GT350 vs 1LE my thoughts..
 

I don't know if anyone has posted about it but now owning both cars, for different reasons, I thought I would share my experiences with the two.



I will start off by saying they are optioned completely different so some parts are just due to that.



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The Shelby.



2016 GT350 Track Pack.


This is a second year car, when they were doing all the different, base, track, electronics, R, and R with A/C packages. Ordered to be setup as a track car it does not have navigation, or a lot of the features you would find on most of the 5.0 cars. It has all of the coolers, bigger sway bars, mag ride, strut tower brace and all of those goodies in it. It does have the Recaro seats as well.



This is still one of my absolute favorite cars to drive. For a four seat pony car it handles like a Vette, stops on a dime, little body roll, very responsive and the sound from the exhaust (even stock) is intoxicating to be around. Because of the seats, it wouldn't be that much fun as a daily because they are so deep and all of the controls are manual. Feels great once you are in it but you want to stay for a bit once you are there.



City driving. The splitter is a bit lower than the Camaro even though it doesn't seem to stick out as far (I haven't measured it from the axle center line) but it scrapes on everything. The drive way, bumps in the road, speed bumps, dips.....really have to watch what you are doing with it because of this. I was worried about the Camaro since the Shelby scraped going in the drive, but looking at them side by side...I see why.



Controls are nice and I really like having all of the mode selections on the wheel. Shock control, mode select, steering control....all are on the wheel and can be adjusted separately from the mode the car is actually in. The base radio is horrible and the little 3" screen for backup camera is a joke at best...but again if you don't have to worry about it on track..who cares.



Steering feel is right on point for a track car. It loves to follow ruts in the road so keep both hands on the wheel at all times.

Mileage is shit...I haven't ever seen better than 17.5mpg..if anyone cares.

I have had zero issues with the car since I ordered it new. Car doesn't use any oil, hasn't had a filter come off, or blown up after 6k miles or so of mixed use. Only mods are the Ford catch cans.



If you have the chance to drive one, take it for a spin...hell of a lot of fun but not something I would daily drive..nor did I intend to.





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The 1LE.



2020 2SS 1LE.



I bought the car to daily and that is what it will be used for. So far I can say I'm pretty darn happy with it. It is a more loaded car being a 2SS so it has a bit more comfort features that the Shelby doesn't have. Heated/cooled seats, better stereo, rear view cam, back up cam, memory recall, PDR.....


Seats, almost as supportive as the Shelby but not quite the same. Easier to get in and out of for sure. Cooling function is nice but unless you are in a t-shirt it doesn't seem like you can feel anything from it much coming out.



Info system. Colors, display, features...all very cool and look way more expensive than the setup in the Shelby. I like the fact you can setup a drive mode with it so long as you leave it in that mode but I miss not having a quick button on the dash to change say the ride if I have it in sport mode to a soft shock on a bad road quickly. To hard to go through the menu on the dash while driving. Features and display on the dash is nice. It would be cool to have a diff temp as well as a wide band factory like the Shelby.


Mileage...about the same in town as the Shelby, but highway is quite a bit better.



Sound....good, but not nearly as crazy as the Shelby. Sounds more like the muscle car it is.



TORQUE. The Shelby feels faster, and probably is slightly but the 1LE just doesn't care what gear its in and goes with out asking it to do much. For a daily this is nice as you don't have to go shifting all the time going through traffic, just throttle and go.



Brakes...while it might stop well on paper (haven't hit the track yet), it doesn't feel like it has the bite or pedal of the Shelby. If I had one disappointment it was here.



PDR...I love this thing. Why Ford didn't have this on the Shelby's I have no idea but I made sure I had to order this one on the 1LE.


Modes....this is one section I think Ford did a little better too. The Shelby radically changes how it feels and behaves in the different modes....the Camaro not so much. You can tell there is a different throttle map, and the suspension changes slightly...and the steering does a lot but over all it doesn't seem to really change that much.







In the end...I think they are very cool cars to have and to have either of these cars come right out of the factory like they are is amazing. If you are on the fence between either...go drive one of each and see what you think would fit your needs the best.

Love that green. Nice write up. Enjoy!

Nice write up ,
What’s the price difference between them ?

Awesome non biased write up.
I’m honestly kinda surprised the Shelby follows ruts in the road. I have a ZL1 1LE so my front tires are 305s. I have absolutely no tramlining in the car. If the car followed a rut I haven’t felt it yet.

The sound of those Shelby’s is intoxicating. They sound awesome. Your a lucky person to have both. Enjoy my friend✌️

I think you can get them now without the crazy markups, so...

