New Camaro vs Mustang matchup
 

Predictably, Ford fanboys in the comments keep complaining about how the author can't shift and that's the only reason the Camaro won :D

That and the MT82 is just a bad transmission compared to the Tremec. But have heard some mustangs do have the Tremecs in them now or as an option or something.

The GT350, Mach 1 and Dark Horse have the TR-3160, which is the same transmission used in the V6/i4 Camaro. Only the 2010+ S197 GT500 had the TR-6060.

I'm not a mustang fan whatsoever but I really like the look of the new ones. Probably because they resemble a Camaro.

so a new mustang still can't beat an 8 year old camaro?

is this 2008?

The Mustang is also basically 8 years old too. It's really more of an extensive refresh than a completely new generation. They're plenty capable, but it also doesn't help comparing an SS 1LE vs a base GT. Throttle House did the opposite (Dark Horse vs LT1) and the results were also the opposite of this video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mq7gj1bHys

The best apples to apples comparison would be a 2024 1SS Camaro to a standard 2024 GT Mustang. A 1SS is a little faster than a 1LE in a straight line, and should beat the Mustang a hair more than the 1LE did. The Dark Horse is a different matter, as it's 500 HP, if GM upped the final year 6th gen to 500 hp it would walk a Dark Horse. A final year 500hp 6th gen would have really stolen the Dark Horse's thunder.

Not even close to apples to apples.


The SS 1LE adds no power advantage over the base SS. The LT1 through the 2SS 1LE have the same horsepower. If anything, a stripped down LT1 might have done better if it resulted in a lower weight. Unless running a road course, there's no advantage of running the SS 1LE against the GT.



The dark horse should have been compared with the SS1LE as both are more track optimized.

Yes, you agree with me. What are you suggesting? It's fair when an SS 1LE beats a base model GT but not when a Dark Horse beats an LT1? Both the LT1 and base GT are on tiny 245 all season rear tires and were raced against their "track package" equivalents with 305's and significantly better suspension setups. It's no surprise that both lost when matched against better equipped counterparts.

The dark horse is doing that enough by itself.

Some data out there shows it losing to older gen mustangs.

The Camaro has 74k km (45k miles) compared to a 1400km (800 mile) nearly new S650. So who gets the advantage here?

Indeed, it doesn't seem to be as popular as they expected. IMO they reached their pinnacle with the GT 350R. It's a stunning car that has everything, looks, performance, sound, and unlimited smiles per mile.

Watching the roll vs drag race, it didnt look like the tires made a big difference for the SS 1LE vs the GT. The cars wound up with about the same gap between them at the end in the 2 races won by the SS 1LE. I guess maybe smaller tires on the SS could have caused the GT to be closer to the SS 1LE from a dig? I dont think subbing another model in this scenario has an impact so I think its fair. Sam seems to believe the Camaro makes up the most ground because of the rev match shifting. I havent a clue if this feature is available on the LT1 so in that regard, maybe we do agree IF the LT1 TH used doesnt have rev match.

Reading "They're plenty capable, but it also doesn't help comparing an SS 1LE vs a base GT." sounds as if there is a significant advantage to using the SS 1LE.

TH doing the opposite with the LT1 vs Dark Horse? I think tire might very well have a bigger impact here since the DH has a completely different compound tire vs the LT1, allowing it to launch better based on the roll race being much closer than the dig. Adding the weight of the SS 1LE would have put the Camaro farther behind in the roll race.

Overall, it does suck that most of these videos dont seem to ever get the matchups quite right.