The active valve exhaust is one of the best features on the Dark Horse, but a lot of new owners don't realize how much control they actually have over it — or how to stop it from barking on a cold 6am start. Quick reference thread.

The four exhaust modes:

- Quiet — valves stay mostly closed. Still has presence (owners and testers peg it around the low-70s dB range), but it's the neighbor-friendly setting.

- Normal — the everyday midpoint. Opens up under load, settles down cruising.

- Sport — more aggressive valve behavior, opens sooner and more often. Great street "fun" setting.

- Track — valves held open. Loudest by a good margin (measured in the mid-80s dB range). This one is intended for track/closed-course use only — Ford's own note says it may not meet state/local noise laws on public roads.

How to change the mode:

1. Press the Mustang button on the steering wheel.

2. Go into the MyMode settings menu.

3. Select Exhaust Mode.

4. Pick the mode you want. You can also bake your preferred exhaust setting into a custom MyMode drive profile so it comes up the way you like it.

The one every neighborhood owner should know — Quiet Start:

In that same Exhaust Mode menu, select Quiet Mode and then turn on Quiet Start. It lets you set a start time and end time — during that window the car automatically fires up in quiet mode no matter what mode you left it in. Set it to cover your early mornings / late nights and you get a civilized cold start without having to remember anything.

Couple of things worth knowing:

- Quiet mode is quieter, not silent — cold-start is still going to have some bark for the first few seconds while everything warms up. That's normal.

- Track mode holding the valves fully open is by design; it's not a malfunction if it's loud.

So — how's everyone running theirs? Curious:

1. What mode do you daily in?

2. Anyone actually using Quiet Start scheduling, or do you just leave it in Quiet?

3. Manual vs auto — does the mode change how you drive it (rev matching, downshifts)?

If you've got a favorite MyMode setup dialed in, drop the recipe — it helps the new owners who just picked theirs up.

(Track exhaust mode is for the track, not the street — keep it neighborly out there.)