45% - 50% more for a non-R GT350 (~$20 - 25K more)?

Thanks for the awesome write-up! I was between these two when I was looking this year and wound up with the 1LE, but I have to say I still get a little weak in the knees everytime I hear a GT350.

One thing I will note is that I was initially also underwhelmed by the brakes on my '19 1LE until I got them good and hot and fully bedded. Now they're as good as anything I've ever driven.

I enjoyed the write up and direct comparison. I'd love to get another comparison once you get the 1LE on the track.

I bought the 1LE because I didn't have gt350 money. Now, after a year of (daily driving) ownership, I'm not sure I could be convinced to get the gt350 even if I did have the funds! The 1LE is just so capable...There is, however, no substitute for the great exhaust note from the voodoo engine.

I'd say the ability to stay out more than 5 laps without limp mode more than makes up for the sound, but ymmv.

Mine is a track car...so it has trans, diff, engine oil coolers on it. Car has no problems in Texas heat being out all day long.



But yeah for those early cars with the Tech package, that sucks for them. Ford made it std in '17 and newer to have the trans/diff coolers on it.

I was lucky and got the 2016 at MSRP which was a little over $60k...$60,665 or something like that. Sticker on the 1LE was $51,615 but GM has a lot of rebates on it and Britain Chevy was amazing to deal with so I paid a good bit less for it than that.

I was at an autox race on Saturday, there was a gt350r there... looks and sounds amazing, it had an expert driver and RE71s, it was very fast.

I never considered one though, too much $ and I don't really trust Ford's ability to make the car reliable. I prefer the LT1 all things considered.

I would love to hear more about the handling and damping between the two.

Both have magride, but are probably "tuned" differently software wise. Does one feel more confident inspiring than the other.

For me coming from an 16' M3, everything was better in the 1LE EXCEPT the rear-end side to side sway from the rubber rear cradle bushings. I added the ZL1 1LE solid rear cradle bushings and it made all the difference.

Having owned both, I can say I agree with most of what the OP says, with these further points:

1. The paint and assembly quality of my ‘16 GT350 was abysmal. In fact, I turned down the first one I ordered because of the runs in the paint, thin spots where you could see the primer and thumbprints in the putty around the back window where the workers tried to hide the fact that the rear window didn’t fit properly. This was the car that invented the term “paint boogers” - dozens paint drips on many edges, including over the headlights, along the hood, the bottoms of the doors, etc. - that broke off if you even touched them lightly, exposing bare metal. After Ford sent two engineers to look at it, they gave the dealer the choice of returning the car to Dearborn, where it would be repainted and used in the press pool, or keeping it. The dealer kept it and ended up repainting more than half the body before selling it (with full disclosure to the buyer). The replacement GT350 was much better, although small areas of paint on the passenger door came off the first time I washed it. I only got to drive it for 4 or 5 months, because it was subject to the loose oil cooler line recall. Then I had to park the car for 5 months until the parts arrived, and I got it fixed and traded it for an M2 the next day. The GT350 was an amazing vehicle to drive in anger (that sound!), but I feel badly for Carrol Shelby’s reputation because this is the last vehicle he had anything to do with.

2. The quality of my ‘18 1SS 1LE is head-and-shoulders above the GT350, but the rear vision is as unacceptably bad as everyone says it is, and the interior is a little tighter than the Mustang’s. I can’t, for example recline the driver’s seat as far as I want to, because Chevrolet has pinned the seat back to keep it from hitting the rear seat - which in all reality is just an upholstered package shelf. I like the mode controls better in the Camaro and can feel a significant difference between them; the shocks feel a little more compliant and in-control than the ones in the GT350 to my butt dyno. The 1LE is a little easier and more comfortable to drive in anger - it won’t surprise you once the line is set, like the Mustang can - so the 1LE is a better (and for me, a slightly faster) track car. However, the 6.2 sounds like every other Chevy small block in heat, and it doesn’t provide nearly the aural orgasm the GT350 delivers.

3. At local Cars and Coffee events and other, larger car shows, the 1LE always draws more attention than the GT350 ever did. One reason may be that for $15,000 less the Camaro is viewed as being more attainable for the average enthusiast. I was surprised by this, because I thought the Shelby name would be magic.

4. Given the choice, I would buy the 1LE again, mostly because the quality lapses in the GT350 scared me. I can drive 150 in anything, go hot-air ballooning and hang out of the basket or even vote in a presidential election, but I’ll never drive a new Mustang again because they scare the crap out of me. YMMV.

That green......


:thumbup: