Manual Mustang Dark Horse Drags Auto Porsche Cayman GTS, Frustration Is Deep

A Porsche Cayman GTS picks up the gauntlet laid down by Ford’s Dark Horse Mustang, but the depiction is the worst apples-to-oranges scenario we could have ever had. The GTS is armed with a dual-clutch gearbox from the factory, while the Ford, in this particular example, comes with a manual. Naturally, a drag race is the way forward.

And just as naturally, the German boxer takes off and wins, but the guys from MotorTrend Channel don’t reveal the times or trap speed in this instance. The manufacturer claims a quarter-mile time of 12.1 seconds, while the Dark Horse – as tested by the same media outlet that staged this drag race – is half a second slower, at 12.6 seconds.

Granted, in this video, the Mustang has its six-speed manual and is slow off the line (the wheel spin didn’t help, either). It could be just a video editing blooper or perhaps intentional teasing, but it appears that the driver of the American Pony dropped the clutch straight into second gear in the launch. Nonetheless, scrolling through the cogs the old-fashioned way takes precious time – something the Porsche doesn’t have, apparently, since it’s gunning for the finish line like a cat on a hot tin roof.

The test is far from fair, no matter how we look at it. The Mustang has 500 hp and 418 lb-ft of crank-turning torque (507 PS, 567 Nm) coming out of that Coyote 5.0-liter V8. At least it’s naturally aspirated, and this is one of the few things the two contenders have in common. The Ford’s specs are far above the German Cayman's, which can only rely on 394 hp and 318 lb-ft (400 PS, 430 Nm).

The Dark Horse is a 4,000-lb muscle car (1,814 kilos), while the Porsche is 800 lbs lighter, tipping the scale at 3,200 lbs (1,445 kg). They’re both rear-wheel drive, but the six-cylinder boxer is mounted behind the driver, above the rear axle, and the extra weight helps a lot with traction. Curiously, the same weight difference is not visible in the braking contest – which has a rather peculiar metric: flat-out over a standing quarter, then slamming the brakes to a full stop.

Again, the vloggers don’t reveal the trap speed of each car, so we can’t correctly assess the car’s performance, but the 86-foot gap (28 meters) in favor of the heavier Mustang looks corny, to say the least. There’s a catch, though – the Dark Horse has some really good brakes: as tested previously by the same institution (MotorTrend), a manual model can stop from 60 mph (97 kph) in just 90 feet (29.2 meters). That’s five feet (1.5 meters) short of what a C8 Corvette Z06 Z07 can score.

The winning combination of large 15.4-inch (391 mm) two-piece front brake rotors, Brembo calipers, and Ford's new brake-by-wire system goes well with wide, grippy Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires. The Cayman GTS in this video doesn’t have the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes, but the six-piston aluminum monobloc fixed brake calipers. The discs are 13.8 inches at the front (350 mm) and 13.0 inches at the rear (330 mm). But that’s just random numbers that can’t solve the equation of a real-world test, especially when said test does not follow a standard algorithm.

We can’t say which is better without a common benchmark: the cars should have chosen a preset speed to conduct the brake test, not the top speed achieved over the given 440-yard distance (again, terminal velocity not disclosed). So take the video with a ladle of salt, and don’t place your bets on any horse just year (remember the Porche logo is a horse, too. Rearing, but horse nonetheless).