Quote:
Originally Posted by Pharmacist
mustangs? bleh. still a straight line wonder. as they have always been. regardless of data on paper, they won't be as nimble and precise as sports cars like the 370z. they still are plagued by heavy weight, uneven weight distribution, and poor chassis and suspension design. perhaps on longer tracks with lots of straight lines the mustang will be competitive. but on more handling oriented and technical tracks the mustang will still lag behind the z. here, check it out. Top Gear test track - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 370z has a laptime of 1 min 27.5 sec on top gear test track. the roush mustang has a time of 1 min 28 sec and the shelby gt500 has a lousy 1 min 30 sec. do you think the 2011 mustang v8 will be any better than the roush or shelby?
by the way, comparing a v6 with a v8 is comparing apples to oranges. a more appropriate comparison is to the v6 mustang. even with the 2011 power upgrade, the z still wins in both straight line and track.
anyway, enough mustang bashing for today. |
I don't think you are Mustang bashing...however I can say that what some folks believe is based on a lack of information about the suspension and steering configurations of Mustangs between various 2005 and 2010 models.
The Shelby GT500 did not have the same rear end suspension and steering configuration as the Roush did. In fact the Roush Mustang had the identical rear end suspension and steering configuration as the 2007 and 2008 Shelby GT (which is not the GT500). And it was the Roush Mustang with the identical 2007 and 2008 Shelby GT (not GT500) suspension and steering configuration that did indeed
out-handle the 370Z on the worst curve on a special head-to-head slalom course test performed in Great Britain last summer of 2009 which was caught on video (and later used by Roush as a promotion) and I believe presented on the Roush site (and YouTube) at one time. I think it is the test you noted in your Wiki reference.
The most interesting thing about the video is that the driver of the various cars was at one time in the past an original muscle-era GT500 owner and thought the new GT500's being much better designed that the original GT500's would dominate the newly introduced 370Z. Instead the 2007/08 GT500 was dominated by the 370Z in all the runs. The 2007 GT500 just could NOT hold the curves of the track and failed miserably. However, once this proved to be the case the man put the 370Z against the Roush Mustang 427R thinking the same would happen. And to his surprise he found that the Roush repeatedly came very close to beating the 370Z in the slalom course. The difference between the 2007 GT500 and the Roush was that the Roush had the same steering and suspension as the Shelby GT (not the GT500).
It wasn't until 2010 that the Shelby GT500 was given the same suspension and steering configuration as the Shelby GT (and Roush Mustang). Also the Ford production 2010 Mustang GT is the first time the regular production GT ever received this same Shelby GT suspension and steering configuration which caused the 370Z to be nearly out-handled on the slalom course.
So your straight line thoughts may have been true for Ford production GT's and GT500's between 2005 and 2009 but it is no longer a thought or reason that can just be so leisurely assumed any more. I'd like to see the test against the 370Z redone now that the 2010 Shelby GT500 has the same suspension as the Shelby GT and Roush.