Ford Went After The Wrong Chevy with The GT350 (who cares about track?)

[50blackout]

I think the big thing that strikes me is the "...a zl1 will walk away from it, a hell cat will stomp it, a gt500 will walk way from it." If you ever have driven a TVS car on the track you will know that it will pull massive amounts of timing (power) because of heat soak. Also take into account reliability of supercharged engines. Supercharged engines are great for the street and strip, but you are putting such strain on FI engine when you run around a track on a 90 degree day for hours on end. There's a reason all the track model cars from different manufactures (Boss 302, 911 GT3, Z28, GT350) are NA.

Also, look at what C7 Z06 owners are complaining about when their cars get heat soaked (and pretty easily I might add): no more 650hp (sure they are probably getting 500, but if i paid 80k-90k id like to have my 650 hp after more than just 2 runs)

Anyway, that's why we have so many different types of performance cars to fulfill everyone tastes. Also, getting 530 hp out of 5.2 litres is pretty darn good.

 

[tt335ci03cobra]

Ford built the gt350 to replace the mid level segment previously held by the boss, bullet, and mach1.

GT as base
Gt350 (boss, mach1, etc) as mid
Gt500 as freeway king of the road

Chevy did it pretty similar

SS as base
1le as mid
Zl1 as king of the road, but ford out did that performance wise arguably.

The z28 gets battled by the gt350r. It's now a 4 point segment line.

Throw in flavors line anniversary packages, black out packages, etc for variety, but the basic argument the op presented is invalid.

 

[tt335ci03cobra]

It's a new generation (s550). Almost no name plate from camaro to 911 has its best models out at launch. The new ss is just announced, I haven't seen many words on 1le, zl1, z28, or other lines yet. Go figure. The beasts come out tale end of model life span. It's called marketing and it's what makes profit which keeps cars continually on the road for 51 years vs a hiatus and movies...

 

[ON D BIT]

Take a look at Porsche. Turbo S vs GT3....which one holds its value better? It's not the Turbo. Why, to feel the soul of driving you need to go around corners!

I'm driving a 2700lb 200hp car now and it's the most fun driving I've ever had! I'm slowing down on the straights so that I have more room in the corners. It's not a go cart it's damn roller coaster every day!

 

[DSG2003SVT]

I'm driving a 2700lb 200hp car now and it's the most fun driving I've ever had!

Fiesta ST?! Haha!

 

[ON D BIT]

Fiesta ST?! Haha!

Its a blast to drive!

 

[az20115.0]

I'd rather be king of the road than king of track.

then you should't buy a gt350

 

[Lemers]

I'd rather be a Track Star than a Drag Queen

 

[az20115.0]

also, just because Porsche makes a 911 carrera, 911 tubo, and 911 trubo S which will outrun just about anything short of a $1million+ hypercar, does that mean it should not make a 911 gt3 or a Cayman gt4? if it didn't, the world would be a much more boring place, even if most of us will only get to see it on youtube.. thank you Ford for making the gt350, than you Porsche for making the gt3, and thank you Chevy for making the Z28.. now lets see who wins!

 

[DSG2003SVT]

Its a blast to drive!

Oh, wow. That's kind of sad. I was just guessing based on your comments. I need to find something better to do with my time than read about cars. Our Focus ST is as much fun to drive as my 2013 GT was, so I know what you mean. Really, the sound of the engine is the biggest reason that I liked the Mustang over the ST.

 

[VRYALT3R3D]

OP is Hellcat's target market.

 

[KWClutch]

I have one on the way..... NO RAGRETS.

 

[ON D BIT]

Oh, wow. That's kind of sad. I was just guessing based on your comments. I need to find something better to do with my time than read about cars. Our Focus ST is as much fun to drive as my 2013 GT was, so I know what you mean. Really, the sound of the engine is the biggest reason that I liked the Mustang over the ST.

Those that have driven both the fost and the fist all say the fist is more fun even though it's slower. It's a better drive than the 15 track pack mustang, 03/04 and 07/12 mustang svts. I say this based on road experience not on road courses.
However I'm not the only who likes this car. Road and track in late 13, it beat out the caymen s, 435, m6 competition package, r8, gtr, e63s, a couple of jags and some others finishing third in their performance car of the year competition in both track and road tests. Randy raved about the car for motor trend. Top gear in Europe the guys that rail American at every opportunity voted it their car of the year over the p1.

Sad? No, point being you don't need 1k horsepower to have a great car! I would love to get a GT4 and GT350R as well but life expenses come first.

