2018 Mustang GT Review, Dyno, Track Times, & Mods

When Landan at Late Model Restoration picked up his own 2018 Ford Mustang GT, he didn’t settle for a walk-around review — he put it on a dyno, ran the quarter mile, and weighed it against the Mustangs that came before. Underneath a mostly familiar shape sits an all-new third-generation Coyote V8 and a ten-speed automatic that changes the car more than any styling refresh could. Watch to see whether the numbers hold up.

Buying the newest model year of anything sounds simple until you already own the old one and start asking uncomfortable questions. Is the upgrade real, or is it just a sharper headlight and a different badge? When Landan at Late Model Restoration picked up his own 2018 Mustang GT, he refused to take Ford’s word for it — he put the car on a dyno, ran it down the quarter mile, weighed it, and lined up every spec sheet against the Mustangs that came before it. What he found underneath the hood turned out to be a bigger departure than the sheet metal ever let on, and it changes how the whole car drives once you know what’s actually different. Whether the numbers actually justify trading in a perfectly good S550 is exactly what this test was built to answer.

A Familiar Shape Hiding an All-New Engine

From ten feet away, the 2018 Mustang GT reads as a light refresh of the car Ford had been building since 2015 — a reshaped front fascia, redesigned taillights, a new hood, and a cabin with a few extra buttons. Landan doesn’t linger on those cosmetic notes for long, because the real headline sits under the hood: an all-new third-generation 5.0L Coyote V8, not a warmed-over version of the one that came before it. He breaks down exactly what changed internally, from the internals to the induction system, the kind of engineering that doesn’t show up in a showroom walk-around but shows up immediately once the car is strapped to a dyno.

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What the Dyno Actually Said

Rather than repeat Ford’s advertised horsepower figure and call it a day, Landan takes the car to a dyno and records what the third-gen Coyote actually produces at the wheels — the number that matters once drivetrain loss is accounted for, and the number every serious buyer should be asking about instead of the number on the window sticker. Paired with quarter-mile runs, the session becomes a real-world gut check on whether the 2018 refresh delivers a genuine performance jump over the 2015-2017 cars or simply a different personality behind the wheel. He also weighs the car, a detail most reviews skip entirely despite how directly it affects every acceleration number that follows it down the strip.

Ten-Speed Automatic and the Transmission Question

One of the most significant, least visible changes for 2018 was under the shifter rather than under the hood: a new ten-speed automatic transmission option, co-developed with GM, replacing the previous six-speed unit entirely. Landan walks through how that gearing changes the character of the car day to day and at the drag strip, and how it stacks up against the manual for buyers trying to decide which one actually suits how they drive on a daily basis. It’s the kind of mechanical shift that quietly reshapes the ownership experience far more than any exterior redesign ever could, and it’s easy to overlook if you’re only looking at the badge on the trunk.

Mods, Ownership, and What Comes Next

Because LMR builds its business around Mustang parts, Landan doesn’t stop at a stock review — he documents the modifications he’s already made to his own car and what they change about the driving experience, giving the video a second life as a build log rather than a one-time first-impressions clip. For anyone cross-shopping a leftover 2017 GT against a new 2018, or wondering whether the Coyote’s third generation is worth waiting for, this is the kind of hands-on, numbers-first breakdown that a spec sheet alone can never provide.

Watch the full video and share your thoughts below.

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