Okay, so this may be a little far off from being a comparison, but it’s worth a short anyway. The 2011 Ford Mustang GT was released last week, and all the talk was, “Is this going to beat the Camaro?” No real talk about the Challenger, because while it’s good, it’s not much competition to the two real sports cars.
The current SS Camaro has a 6.2-liter V8 that makes 426hp and 420lb-ft of torque, which is more than the new 5.0-liter Mustang GT’s at 412hp and 390lb-ft of torque. Advantage: Camaro SS. But, let’s really work this out.
The new Camaro SS weighs over 3800lbs, against the Mustang GT which will weigh in around 3600lbs. Advantage: Mustang
The SS Camaro doesn’t have navigation, which would also exclude it from having a back-up camera. Both of which are options on the Mustang. Advantage: Mustang
The 2010 Mustang GT has a base price of $27,995, while the new SS starts at $30,745. Even if the new 2011 Mustang GT goes up by $2,000, it’ll still be less than the new Camaro of similar value. 2010MY Advantage: Mustang. As a side note, though, I do believe that the new 5.0 Mustang will reach roughly $31,xxx base, so that could eventually be a Camaro advantage.
The 0-60 times are where it gets really interesting. The new Camaro SS will fly past 60 mph in 4.6-seconds. The 2010 Mustang GT takes a little longer at 4.8-seconds. Still, though, that doesn’t make for much ground that the new 2011 GT has to cover with 97 more horsepower and 65 more torque. Ford rates the 2010 Mustang GT at 315hp and 325lb-ft of torque, but I’m told from the insiders from the Mustang team that the current 4.6-liter V8 actually makes 325hp and 345lb-ft of torque. That’s 10 extra horsepower and 20 extra torque from what Ford admits to. If we apply this same logic to the 5.0-liter V8 for the 2011 Mustang GT, that makes 422hp and 410lb-ft of torque. That’s much closer to the Camaro’s 426hp and 420lb-ft of torque. Oh, and let’s not forget that the Mustang will still weigh, at the very least, 200 pounds LESS than the SS Camaro.
What’s my prediction on the 0-60 of the new 5.0-liter Ford Mustang GT? Well, I’ll tell you: 4.4-seconds. I’m just throwing it out there… Maybe I’m right, and well, maybe I’m wrong. But, I’ll tell you this now, I haven’t been wrong too often whenever I’ve made performance estimates. I estimated that the E9x M3 would be as fast as it is, and the same with the 335i BMW. I’ve made so many performance predictions that turned out to be correct that it’s not even funny. So, I really hope I’m in the ball park with the new Mustang GT.
Just for fun, I went on and built a 2010 Mustang GT and a 2010 Camaro SS. Fully loaded (without sunroof or rear-view camera options), the Mustang came in at $38,808. And outfitting the Camaro with pretty much every option, save for a sunroof, just like the Mustang, it will cost you $43,520.
Let’s break this down, shall we? The new, fully-loaded 5-liter GT would have to grow in price of $4,442 in order to cost as much as a fully loaded Camaro SS. Pricing has yet to be released for the new GT, but it will be once it’s debuted at the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month.
Before we get our final pricing and information on the 2011 Mustang GT 5.0, I’ll leave you with images of both cars to decide for yourselves. Expect the muscle car wars to heat up in 2010. And with that, maybe Chrysler will finally get the hint and move the Challenger from luxury barge to sports car.
-Josh
“Happy Motoring!”
[Source: Ford Vehicles, Chevrolet]
