Ford Mustang Mach 1 2021 Track Review

With no less than six limited-edition vehicles currently available on Ford Australia’s fleet, there’s an obvious sales tact at the Blue Oval’s HQ in Melbourne.

Soon, there will be seven. The new 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 lands in showrooms in the coming weeks as part of a broader limited-edition rollout around the world.

Just like the Ford Mustang BULLITT which precedes the Mach 1 and shares many common parts, this latest pony car incarnation revives a famous variant from 50 years ago and is limited to 700 examples locally.

The original 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 paid homage to Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, Mach 1, in his Bell X-1.

Purportedly bridging the performance gap between the garden-variety Mustang GT and the outgoing high-performance Shelby GT350 not offered in Australia, the modern-day Ford Mach 1 commands a big premium in the process.

What we plan to ascertain is whether the Mach 1 does the nameplate justice, or whether it’s a bridge too far in the limited-edition sales spruik.

The answer lies in a pre-production Mach 1, a garden-variety GT and an empty Sydney Motorsport Park.

The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 sports car is priced from $83,365 plus on-road costs for either the manual or automatic version.

The high-performance, track-ready pony car slots in between the sold-out Ford Mustang BULLITT ($73,688 plus ORCs) and the locally-tuned supercharged Mustang R-Spec ($99,616 plus ORCs).

Just 700 examples have been shipped to Australia, with first deliveries arriving early next year.

The Ford Mustang Mach 1 is powered by a more powerful version of the Mustang GT’s 5.0-litre V8 (345kW/556Nm) – the same power output as the BULLITT but with a variety of modifications.

We’ll get to those finer points in a moment, but in terms of equipment, the Mach 1 gets 19-inch alloy wheels, climate control, Bluetooth, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, an 8.0-inch centre infotainment touch-screen with Ford’s SYNC3 software, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12-speaker B&O sound system and FordPass Connect fitted standard.

Also carrying over are standard MY21 features including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beam, auto-levelling headlights, reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors.

The Mach 1 goes without a spare tyre, instead offering an inflation kit. And as with the regular Mustang GT, a three-star ANCAP safety rating applies.

There are three options available: Recaro leather sports seats ($3000), premium paint ($650) and an appearance pack ($1000) that adds orange seat-back trim, orange brake callipers and satin black/orange bonnet and side stripes, exclusive to the Fighter Jet Gray exterior colour.

All models come with bonnet and side stripes and five body colours will be available in Australia.

As well as Fighter Jet Gray (only available with the appearance pack optioned), there is Satin Black with reflective orange stripes, Shadow Black and Oxford White with black and red stripes, and Velocity Blue and Twister Orange with black and white stripes.

The Mustang Mach 1 is backed by Ford’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Capped-price servicing is also available. According to Ford’s website, the first three years of servicing will set owners back $1410, spaced across 12-month/15,000km servicing intervals.

The big, brutish, natural-breathing Coyote bent-eight in the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 turns up the heat slightly to 345kW at 7500rpm – up from 339kW at 7000rpm – thanks to the fitment of the (not-for-Australia) Mustang Shelby GT350’s intake manifold, 87mm throttle bodies, open air induction system and auxiliary engine oil-cooler.

The engine management software has been tweaked although peak torque remains at 556Nm and still arrives at 4600rpm.

For the record, the LHD-only (and manual-only) Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is powered by a 392kW/582kW 5.2-litre V8 with flat-plane crank dubbed Voodoo, making it Ford’s most powerful naturally-aspirated sports car and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS of Mustangs.

Ford Australia says the Mach 1’s updated active valve performance exhaust with 4.5-inch outlets will “further enhance the unmistakeable Ford V8 sound”.

Unlike the manual-only Mustang BULLITT, the Mach 1 is also offered with a 10-speed automatic, which has been significantly upgraded with its own air-to-oil cooler designed to cope with the rigours of heavy work on the track.

The Mustang Mach 1 is also the first production Mustang in Australia to be offered with the high-performance TREMEC six-speed manual transmission, complete with twin-disc clutch, upgraded oil-cooler and rev-matching tech.

