Mustang Mach-E Rally has plenty of muscle
Setting aside horsey heresy EV deserves to take its place in Ford's performance lineup
“That's not how we teach that corner — but that's how we drive it.” And with that quip, senior Dirtfish rally school instructor Michelle Miller hucks the Mustang Mach-E Rally into a 45-degree slide, all four wheels rooster-tailing gravel. There's no sound but the rattle of flung stones as the tires struggle to put down some 700 lb-ft of torque from the two drive motors. Through a narrow gap, slaloming down the straight, then through the finishing gate and into a series of spinning doughnuts.
We can leave aside discussions of what constitutes a “real” Mustang for a while. What we've got here is a 2,200-kg (4,850-lb) battery-electric family crossover that thinks it's a Focus RS. Which actually, it basically is.
The Rally is the headliner of the updated Mach-E range, but it's first worth going over what the rest of the tweaks are. Across the range, the addition of a new lighter electric motor (built in-house by Ford) and software updates have increased range by 15 to 30 km depending on trim. Charging speeds are also increased, with Ford quoting the 10 per cent-to-80 per cent charge metric as almost six minutes faster for the standard battery; and nearly nine minutes quicker for the extended range.
In total, just over 36 minutes will take you to 80 per cent charge from 10 per cent on a DC fast-charger, which is plenty quick. Even better is the availability of a new adapter to plug in at Tesla's Supercharger sites. I tried this out with a Premium trim Mach-E and it worked without issue, with Ford claiming speeds up to or slightly above 150 kWh.
GT models get the most changes this year, with all GTs getting the excellent MagneRide adaptive suspension, Brembo brakes, and sport seats. On vehicles equipped with the Performance upgrade, that new electric motor punches out 480 hp and the aforementioned 700 lb-ft of torque. This last can be optioned at purchase or updated later, and it costs around $1,000 to unlock that extra 100 lb-ft over the regular GT.
Pricing starts at $54,995 for the entry-level Select trim with a standard-range 72-kWh battery pack. Those looking for the longest-range Mach-E will want to go with the rearwheel-drive 91-kWh extended-range in Premium trim for an extra $8,000 — that'll net you nearly 515 km of power. And with 290 hp and 387 lb-ft of torque, the rear-drive extended-range Mach-E is perfectly lively from behind the wheel.
The GT, however, is worthy of its badge. With a new Bronze accents package and 20-inch wheels, it looks great, can gallop to highway speeds in just 3.3 seconds, and really hoovers up a back road. This much torque married to rear-biased allwheel-drive grip just surges out of the corners. Again, no Mustang fan is ever going to concede that an electric crossover is worthy to wear a nameplate currently celebrating its 60th anniversary. But setting aside the horsey heresy, the Mach-E GT deserves to take its place in Ford's performance lineup. Doesn't matter if the company had called it the Thunderpinto: it's a great drive.
At its base, the Mach-E is thus an EV offering useful range, practical space and both a fun-to-drive character and some genuinely hackle-raising performance metrics. Sitting atop the pricing tree is the Rally, which costs $5,000 over the GT. That $5,000 might just be the best performance bargain available in the EV world.
After all, Porsche has established a $70,000 differential between a 911 C4S and a 911 Dakar, and with that upgrade, you lose the rear seats. And, yes, the Dakar can do some truly incredible dune-surfing that might be outside the Rally's performance envelope, but let's take a little closer look at how well Ford has put this gravel-shredding package together.
With a one-inch lift in suspension and 19-inch wheels instead of the 20s found on the GT, the Rally is utterly unflappable when back roads turn bumpy. If there's any more body lean here, it's nothing that would turn up outside of a track session. Part of the magic of the near-instantaneously adaptable MagneRide suspension is that it allows for engineers to tune in an ultra-compliant ride without sacrificing body control.
Speaking to the engineers who worked on this, development was all about miles and miles of testing for ride quality, then polishing the last bit of development to sort out how the Mach-E behaves under steering inputs.
In white especially, the Rally looks like a homologation special awaiting its racing decals. The performance seats look like they are constructed from captured Storm Trooper armour. White 19-inch wheels are pure early 2000s WRC spec.
This is a car built for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts, so it should come as no surprise that there is some Mazda Miata mixed into the recipe, here. Off-road attributes engineer Chris Berchin, who ordinarily spends most of his time getting Broncos to fly, runs a little red Mazda in rallycross outside of work, and was brought into the Mach-E Rally program to help dial in the EV's behaviour. Ford built a full rallycross course in a field on its Michigan proving grounds, and Berchin and his fellow engineers put lap after lap on it.
This was all done in-house in a skunk works-like manner, with the team actually winning an award for keeping things a secret. The MachE's rally driving mode was designed to allow for more sideways yaw, while the suspension was firmed up so as not to get overwhelmed by repeated porpoising over broken terrain.
Even the tire selection was built around what would work in a rallycross setting, with Michelin Crossclimates fitted.
Off the road and onto Dirtfish's training grounds, the Rally took to the dirt as it was engineered to.
Normally Dirtfish instructor cars are Subaru STIs and BRZs, but the Rally brings more than twice the torque of the former, combined with some of the rear-biased flavour of the latter. The forward launch of unleashing that 700 lb-ft against on gravel is like getting fired off an aircraft carrier.
Compared to the instructor Subarus, which are much lighter and fitted with gravel-specific tires, the Mach-E Rally takes a little more time to react to inputs.