[G8rGrl]

Full review @ What's the Best V-8 Muscle Car for 2016?

Americans always have loved muscle cars, and they love muscle cars with big V-8 engines. With gas below $2 a gallon in many places, there might not be a better time to buy one. We tested muscle cars with V-8 monsters. They provided plenty of thrills, plenty of noise and lots to talk about.

The contenders:

• 2016 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS
• 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack
• 2016 Ford Mustang GT

We flexed these muscle cars in a week's worth of testing:

• We put them on a racetrack outside of Phoenix to see how well they performed in zero-to-60-mph tests, quarter-mile times and speeds, and 60-mph-to-zero braking distance tests.
• We drove them on a 130-mile real-world mileage course in and around Phoenix.
• We had our judges drive them back-to-back-to-back on the same pavement to evaluate ride, handling, comfort, acceleration and more.
• We brought in an in-market shopper to test the cars for ride, handling, acceleration and more.

From all of the points we awarded in those tests, we found our winner. Our judges were:

• Aaron Bragman, Cars.com Detroit bureau chief
• Joe Bruzek, Cars.com senior road test editor
• Joe Wiesenfelder, Cars.com executive editor
• Brian Robinson, PBS' "MotorWeek" producer
• Jason Kadah, our in-market shopper. In the interest of transparency, Kadah owned a Mustang years ago, but he promised prior to his involvement that he would judge the cars without bias.

The scoring broke down this way:

• 48 percent from the judges' scoring
• 30 percent from the track tests
• 12 percent from our shopper
• 10 percent from the mileage drive

The Camaro won!

Read more at https://www.cars.com/articles/whats-...zw6UWg8KGYQ.99






2016 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS, 816 points

The Verdict: "The Camaro SS is the surprise in this test, demonstrating remarkable civility, comfort and user friendliness on the street, and eye-popping capability when raced on a racetrack," Bragman said, "with only its poor brake feel and lack of head and trunk space counting against it."

What They Liked

Performance: "The 6.2-liter engine is the sweet spot between the more modest Ford 5.0-liter and the Dodge's brute-force 6.4-liter V-8, with great power off the line and all the way up," Wiesenfelder said. It should be noted that the SS swept all three performance tests and still won the top prize for fuel economy to boot. "The V-8 always responds with a burst of acceleration no matter what engine speed, vehicle speed or gear is chosen," Bruzek said. "It's solid, grips well and has instant response from the accelerator," Kadah said. Out of the three, "the SS is the easiest to drive fast with little effort required to achieve the fastest acceleration times," Bruzek noted. He was the track driver for all of the performance tests.

Handling: "Its handling and steering precision have a feel more similar to a Chevy Corvette than any of the other muscle cars," Bruzek said. "The excellent steering, balance and road-holding raises the Camaro above the level of muscle car and into the realm of sports cars," Wiesenfelder said.

Exhaust note: "With its active exhaust, the SS sounds great when you want it to, without being overly rumbly when you don't," Wiesenfelder said. "I almost want to turn down the radio and just listen to the exhaust," Kadah said.

Worth the upgrade: "Of all the V-8s, the SS is the one that stands apart from its V-6 counterpart the most," Robinson said. "The aggressive front end clues everyone in that you're rolling with the big boy under the hood."

And...: "The transmission's active rev-matching feature is wonderful on the track," Robinson said. "Excellent driver comfort, just the right combination of sporting seat position and adjustability for multiple body types," Bragman said. "There would never be a boring day driving this car," Kadah said.


What They Didn't

Brakes: "The numbers may look good," Wiesenfelder said, "but the brake pedal is mushy and seriously nonlinear." "They feel much too soft for a car like this," Bragman said, "with no confidence-inspiring initial bite at all."
Lack of space: Kadah found the backseat, uh, snug. "Wow, this hurts. And I'm a short guy," he said. Then, thinking positively, he added, "it makes me feel tall! I'm psyched." He was kidding. "The backseat and cargo room make compromises you shouldn't have to in a four-seater that isn't a dedicated weekend-duty sports car," Bruzek added. And Robinson found "the driver's area is incredibly cramped."

