Richard Hammond’s Supercharged Mustang Dark Horse Cranks out 800 HP

By Brett Foote - May 16, 2026

The Hamster himself just took possession of his freshly-modified Mustang Dark Horse, and it’s a real handful on the street and track.

The Ford Mustang Dark Horse debuted alongside the arrival of the all-new S650-generation pony car for the 2024 model year, adding a fresh face to that long running lineup. Since then, we’ve seen our fair share of modified Dark Horse models, many of which have gone the familiar route of adding a supercharger to unleash significant power – previewing the forthcoming Dark Horse SC. Turns out, Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame has secured his own supercharged Mustang Dark Horse, and recently slipped behind the wheel of his latest ride for the first time.

Given the fact that Hammond has driven some of the most incredible performance vehicles on the planet over his years in the business, it obviously takes a lot to impress him – and this modified Mustang Dark Horse is certainly capable of doing exactly that. An outfit called The Smallest Cog performed the upgrades on this particular example, which lifted output to an impressive 867 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque – quite the boost, indeed.

Along with the supercharger, the team installed heavier front springs to help support the extra weight of the car’s mods, along with a new exhaust system and Apex wheels that are larger than the factory units, albeit, also fairly close in terms of design. While tossing a ton of extra power at a car can oftentimes result in an unbalanced, one-trick pony, that wasn’t the case here.

Rather, as Hammond points out, the car feels tight and well-balanced, and it has quite a lot of low-end torque – which makes it more pleasant to drive around town, where one won’t be bouncing off the rev limiter and exploring the Coyote’s peak output. In fact, Hammond notes that he has to be a bit careful when laying into the throttle – it seems docile, but there’s more than enough power to shred the rear tires with ease.

With the builder of the car – Matt – behind the wheel on the Top Gear test track, this Mustang Dark Horse can really shine, however. There, he walks away impressed with its power and agility, and also notes that it’s docile enough for regular daily use – which is exactly what has made the more modern pony cars so popular to modify in the first place.