ford does not have a corvette competitor. They had the ford GT years ago but it was way over the vette price point so even then it was not good. The GN34 was always rumored to be that car in the late 80’s but it never made it past concept.
I have always wondered where ford would have been if they would have embraced their AIV (aluminium vehicle) concepts back in the day. The mustang would probablye be around 3k lbs if it were not steel.
I love the GT350. I have always had a thing for high reving engines and that video is fantastic. I have always preferred the looks of the mustang as well to the camaro.
The GT350 & GT350R are really close to to say a Corvette with Z51 package? I could talk about how much faster the GT350R is on a track, but that would just fall on deaf ears, so how about a pull on zeee highway:
You can get a 2016 Camaro SS with an auto for under $40k, the one you quoted just happens to be loaded. I would classify an under $40k car into the blue-collar crowd. $50k for the GT350, not so much. I would take a GT350 over the “R” model and save the coin. Still comes with the fantastic engine. I’m curious if you’ll still be posting in next years thread when the 2017 special edition Camaro’s come out? Ford had 2.5 years to benchmark the Z/28 and build something to beat it. Did you think the Z/28 stood a chance? I’m glad Ford beat it and kept the cost in check. I always thought the Z/28 was just priced retarded. The new Camaro platform is roughly 200lbs lighter, and they are working on several variations of the LT-series engines. Hypothetically speaking here, but a 2017 Z/28, 1LE, ZL-1 with 550-600hp, weighing 3500lbs with similar handling to the outgoing Z/28, is going to be tough to beat. They just need to keep the price in check, hopefully.
I’m def not Ford loyal, so I don’t care who’s faster, as long as they keep going back in forth it is entertaining to watch. Before that Head2Head vid I thought the Z/28 would have been faster or at least a lot closer, hopefully we’ll get to see how it does at Laguna and VIR and see if the difference is the same. The subjective commentary on the Mustang’s feel was surprising considering how much MT have praised the Z/28 in the past.
I still think that the used V6s are the way to go for track beaters either Stang or ATS, I’m not sold on the visibility of the Camaro. I could care less about horsepower. Let the magazine editors tell me about how awesome the suspension is for a baseline, throw some aftermarket springs and shocks and roll bars at it and stickier tires than factory. End up with 95% of the grip, none of the refinement, better weight distribution, 70% of the straight line acceleration, at 25% of the cost. I would be totally comfortable crashing a V6 stang or V6 ATS into wall in a couple years after they have depreciated and I’m done with daycare.
I would say that the particular roll scenario they used might play into the GT350’s gearing better. Like the GT350 might be in 3rd at 60mph, while the Corvette is in 2nd. All of the other performance numbers show the Corvette on top.
