Jim Farley Says Ford Mustang Can ‘Disrupt’ Porsche 911

It’s no secret that Ford CEO Jim Farley is – aside from running one of the largest automakers on earth – a big car enthusiast, one who has an impressive collection of rides and also competes on the track from time to time. Farley is also a huge fan of the Ford Mustang, which is part of the reason why the pony car continues to be sold with a V8 and manual gearbox while much of its direct competition has fallen by the wayside. However, it seems as if Farley has even bigger aspirations for the Ford Mustang aside from using it to compete against mainstream models like the Camaro, Challenger, and Charger, too.

“Our belief is that each car company has its own unique DNA and ours is a V8 manual and a coupe,” Farley said during an interview with Bloomberg a couple of months ago. “And part of the reason why we did the [Mustang] Mach-E is because we could stay in that category and offer a V8 and offer a manual. I don’t think Porsche should have all the fun. And I think they’re kind of the establishment now and we can be the disruptor. And so we’re trying to learn as much as we can. And I’ve always admired Mazda and Porsche and I think that Ford could do the same thing. We globalized the Mustang a couple of years ago and some of our biggest dealers are in Australia and Sweden, not in the U.S. Mustang is now the best-selling sports coupe in the world and we don’t really talk about it.”

These comments recently took on new importance as something of a hint that Ford has been thinking about expanding the Mustang lineup much the same way Porsche has done with the 911 in recent years. The Porsche 911 has been offered in a wide array of variants and special editions over the years, in fact, and we aren’t just talking about the track-focused GT2/GT3 and RS models – but rather, the off-road-focused Dakar, too.

While rumors of an off-road-focused Ford Mustang have swirled for some time now, Farley previously called such a model “unlikely” – though as Ford Authority reported last week, it – along with a four-door model and other variants – are reportedly likely to enter production after they were shown to dealers at a recent meeting. If nothing else, vehicles like this are seen within the walls of The Blue Oval as massive profit generators, giving them a solid business case for existing – and perhaps even competing against the likes of Porsche.

We’ll have more on these potential new Ford Mustang variants soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Mustang news and non-stop Ford news coverage.