Mach-E Rally Review: A cut-price electric rival to the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato. It really is. (Road & Track)

[Golfer]

Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally Proves EVs Can Deliver Huge Fun

A cut-price electric rival to the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato? It really is.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/review...mach-e-rally-proves-evs-can-deliver-huge-fun/

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[Golfer]

Good read and some high praise for the Mach-E Rally ?

 

[BhuvanShom]

High praise, with enthusiasm-

_right now the Mustang Mach-E Rally is the only EV I’d happily spend my own money on_

 

[Snakebitten]

Hey, I've mentioned more than a few times that I'm still in my honeymoon period with my 2023 3.5 GTPE.

Quit posting Mach-E porn please.

Edit: I should have read the article before posting, but I wholeheartedly disagree that the GTPE Magnaride is too stiff and the steering is under assisted. Of course I'm talking about on decent<>good tarmac.

Having said that, I would LOVE to test the VDM strategy of the Rally on my GTPE. I'm really curious if it's possible to try it out by either swapping the module itself? Or perhaps harvesting the firmware/AsBuilt of one and writing it to the other.

 

[voxel]

Impressive.. I have to try this Rally version.

I agree with the reviewer and also disliked the GTPE. Unbridled was too stiff and Whisper was a bouncy mess. I bought my friend's BMW i4 and had both for a few months and vastly preferred everything about the i4 except lack of space and no BlueCruise.

So when he says "It works. The Mach-E Rally has fixed basically all of the GT’s problems, and added some compelling dynamic character to the mix" that perks my interest.

 

[HuntingPudel]

<SNIP>
Quit posting Mach-E porn please.

Edit: I should have read the article before posting, but I wholeheartedly disagree that the GTPE Magnaride is too stiff and the steering is under assisted. Of course I'm talking about on decent<>good tarmac.
<SNIP>

Personally, I think the Magneride needs a stiffer setting and that the steering is over-assisted. I like a little more assist in my truck but that’s because it has huge tires that get bogged down in silt or rocks (also why I have dual RS5000s damping the steering). On tarmac, I want more road feel. My GT-PE is decent but a bit imprecise and soft. The Rally I tested was more billowy and couldn’t match the limit of my GT-PE. ?‍?

But, different tools for different tasks. I would have fun with the Rally if I were still refuge hunting. Some of those dirt roads would be great to blast around in a Rally (people thought I was nuts with a Celica with 3” of ground clearance). I’m too old for the sweat lines and the mad pre-dawn dash to find a place to set up. Besides, the Blazer can do all that I want to do on those roads and more. ??

 

[markboris]

^^^^ And here we go again. Probably the 10th post that Steve and I have mentioned the Magneride shocks are too soft in Unbridle but I guess it is a personal thing. When I set the Magneride shocks to Track on the Focus RS or GT500, it becomes firm and the car handles like it's on rails as it should. Unbridle is absolutely nothing like that. Barely makes a difference compared to the other cars. I should mention I replaced the VDM in both cars with a custom user tuned unit, something that is not available for the Mach-E.

 

[voxel]

The Mach-E is still a crossover with some suspension travel so dive, squat, body roll still happens even with the stiffest MagneRide setting.

You need to move to an EV sedan - something like the Polestar 2 with Ohlins - for a trackable EV (which I drove on COTA). That EV is unbearable with the Ohlins on the streets.

 

[markboris]

The Mach-E is still a crossover with some suspension travel so dive, squat, body roll still happens even with the stiffest MagneRide setting.

I completely agree with you Nelson, it is a crossover and I do not expect it to be anything like the Focus RS or remotely like the GT500 BUT it definitely can be better. I will assume you haven't upgraded your sway bars because that was the single best mod I ever did to this car (same with many others). That and a good set of wider, summer tires makes the Mach-E a very decent handling crossover. Now, if we could just get the unbridle setting to be a bit more firm...... ?

 

[snowdoggie]

F....
Ford should allow all GT/GTPE owners to trade in for the Rally with favorable terms i.e. cost difference of trim/pkg with "favorable" depreciation.

 

[leeman]

Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally Proves EVs Can Deliver Huge Fun

A cut-price electric rival to the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato? It really is.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/review...mach-e-rally-proves-evs-can-deliver-huge-fun/

Folks, she knew these things are paid for in someway or another. I just look at the repairability of taking the electric vehicle off road like this if something penetrates the skid plates underneath which I think are mostly plastic that could be very problematic especially if you break off a cooling hose for the battery, etc., so although this is fun because they probably didn't pay for the car it's difficult to suggest that it would be OK to put this out on a rocky dirty road that may or may not affect components underneath the vehicle and as we all know, it's very expensive to repair these cars and sometimes if you hit them just right they're total so just keep that in mind if you're gonna use it on Road

 

[spartan]

Folks, she knew these things are paid for in someway or another. I just look at the repairability of taking the electric vehicle off road like this if something penetrates the skid plates underneath which I think are mostly plastic that could be very problematic especially if you break off a cooling hose for the battery, etc., so although this is fun because they probably didn't pay for the car it's difficult to suggest that it would be OK to put this out on a rocky dirty road that may or may not affect components underneath the vehicle and as we all know, it's very expensive to repair these cars and sometimes if you hit them just right they're total so just keep that in mind if you're gonna use it on Road

The Mach-E Rally has metal underbody shield in the front and a hard plastic one in the rear, and in development it survived 500 miles of full-send rallycross driving with that equipment. There's also an accessory battery shield for customers who want to do frequent rally-style driving.

It's no Rock-crawling Bronco or dune-jumping Raptor, and doesn't make any pretense of being that. For its intended purpose, it seems to be pretty robust.

 

[phil]

Ford should allow all GT/GTPE owners to trade in for the Rally with favorable terms

Should? That would be lovely for us. Not so good for Ford.

 

[HuntingPudel]

F....
Ford should allow all GT/GTPE owners to trade in for the Rally with favorable terms i.e. cost difference of trim/pkg with "favorable" depreciation.

I wouldn’t want a Rally. I drove a couple. Less precise, more billowy. I just want the 5 second limit gone. ??

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