Matt Farah knows what he is talking about. And he knows how to drive. I was out at Fontana with Matt and 50 other auto journalist types and he won the autocross competition, even beating Joe Gearin from Grassroots Motorsports, who is a top notch autocrosser.
I've driven the new Camaro, Mustangs and 392 Challengers on the track. The Mustang is the best track car hands down--I don't know anyone who would disagree. And the Boss Mustang will hurt M3s.
Mike Musto, who is participating in this thread, has driven all of those cars and more. He is a great driver and a track instructor. His choice for his personal car for the track? A Mustang GT. And he also owns a heavily built/modified Charger/Daytona clone. Easily a six figure car. I've driven his car and it's awesome--but it's still a freaking antique. And I know Mike agrees.
Hotchkis has done some great stuff with the old Mopars. I'm sure they could do some great stuff with a Model T, too. But at the end of the day these are antiques. Enjoy them for what they are but don't try to compare them to the new stuff.
Dollar for dollar give me a lightly used Mustang GT with a supercharger and some Griggs stuff. I've seen what those cars can do and it is sick.
And guess what, the new C7 Vette will crush everything.
Matt hit a lot of key points in that video that I would highlight two- -Given more time in the Challenger he would have been quicker -The Mustang had too much power.
I feel like we are beating a dead horse with this one, and there are not too many different ways to tell the same story. The Challenger takes a few laps, and even more under instruction to get confident and fast in it. The car has pretty much the best brakes in any car you'll ever drive short of a Ferrari on Carbon Ceramic, the turn in characteristics are unreal and most importantly, the car likes to rotate and be driven in a four wheel drift, and is very controllable if you know what you are doing. If you are a podcast/youtube guy given a 70k car, that is NOT what you do in your first session out. We had one of those guys offered the keys after I took him for a ride to show him the line and the car (talking him through 5-6 laps) and once he got in, we were 2 wheels off twice before our second lap was done. I pulled the plug. Newer Camaors and Mustangs are great cars out of the box, and with our track packs will out drive most street tires easily. They hook up well on corner exit and provide an outstanding squat characteristic allowing great corner exit speed, and the newer V8's don't hurt. Most of these cars are putting down 340-370rwhp stock, where the Challenger is a mere 307rwhp. All things being fair, all the cars Camaro, Challenger (new and old) and Mustangs, can be built to "spec" within about 10k of each other, and all be really fun to drive. The biggest thing that our kits do and Matt attested to, is take the slop and "boatiness" out of the car, allowing the driver to drive the car more confidently. All that aside, I'll be putting in 20-30 laps at Buttonwillow in our 65 Mustang R&D car next Thursday, and I guarantee I'll be having a blast!
