Ford CEO Calls Dark Horse A Sub-Brand, Might Hint At Future High-Performance Models

Ford hosted their second quarter earnings call nearly a month ago, but it appears an interesting detail slipped under the radar. During his opening remarks, Ford CEO Jim Farley referred to Dark Horse as a sub-brand.

In particular, the executive said “We … took our product portfolio from too many generic vehicles and infused it with passion and purpose. We built out our iconic F-Series and Transit lines, as well as passion vehicles like Mustang and the new Bronco lineup, and sub-brands like Raptor and Tremor and Dark Horse.”

More: Ford Teases Dealers With 4-Door And Off-Road Mustangs

That’s interesting as we’ve only seen one mainstream Dark Horse so far. It’s the Mustang Dark Horse coupe, which starts at $68,275. While the company also offers a Dark Horse R race car, a true sub-brand would likely need to consist of more than that.

This could suggest a drop top is in the works and that seems possible as dealers were reportedly shown a high-performance convertible with a V8 engine as well as a manual transmission. At the time, we speculated it could be a Dark Horse variant, although Automotive News, which broke the story, described it as being like a GT350 or GT500 without Shelby badging.

That same report also mentioned a Mustang four-door coupe called the Mach-4. It’s possible that variant could also be in line to receive a Dark Horse variant as well.

While only time will tell what Ford has planned, the Raptor sub-brand consists of the Bronco Raptor, Ranger Raptor, and F-150 Raptor. Likewise, there are Maverick and F-150 Tremors and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Ranger Tremor return to America.