[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

I didn't post this to just talk about mustangs, but C6 Z06s, ZR-1s, Gen 5 ZL-1s, Chevy SSs, ATS-Vs, hell, CTS-V wagons, and so on. GM has been far more serious about performance car development and is far more consistent at putting out a well rounded machine. This is a paradigm shift from what they put out in the 2000s, 90s and before. They put out stuff that was a complete joke compared to performance cars from Europe and even a lot of the snappy handling Japanese sedans and small cars. It seemed like all they could do was make a solid-rear axle overweight soft-car with an auto-trans and low-compression V8, etc.

As cool as the GT350 is, Ford just can't seem to touch the performance car development that GM is into these days. I wouldn't hold out for the GT500, it would really have to be so much faster than anything GM has to bring back some of that credibility, remembering that if they dump enough money into it where it's faster and more expensive than a ZL1-1LE, then there's always the ZR-1 that is a monster, and Ford doesn't even have a chassis to compete with that as far as we know.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a Camaro response to the GT500. The GT500 will exist because Ford does not have a stand-alone response to Corvette. They are forced to stretch the product line to cover everything from budget sporty car to hi-performance GT sports car to sub-exotic track monster with one basic platform. Chevrolet can cover most of the ground with Camaro, allow for some overlap with Corvette (ZL1 / Grand Sport / Z06) and then top it off with a wild ZR1. The GT500 is aimed at the ZR1. That's why the timing of this "leak". A couple weeks after the ZR1 US unveiling.