For years, Chevrolet has followed a classic recipe for its sports cars. Some were of the traditional variety, while others were more akin to pony and muscle cars.
Today, there are just two representatives of these breeds left for us to buy. One would be the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro (starting at $26,100), and the other is the C8 Corvette Stingray ($64,500 starting MSRP) or Z06 ($105,300). So, you need to have a Camaro at hand to oppose the pony or muscle car Detroit rivals, such as the legendary Ford Mustang because now ‘America’s sports car’ is much more European and flaunts a mid-engine lifestyle.
Alternatively, you could go back to any preceding generation of the Chevy Corvette to prepare for a classic ‘Sports vs. Muscle car’ brawl, or two, or even three. Well, no worries, there is no need to take our word for granted, as we have an eloquent example (or two) to show you. The initial feature comes from the videographer behind the Wheels channel on YouTube, who is known as a big fan of ‘Thunder Mountain’ - aka the Bandimere Speedway quarter-mile dragstrip located near Morrison and Lakewood in Colorado.
There, he set up the cameras just right for a series of Ford Mustang GT skirmishes against the next-best Corvette with a front engine and RWD – the C7 iteration. First, the perspective is properly set up by a white-and-black Stingray that meets a matching S550 Ford Mustang GT. Well, Blue Oval fans had better look away from this one, as even though their favorite took off a little better (and possibly red-lighted the Christmas tree), the C7 quickly caught up and posted a flawless 12.39s versus 14.22s victory.
Next up, from the 1:14 mark, things arguably got a lot tougher for a different black-and-white Corvette, as the latter had to duke it out with a thoroughly modified S-197 II Ford Mustang that looked not only dark and menacing but also ready to rock Thunder Mountain. Alas, it was much ado about nothing, as the C7 stormed out of its place and posted an 11.01s ET against the opponent’s 11.51s result. Oh, wait, this one went the other way, as the track lights decided the all-black ‘Stang deserved the laurels.
After this ‘oops’ moment, the next and final skirmish of the day (from the 2:10 mark) was between a black C7 Chevy Corvette ZR1 and a silver fifth-generation Ford Mustang. Naturally, the louvered coupe had absolutely no chance of winning, and the ZR1 blasted an 11.53s victory against its 14.48s ET. Now, if you really want something feisty from the Blue Oval side, the second video embedded below, from D.R.A.C.S., presents us with the quick story of a tuned Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 breaking into the high nines at 140 mph/225 kph.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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