Quote:
Originally Posted by Pharmacist
Again, I'm not debating that. I have no doubt the new mustang has very good handling and is no slouch. And I wouldn't be surprised if it understeers less than the Z. After all it does have a square set up. You get 255 mm tires all over, which are quite large for front tires, but on the skinny side for rear tires. I actually think 245 mm are too skinny for front tires on the z, especially given the forward weight bias. That may be responsible for much of the understeer. 255 or even 265 mm fronts may be better.
I still don't think the mustang can carry as much momentum through corners as the z. If it laps a track on average at the same time as the z, give or take a second or so, then it has to be losing time somewhere given that it gains a lot of time over the z on the straights. I don't remember the C&D article. I'll check it when I go home. I do remember that in the recent DSport RWD car of the year, the mustang was a bit slower than the z, and actually was even slower than the camaro ss. Can't remember which track they did the testing though.
|
I wouldn't put too much faith into the DSport article. They have quite a notorious slant. If they are going to compare the 370 to the 5.0, the 370 will win regardless.
The C&D article is much more objective and the testing data is interesting. For instance, the Mustang actually had the lowest body roll angle of all of the cars tested. The Miata had the highest.
Also, regarding losing time in the corners, the Mustang and 370Z had the
exact same lap time with the straightaways removed at 63.3 seconds each.
For all intents and purposes, the cars are dead even stock-vs-stock in the corners, which supports everything I can tell after having spent quite a bit of time with both cars.