Under a blue sky: the new Ford Mustang GT has acquired a California Special version

The California Special version has a long historical context and is addressed to lovers of bright style for moderate money.

< p>Ford continues to expand its seventh-generation Mustang family of sports cars. The basic range, we recall, was presented in September last year, at its top is the Dark Horse version with a 507-horsepower naturally aspirated V8. In August of this year, the Mustang GTD, which stands apart from the main family, made its debut — this is, in fact, a full-fledged new supercar of the Ford brand. Last week at the SEMA show, Ford Performance rolled out the FP800S supercharger upgrade for the Mustang GT, and today the Mustang GT appeared before us in a stylish California Special version.

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The California Special (CS) version first appeared in Mustang in 1968 at the suggestion of Californian Ford dealers: against the backdrop of growing competition in the sports car segment, they wanted to have some exclusive Mustang in their showrooms. The first version of the California Special had Shelby-style decor and a number of minor technical improvements; 4,118 copies of this version were produced out of a planned 5,000; today these cars are especially valued by collectors.

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In 2007, Ford revived the California Special version without a regional reference as a particularly bright limited edition, and with each iteration it tried to come up with new color and graphic combinations. The 2024 Mustang GT/CS features a Rave Blue base color and rich blue accents in the grille, custom-designed 19-inch wheels, quarter panels and badging; the headlights received additional contour tinting. The interior is also decorated in gray-blue tones, the leather upholstery has double gray-blue stitching.

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The surcharge for the California Special version will be $1,995 — this amount must be added to the price of the standard Ford Mustang GT Premium (costs from $47,015), which is equipped with a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 Coyote (487 hp, 567 Nm) in pairs with a 6-speed manual transmission or a 10-speed hydromechanical automatic transmission. The California Special package is available for both coupe and convertible body styles, especially suitable for California.

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It is curious that if the “first” Mustang GT/CS was created so that the pony car would feel more confident against the backdrop of proliferating competitors, today the situation is the opposite: the Mustang will soon simply have no direct rivals left, since the petrol Chevrolet Camaro and The Dodge Challenger will be discontinued in the coming months, their successors will be fully electric, and the Mustang still has several more years of a full-fledged “hydrocarbon” life ahead of it.