Visibility: "The super-high beltline combines with the low roof to make visibility the worst of all the cars here," Bragman said. Several judges agreed. "The Camaro is consistently criticized for its rearward visibility, but it's the compromised forward sightlines that are a liability both on the street and on the racetrack, especially when there are elevation changes," Wiesenfelder said.
Poor interior quality: "It definitely looks cool," Kadah said, "but it has a more plasticky feel than the Challenger." "The SS interior comes up short on material quality against the Mustang and Challenger, even with a few nicer touches on the inside compared with the Camaro 1LT," Bruzek said.

And...: "The V-8 feels strong, but it doesn't have the immediacy of the Challenger's Hemi," Bragman said. "It'll pull, but you have to specifically ask it to pull." "It has the smallest trunk opening with a high lift-over that makes loading and unloading a chore," Robinson said. "The hyperactive skip-shift feature that forces the stick from 1st to 4th gear is an abomination that outweighs whatever enjoyment you get from the active rev-matching incorporated in this transmission," Wiesenfelder said.

Read more at https://www.cars.com/articles/whats-...DHSElA2vcZy.99

[SPARTAN sui]

I must not know what good interior quality is, they make it sound like they made no improvements to the interior. Also I'm not sure what they're talking about with acceleration, to me it feels like it only takes a small amount of pressure to get it going. Then again I leave my car in sport mode for the sound and acceleration.

Fun read even with the negatives. I wouldn't mind a Challenger, it would make a real fun road trip car for more than two people. I almost went with a challenger before they announced the 6th gen, the B5 blue and shaker hood are gorgeous. I still picked the right car for me, thankfully.

[Tr6]

Good read. I do find the "poor interior" hilarious though. Maybe the dudes are used to driving in Maybachs.

[ChefBorOzzy]

How is it that much faster than the Mustang when Mustang has all that awesome torque multiplication?

How does it handle better than Mustang when Camaro has a horrible track ratio?

[ChefBorOzzy]

Camaro is faster, handles better, and gets 10 percent better fuel economy.. And weighs 80 pounds less than a Mustang equipped with Recaros and a Mustang with a smaller gas tank!! How are these things possible? Okie, I'm done.. Good showing for the Camaro across the board for performance.

[JoeAyalaM]

Does the Mustang have a better interior quality than the Camaro?

I don't think so, at least it does not feel that way to me.

[Jeremeymt]

Notice the price as tested are all pretty close to each other (with the Dodge being the most expensive). I am happy to see they didn't get completely fully loaded models pushing $50k just so we have to hear more people complain how much more a Camaro is to a comparable mustang.

[6th Gen SS]

Acceleration: "The camaro pulls all the way down the track, just embarrassing the rest of the cars here!"

That's all you need know!

[hotlap]

Originally Posted by ChefBorOzzy

How is it that much faster than the Mustang when Mustang has all that awesome torque multiplication?

How does it handle better than Mustang when Camaro has a horrible track ratio?

"The V-8 always responds with a burst of acceleration no matter what engine speed, vehicle speed or gear is chosen. Out of the three, "the SS is the easiest to drive fast with little effort required to achieve the fastest acceleration time"

No replacement for displacement...and direct injection.

[huggercamaro21]

Originally Posted by ChefBorOzzy

How is it that much faster than the Mustang when Mustang has all that awesome torque multiplication?

How does it handle better than Mustang when Camaro has a horrible track ratio?

They must not have pushed the right button to really utilize all the torque manipulation. That is how that one guy got his stock M6 GT to a 12.2........

[SS 1LE]

Anybody notice their 1/4 mile time for the SS? That is the best time from a manual test I have seen...12.3, which ties the best automatic test that Car and Driver got. Impressive...

Funny thing is their 0-60 is the worst, so that tells me the car had even more potential, and it was a heavier 2SS.

[Mr. Wyndham]

The price points are interesting, too....it doesn't really support the claim of the $50,000 way-too-expensive Camaro...

[hotlap]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wyndham

The price points are interesting, too....it doesn't really support the claim of the $50,000 way-too-expensive Camaro...

Exactly. Just because the SS is available with options unavailable on the other like NPP, MRC, etc. doesn't mean you must select them

[ULTRAZLS1]

GM paid them off too.

They don't perform in the real world.