All models come with a rear-axle cooling system and a limited-slip diff as standard.

The Mustang Mach 1 is also fitted with a range of hard-core chassis upgrades to improve its dynamics, starting with a unique suspension tune featuring stiffer front springs and bigger anti-roll bars and a stiffer rear subframe brought together with adjustable dampers, or MagneRide suspension in Ford-speak.

A larger brake servo and super-sticky Michelin PS4 tyres shod to 19-inch five-spoke alloy wheels are also part of the Aussie-spec Mustang Mach 1.

US buyers of the manual Mach 1 are given the option of a Handling Package that adds a high-downforce front splitter, front bumper winglets, a new rear ‘swing’ spoiler, rear tyre spats from the GT500 and wider (10.5-inch front and 11.0-inch rear) 19-inch Magnum 500-replica wheels.

Our first taste of the hotly-anticipated 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 comes in the form of one hour’s circuit time at the Sydney Motorsport Park.

In a bid to bring some perspective to the test, we also sourced a garden-variety GT Mustang to compare back-to-back with Ford’s fabled new pony car.

The first laps in the regular GT show exactly why Ford’s venerable sports car has won over so many fans, but also why it hasn’t legitimately challenged more focused coupes such as the BMW M2.

Rich in noise and theatre, the GT’s driving experience is a visceral one, the keynote of any muscle car experience.

But, upon arriving at a corner, there are some shortcomings: the GT is quickly overcome by rear power and it is occasionally indecisive when shifting its weight.

The resulting shimmying through turns and excess body roll aren’t detrimental on the road, but the GT’s capability on a closed circuit is limited. That’s not a shot; many road cars of this ilk simply are.

Conversely, the Mach 1 immediately feels more tied down through corners and has more resolve in its grip levels and poise.

Stable under brakes and with no immediate pedal fade, the Mach 1 feels a slightly better match for SMSP’s 3.93km Gardner Circuit layout.

Turn-in response is slightly sharper thanks to its reworked suspension, yet the bigger improvements come in the form of mid-corner poise, whereupon a larger grip threshold allows you to sit flatter through turns with less of a tendency for the rear to want to break free.

That, in turn, results in significantly higher corner speeds.

After staying below an imposed 80km/h speed ceiling, we take some liberty in pushing a little harder. The Mach 1 responds surprisingly well. In fact, the level of lateral grip is such that you’d need to provoke it with decent intentions to get the rear to break loose.

Similarly, changes to the engine, while small, are enough to bring tangible improvements to power delivery.

From where we’re sitting, the exhaust elicits even more bravado and chest-thumping harmonics at full noise, and fettling the engine brings a slightly better spread of useable power.

We’re huge fans of the Tremec transmission, too, which offers a nice, predictable throw and a good spread of useable ratios. It also feels suitably heavy-duty, which is a nice match for the 5.0-litre engine.

It’s great that Ford offers an automatic option for the Mach 1, but given the 10-speed’s tendency to occasionally shunt and hunt for gears in the regular GT, we’d opt for the manual every day of the week – unless, of course, you’re driving the peak-hour commute every day.

Our hour of power is quickly up, but there’s enough here to suggest tangible improvements over the garden-variety GT.

However, we suspect this is no Ford Mustang Shelby GT350.

There’s no escaping the clever marketing behind the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 – a process that’s been tried and tested on multiple Ford machines of late.

Relative to something like the Ford Mustang BULLITT (from $73,688 at launch), however, which had legitimate cut-through and did so with a relatively small premium over the regular GT, the Mach 1 doesn’t quite hit the same mark.

For the weekend driver, we reckon the GT delivers similar thrills and emotion for $20,000 less.

For the consummate track enthusiast, you can go some way in justifying the Mach 1, or you could just write it off for what it ultimately is: another limited-edition special.

How much does the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1 cost?
Price: $83,365 (plus on-road costs)
Available: May 2021
Engine: 5.0-litre V8 petrol
Output: 345kW/556Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual/10-speed automatic
Fuel: 12.4-13.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 284-320g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Three-star (ANCAP 2017)