Review: The Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally Is The Funnest EV
I’m too high with joy to have grammar debates, so you’re going to have to deal with the fact that I’m here to tell you the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally I just tested is the funnest electric vehicle on sale today.
The high-performance model is like nothing else on the road, or off of it. Ford reimagined its compact SUV as a rally car designed for driving on dirt roads, and not just with style.
The all-wheel-drive model has an upgraded suspension system and power controls to make it a real competitor to, well, it doesn’t have any right now. The closest mainstream production car you’ll find is the internal combustion engine-powered Subaru WRX, which was very much the performance benchmark for the Mustang Mach-E Rally.
Ford started with the Mustang Mach-E GT with its 480 hp, 600 lb-ft of torque and Magneride adaptive suspension and went to work. It swapped out the springs, recalibrated the shocks and gave it a performance upgrade that boosts the torque to 700 lb-ft. A set of mud and snow tires on rally-style wheels round out the mechanical changes, while a rear spoiler was added for style, but doesn’t add any downforce.
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The magic is in the computer code, which was developed over 500 miles of rallycross-style driving to dial in the perfect power delivery into a RallySport mode that gives the car a “natural” feel, based on the norms set by the WRX and other gravel munchers over the years.
The Mustang Mach-E Rally can accelerate to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, but it’s really more about the way it goes around curves on slippery surfaces. A small turn of the wheel and hard stop on the accelerator puts it into a drift that’s easy to control.
The car has less than six inches of ground clearance, but the suspension is so compliant that it doesn’t bottom out harshly, even if it gets a couple of inches into the air over bumps. Ford Off-Road Attributes Engineer Anthony Magagnoli told American Cars And Racing the shocks will even stiffen up near the end of their compression if the car senses a big impact is coming up, which effectively turns them into virtual jounce bumpers. You don’t even have to be driving it as fast as you can to get a thrill, just doing zig-zags and donuts in sand is a blast.
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It’s also the best-riding Mustang Mach-E on pavement and the chunky tires aren’t loud, although they don’t grip asphalt as well as street performance rubber would and give up pretty early, but predictably.
But while a street-focused sport EV like the Mustang Mach-E GT or the absolute riot that is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N can be very entertaining on a track, a tall and heavy SUV always leaves you wanting more in that environment, while the Mustang Mach-E Rally is just perfect in the dirt.
Similarly, 4×4-style SUVs like the GMC Hummer EV and Rivian R1S are great at what they do, but rock crawling just isn’t “fun” the way tearing it up through the woods is. If there’s one sore point, it’s that the 265 miles of range can be limiting. Ford’s new access to the Tesla Supercharger network makes that easier to live with.
Even at $60,990, the Mustang Mach E-GT delivers the most bang for the buck for me, and that’s especially true compared to multimillion EVs like the $2.2 million Pininfarina Battista, which delivers its 1,900 hp laughs in short bursts, but is far from perfect at everything else on the track.
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Mud flaps and a stronger aluminum shield for the battery are available as accessories if you plan on getting dirty often, and the hands-free Blue Cruise highway driving system hardware is standard for when you aren’t, but requires a subscription to work.
The Mustang Mach-E Rally will soon have a new rival from Hyundai, no less, which is launching the Ioniq 5 XRT later this year. It’s essentially a copy of the Mustang Mach-E Rally template, but with just 320 hp and 446 lb-ft to play with. That should keep the Ford out front, but we look forward to finding out just how far.
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