Car and Driver - Mustang Beats Corvette?

[Riley P]

Well, I got my copy of Car and Driver stating the Mustang beats the Corvette.
Alright I think, the GT350 is a wicked Mustang, lets see how the numbers stack up and how close it is.
Anyway, I skim through the article and yes, the Corvette is ranks #2. Fine, I think, let's see where the Shelby beats the Corvette as it's got a lot more hp and tire.
Drag Stip: Shelby slower
At the track: Shelby slower
Hmmmm. So, where does the Shelby beat the Corvette if it's not faster on the street or track? I go right to the scoring. As it turns out, the Corvette beat it when summing up all the totals until I find at the very bottom of the list in its own category: Fun to Drive, where the Shebly gets a 25 and Corvette gets 22 so the Mustang can come out on top. Pretty lame.
I mean, I'm all for ranking the Shelby number one if it actually beat the Corvette but something like "fun to drive" which is totally subjective to make he Shelby come out on top so it could win the comparison is quite a let down.

 

[Somebuddy]

Were they at least comparing the Shelby with a Z06??

 

[Riley P]

No, it was a Z51. Nothing outside of a Nismo GTR or Viper GTS competes with the C7Z.

 

[Rruuff Day]

It's all about money. Readers buy magazines. The more readers the magazine has the more advertising the magazine sells. Enthusiasts love their mustangs, GTR's, Vipers, Challengers, Porsche, etc., They don't want to continuously hear about how great the new Corvette is and how it's dominating in almost every head to head story out there. The Corvette won this one in every category but C & D needed to run a headline that would sells issues to everyone, even if the dramatic front page statement was somewhat misleading. Thus the "fun to drive". My 1978 Blazer snowplow truck is fun to drive too.

Is it my imagination or does the mustang look about 7 months pregnant in that picture?

 

[Keith Tedford]

I haven't bought a magazine in years. Pay your money and you have car of the year. Pay your money and you win the shootouts. There was a time when the writers actually got grease on their hands building their own cars. Not much if any of that going on these days. Now they are just people out of a college with a degree in literature.

 

[Riley P]

My intent with my rant wasn't to knock the Mustang, but C&D and you're right, that's not the most flattering picture of a stunning car.
I totally agree the results seem money driven and whatever the flavor of the month is will win. If the Corvette had just come out, it would have won the shoot out.....however, (and I'm really not trying to be insulting here) the Corvette will and always should beat the Mustang (factory car to factory car). It's not because the Mustang isn't a good car. It's just that their simply in two different classes with the Corvette a little more sports car/luxury orientated and the Mustang a little more Pony car orientated.
It's too bad GM stopped making the Camaro for a few years because that was always the comparison. Mustang, Camaro/Trans Am, Challenger/Cuda, etc. That was the group. The Corvette was never in this mix because it's in a different category and the only car I can think of that really competed directly with it was the T-Bird....until Ford added two more seats and now the only direct competition is the Viper and Porsche(ish). But, as I was blabbing, when GM dumped the Camaro, everyone was looking for something to compare the Mustang against and the only thing GM had was the Corvette, so it unfortunately got dragged into that class and now younger people believe the Mustang is on the same level as the Corvette (Once again, I don't mean to insult the Mustang, it's a fantastic car, it's just that it was never designed to compete with the Corvette).
However, with that thought. The big news with this article is that the "blue collar" Mustang, beat the "white collar" Corvette and I guess we all like reading stories about the "underdog" winning. And really, if it did beat the Corvette, I would be happy for the Mustang as the Shelby GT350 is awesome, however, it didn't it in any performance category so I'm mostly confused and disappointed that it was still crowned as Americas "Sports car king". It sort of leaves the same taste in my mouth as if C&D told the David vs Goliath story yet Goliath beat David and David was still declared the winner because he had nicer clothes.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Or Wiley Coyote beating the roadrunner but the road runner being declared the winner cause if not, that would be the end of the story....

 

[vintageracer]

the only car I can think of that really competed directly with it was the T-Bird....until Ford added two more seats

Hey Riley! Don't forget my beloved '68 - '70 AMX 2 seaters with available engines up to 390 c.i.. They competed reasonably well against Corvettes in SCCA and Canadian equivalent B Production with their 343 c.i. engines and in A Production with the 390 .
David

 

[Riley P]

That is pretty cool David! Never even thought of those! Do you have any pics? I would love to see one!

