face wheel design.
- Ford and Carbon Revolution have collaborated for many years dating back to the Mustang GT350R and Ford GT. For Mustang Dark Horse, Carbon Revolution used a plasma arc spray process to deposit a combination of ceramic and metal materials inside the front wheels. Originally inspired by aerospace technology – this provides the Dark Horse wheel with thermal protection from brake heat.
- For decades, the aerospace industry has treated turbine blade materials subject to extreme heat with ceramic coatings to help improve durability. Similar technology is used in top-tier open-wheel racing environments. A proprietary thermal barrier coating system has been developed by Carbon Revolution which tailors its plasma spray deposition technology to provide a thermal protection solution for carbon fiber wheels.