 

[Voltwings]

OP needs to spend just one session on a road course to understand, 1/4 is boring compared ... My 5.0 was easily doing 150mph on the front straight of Texas world speedway here, and while very capable in the corners, it was still a little bit of a hand full (not hard to drive, just physically demanding tracking a big, powerful car). To help save money on tires, brakes, and other consumables, I am now driving a Miata. A 120 whp, 2400 lb Miata, and the thing (aside from being a monster on track) is a shit load of fun. I am $6000 into this car, including the cost of the car, and am running lap times around where my 5.0 was ... The straight line game just proves who has the most money to spend, the track actually tells you who the best driver is.

 

[F8L SN8K]

I like both. Turning and straight line brute force. I've been around the track in a stock Boss 302 that went toe to toe with a race preped 00R. Driver has a lot to do with how fast the car is around the road course. It's a BLAST to go around the road course. Prompted me to take classes at the Ford Performance driving school. Now I'm searching for a Mustang to fill that niche for me. The wife said I can't have another race car like the CJ. I love straight line speed also. Display of brute power and anyone that says that is easy has never been in a serious car trying to eek out every ounce of performance of it.

So I appreciate and love them both. Different tools required for different jobs.

Oh and the fiesta and focus ST can straight up embarrass track preped vetts on some road courses with the right drivers. They are crazy fast in the corners as long as you have the skill and testicular fortitude!

 

[DSG2003SVT]

Those that have driven both the fost and the fist all say the fist is more fun even though it's slower. It's a better drive than the 15 track pack mustang, 03/04 and 07/12 mustang svts. I say this based on road experience not on road courses.
However I'm not the only who likes this car. Road and track in late 13, it beat out the caymen s, 435, m6 competition package, r8, gtr, e63s, a couple of jags and some others finishing third in their performance car of the year competition in both track and road tests. Randy raved about the car for motor trend. Top gear in Europe the guys that rail American at every opportunity voted it their car of the year over the p1.

Sad? No, point being you don't need 1k horsepower to have a great car! I would love to get a GT4 and GT350R as well but life expenses come first.

I was saying that it was sad that I knew you were talking about a FiST just from you saying a fun 2700lb. 200hp car. I'm on tapatalk, so I can't see it if it's in your signature. I've been wanting a FiST for a long time, but I bought cheaper so I could afford a GT350.

 

[ON D BIT]

I was saying that it was sad that I knew you were talking about a FiST just from you saying a fun 2700lb. 200hp car. I'm on tapatalk, so I can't see it if it's in your signature. I've been wanting a FiST for a long time, but I bought cheaper so I could afford a GT350.

Got it. Not a lot of cars weigh 2700lbs in today's world. I never would have dreamed that I would enjoy driving a 4 cylinder 1.6. It's crazy, do I want modify it 230 and 280 at 2700lbs???

 

[DSG2003SVT]

Got it. Not a lot of cars weigh 2700lbs in today's world. I never would have dreamed that I would enjoy driving a 4 cylinder 1.6. It's crazy, do I want modify it 230 and 280 at 2700lbs???

You can always use COBB's selectable maps and run a stock power tune on one slot for the road course, then a more powerful one for daily driving. We have 5 maps on our FoST and you can switch them on the fly in two seconds with cruise control switches. Such a great feature.

On our car, slot 1-4 are performance tunes with different LC settings. Slot 5 is a valet/economy tune that sets the waste gate duty cycle to 0 so that it's only running spring pressure and builds minimum boost.

 

[ON D BIT]

Nice! I'm looking into all the choices.

 

[Para81]

I think they went after the Chevy that nobody cared about...the Z28. The problem with building the ultimate TRACK car is people drive on a road. 1% use a Track. So what does that mean? It means everything about a car engineered for the TRACK is best suited for a TRACK. In most real world driving situations, those benefits are compromised.


The Z28 was over priced. It didn't need carbon brakes (8k right there). Even with all of it's track worthiness it seemed silly to spend 20K over a ZL1 for a Z28. Especially since the ZL1 would walk away from a Z28 easily.


So Ford decides to go after the Z28. Why? To build a better track car. And they have. But really, in most real world scenarios, how will that track car hold up? We know that the first place people take cars like these isn't the track, it's the drag strip. Why? Because we are obsessed with numbers we care about. 1/4 times. Nobody cares how fast you lapped a track. They care how fast their car is down the line. Again why? Because 99% of races people get into are on highways not on tracks.


So what's going to happen? The GT350 will be an awesome track car that will get walked by a cheaper 2014 GT500 in most scenarios. Won't even mention how bad a Hellcat will stomp it. And you know Chevy's going to respond with a super amazing handling car with a blower cranking out like 650bhp. It's just a great car that I feel is going to get walked on left and right. And now Shelby owners will have to be like, "but it's a track car"...that was what Z28 owners were crying whenever Shelby's stomped their asses. Just saying...I'd rather be king of the road than king of track.

I can't tell if you're trolling or retarded but either way I suggest you go for a Hellcat.