 

[vintageracer]

I struggle with posting pics.... let's see if I can fumble something through.

 

[NW-99SS]

My intent with my rant wasn't to knock the Mustang, but C&D and you're right, that's not the most flattering picture of a stunning car.
I totally agree the results seem money driven and whatever the flavor of the month is will win. If the Corvette had just come out, it would have won the shoot out.....however, (and I'm really not trying to be insulting here) the Corvette will and always should beat the Mustang (factory car to factory car). It's not because the Mustang isn't a good car. It's just that their simply in two different classes with the Corvette a little more sports car/luxury orientated and the Mustang a little more Pony car orientated.
It's too bad GM stopped making the Camaro for a few years because that was always the comparison. Mustang, Camaro/Trans Am, Challenger/Cuda, etc. That was the group. The Corvette was never in this mix because it's in a different category and the only car I can think of that really competed directly with it was the T-Bird....until Ford added two more seats and now the only direct competition is the Viper and Porsche(ish). But, as I was blabbing, when GM dumped the Camaro, everyone was looking for something to compare the Mustang against and the only thing GM had was the Corvette, so it unfortunately got dragged into that class and now younger people believe the Mustang is on the same level as the Corvette (Once again, I don't mean to insult the Mustang, it's a fantastic car, it's just that it was never designed to compete with the Corvette).
However, with that thought. The big news with this article is that the "blue collar" Mustang, beat the "white collar" Corvette and I guess we all like reading stories about the "underdog" winning. And really, if it did beat the Corvette, I would be happy for the Mustang as the Shelby GT350 is awesome, however, it didn't it in any performance category so I'm mostly confused and disappointed that it was still crowned as Americas "Sports car king". It sort of leaves the same taste in my mouth as if C&D told the David vs Goliath story yet Goliath beat David and David was still declared the winner because he had nicer clothes.

The 6th gen SS Camaro with Mag ride is throwing better handling numbers down than the GT350 (non-R) and is already proving as fast and faster in the 1/4 stock than the GT350 - this is huge news as this is the base V8 Camaro against the best Mustang currently available. I'm going to say right now that the 1LE 6th Gen Camaro is going to hurt a lot of Shelby GT350 owner's feelings at both the strip and the road course.

 

[CARBON Z]

I have to say, Ford got it right with this Mustang GT 350R. Looks good, sounds good and the performance is getting there. I think it's only a matter of time before they start beating the Vettes on the road course!

They certainly beat at at one thing! Making carbon fibre wheels. Something Corvette should of done. Wake up GM!

 

[NW-99SS]

I agree the 350R is an exceptional car that hits all the right points for a Mustang. However, it can't keep up with a Z51 Stingray so the only Vette I see the "all-out" Mustang even coming close to on a road course is a base Stingray with no handling options...even then it would be lucky to run the same lap times, but doubtful it will best the Stingray.

I'm more curious how well the 6th gen 1LE will handle given the SS performance is standard form and with mag ride. Further to that, a 6th gen Z/28 could take the pony car handling limits to a completely new level as the 350R is basically on par with the 5th gen Z/28 or very slightly better (no tests have been conducted with both cars on fresh tires, so I don't think anyone can say the MT video is a valid comparison).

Agreed on the CF wheels on the 350R - who saw that coming!!

 

[Riley P]

Hey David! Thanks for posting up pics of the AMX! She's a beaut!!!

As for the 350R, I am really impressed with it. And you guys are right! Carbon wheels are nearly mind blowing on a production car. Almost as crazy is a V8 that rev's to 8,200 rpm! Anyway, I do have to retract a comment I made about C&D comparing the Mustang to the Corvette. They fully admit that it's not a normal comparison and I just jumped the gun. The only thing I don't really get is how everyone is going crazy over the magnetic shocks in the Mustang, as if it was a new technology??? I don't get it and I'd say if I didn't know better, I'd say they licensed that technology from GM.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what the 6th Gen Camaro does and how it compares to the 350R and what GM's response will be. I just hope GM realizes that Ford is coming out with the GT500 soon so they should be prepared for that...which I'm sure they will be, however, they didn't really do anything to compete with the GT500 when it was putting out 662hp. If I were to guess, the new GT500 will be pushing 750hp with a warranty....which is just stupid....in a good way.