2015 Mustang Mule Caught With Production Nose & Hood

At least one Mustang mule is now running around with its production front fascia, hood and front fenders.

The development program for Ford's 2015 Mustang has moved another step closer to its final form, with this mule that's now testing its final production shape from its a-pillars, forward.

We caught this fleeting glimpse of the face of Ford's next Mustang as it exited one development plant, and made a short trip down the road to another Ford testing lab. The new face seems to show clear signs that Ford is indeed, heading down a design track that was originally laid by the Ford Evos concept, which debuted at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The new design affixed to this Mustang mule shows significant differences in how it matches up to the sheet metal of the current Mustang's doors, giving us some clues as to the surface development being applied to the next generation model.

Earlier photos a Mustang mule's engine bay have revealed a more cramped engine bay, requiring a repackaging of many components. The mules can still fit the 5.0-liter V8 engine, but the smaller space could hamper some of the bigger-engined possibilities for the next-generation Shelby GT500.

It's déjà vu all over again...

It sure is!

Is it me or does the front overhang on that prototype look really long. I hope that's just some of the camouflage and cladding they have on there to disguise it which makes it seem longer than it really is.

BobD said:

Is it me or does the front overhang on that prototype look really long. I hope that's just some of the camouflage and cladding they have on there to disguise it which makes it seem longer than it really is.

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You can't and shouldn't try to gleam too much from these pics other than that it's an indication that they're testing the actual body now too.

There's all kinds of camouflage and cladding tricks they employ to trick the eye and crazy people like us who study the pics with magnifying glasses I have no doubt the S550 will look amazing.

And much further back, where FOX Mustangs were running around with S197 front ends patched onto them. One purpose here of many is to test airflow in the reconfigured engine compartment.

But we know from this picture what the front end looks like... it's time to toss out about half od the Photoshop hacks including some of the laughable ones that certain (but not all) national magazines have done recently showing a car that is little different than a new front cap on the current body.

You know those new spy pics showing a fender grill... I'm seeing a slight indent here on the front cap of these pics now that I'm looking at this first set again..... is it just me? could be being covered by some kind of cladding?

Fender grill is all in your head... it's obvious theres no grille there at least from these pics. That's where the 5.0 badge would go. You can tell that's very similar to the Fusion grille where it will lose some of the separation and bulk between the top and lower grille.

The way the new front fender comes together against the old S197 body looks like those side rocker panels will come out more?

Look at the difference in stance at the front end. No more "4x4". The rear is even more dramatic, but the comparison isn't yet valid because the rear sheetmetal is current production.

Take a look at the fuel filler door:


Clearly this mule (and all seen so far) has fuel system changes, with a new fuel filler pipe (shown) and likely gas tank and plumbing changes (not shown, but likely for crash improvements).

The new fuel filler door sticks out an inch or two further away from the current body. This means that the rear of the 6G body will be somewhat wider than today.

And we can also see that the track of the car is just a bit wider than current production (and it's hard to tell, because it has some nice fat negative camber too). This foretells a wider body with additional width being opened up in the rear wheel wells for wider tires. With the current top-of-the-line Boss and Shelby Mustangs being significantly under-tired (for the amount of power they have), this would allow wider rear tires and hence lots more traction.

Note that on the mule with the production front end, the track isn't much wider... probably not at all - so the front and rear tire width will continue to differ.

Disclaimer: lets see what the final body looks like. It's all extrapolation now.

Also, for you photochoppers, note the character line across the middle of the fuel filler door. This is almost Taurus-like.

That fuel filler door extension brings back a story from long ago... the early '96 Taurus mules were hacked together from scratch (the mule body is only in a general form for testing, same size but not shape) and all 4 door handles stuck out in the same exact way. Some dumbbell from the press reported that they would look that same way in production because of some new Federal safety guidelines which allegedly required stronger handles that would survive better post-crash. Ridiculous reporting. Here's the original pic:

FYI Your last pic doesnt' show.

It's hard to tell from the pics, but I'd welcome a wider rear for the looks. This would also address a lot of complaints about the mustang wheels being too small. The prob with a staggered setup like this is it sacrifices lighter weight for better traction and can exacerbate oversteer.

tslim said:

FYI Your last pic doesnt' show.

It's hard to tell from the pics, but I'd welcome a wider rear for the looks. This would also address a lot of complaints about the mustang wheels being too small. The prob with a staggered setup like this is it sacrifices lighter weight for better traction and can exacerbate oversteer.

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It would exacerbate understeer. Same problem the car with staggered setups (Boss, Shelby) has today. "Looks" should follow function.

This is also why most of the racing series Mustangs run the same size rim and tire all around, for example 18x10 with 285s. The car is much better balanced when "square".

But on the other hand, the IRS is far more tunable than ye olden solid axle. It's far easier to setup the car to do whatever you want. And note that from the pics we've seen rear camber is adjustable from the factory, as is rear toe.

And another big advantage (last seen on the 99-04s with IRS) is that it has geometry to reduce brake dive. The current car, like the SN95, brakes very badly nose-down and tail-up.

(picture is fixed, that's what I get for making over 3000 page changes on my site this weekend, and for changing some directory names, and not clearing out my own cache)

tslim said:

FYI Your last pic doesnt' show.

It's hard to tell from the pics, but I'd welcome a wider rear for the looks. This would also address a lot of complaints about the mustang wheels being too small. The prob with a staggered setup like this is it sacrifices lighter weight for better traction and can exacerbate oversteer.

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I'm sure you meant understeer. First, If you just want the look, can always just go with deep dish wheels in the rear. For a car with a staggered set up to perform well for the track, the suspension has be finely tuned for it. There's a bunch of disadvantages to having this set up, not least of which is losing ability to rotate tires. I personally would not want it to come stock like this.