Ram SRT/10 Tested

Dave..THERE YA GO AGAIN SAYING SUCKED!!!..If they sucked they wouldnt have outsold the F bodies....Poor performance is not dictated by HP alone....Besides acceleration the newer fox bodies cars outdid the F bodies in all areas except acceleration including quality and overall usefullness as a vehicle....And if we based a cars performance solely on acceleration..None of us would own SC's..No?In the end it seems Ford knew what it would take to sell cars while GM thought it was purely HP alone..Maybe back in the 60's..Not today..(I still dont see how the 96-98 Stang outsold the F bodies..Yet they did) Also teh SBF and Mod motors seemed to react better to modifications then their GM counterparts...Another great selling point for the hot rodder. The stang appealed to grandmas and hot roddders alike..

The new GTO is the car the F body should have turned into..However with the price as high as it is relative to performance it very well may not be a good seller....Will they even offer it with less then the v8 version?


Back to the Dodge...Seriously only time will tell..If we have this debate 5 years from now where would it be going?..In reality comparing the v10 pickup to a lightning is very much like comparing a Viper to a Cobra..However for much less an entry fee thethe Fords performance is on par and will react better to mods..Cheaper..

In the End Ford knows its performance market very well..

Recent Ford F ups..The marauder and the excursion. Two vehicles voted by JD Powers as Top class..Yet Ford cans them..Go Figure
 
Damon, that is what is so funny. The Fox body Mustang DOES suck. I grew up in the Fox body years and am intimately familiar with the basic chassis. It sucks. Anyone who tried to drive one of those in anything other than a straight line will tell you so. I know you think they handled ok, but that is a naive opinion.

I worked with one of the top Autocrossers in the nation during those years. He did everything to his Mustang, and if it weren't for his insane driving skills, he would have been nowhere. He was runner up for national champion several years in a row with his Mustang until he just got too irritated with it. He finally gave up. See other people would ask him to drive their Camaros because they could not understand why they couldn't catch him in his "inferior" Mustang. So he would drive their cars and beat his own times in his car! Finally he went out and bought a 89-90 Firebird GTA 5spd and converted to 5.7L. Last I heard he was still winning national championships with it. Just ask Mark what he thinks of a Fox body Mustang. ;)

The only advantages that the fox Mustang ever had over the Camaro was
A) unlimited availability of a 5spd transmission and
B) rack and pinion steering.

Where else did the Mustang suck?
1) no rear disc brakes for one.
2) crappy quad shock rear suspension
3) high center of gravity
4) poor geometry of the front suspension when forced into high cornering situations
5) lack of a good sized tire option from the factory

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

Both of the Mustang advantages were totally destroyed when the 3rd gen Fbody arrived in 93. The GT has never caught up to the Z28, and only with added availability of the Cobra in 2001 did that become a true competitor. However at that point the LS1 was just too powerful for the NA Cobra. Nope, I'm not buying it. The Mustang was never superior. Only cheaper and easier to work on because Ford never changed (improved) anything!

Certainly Ford was more successful, but not for any performance reasons which is what my point was in the beginning. :)
 
You forgot about the extreme front end lift at high speeds. The only thing the mustang could win against the F-body is a contest for most units built. The F-body cars were a much better car except for the interior components.
 
mopars suck?

yeah suck in fords and crap out chevys,

lets see 1969 hemi barracuda took title damn still has it today . must be because it sucks right ,

70 hemi cuda quikest production car , 13.33 on e78s even thru stock exh

440-6 cuda 13:7s
ah 69-70 superbirds and daytonas bad azz cars oh yeah they suck,

viper came out and chevys been playing the catch up game ever,
since,

ignorance is bliss isnt it ,

the new mopars are great , as are the new fords and chevys ,

the rt10 is made for a different purpose than the ford,
the rt10 is a work horse ,
the ford is a muscle car disguised as a truck ,

the dodge will hold tons the ford cantr even tow with out sever power loss just as the sc cant tow detonation makes timming back off and motor runs like crap,

the rt10 dont have this problem the rt 10 is a work truck that also just happens to kick butt , the price is way different the ford is cheaper priced .
me liking real trucks would get the dodge to tow my always broke sc .

I abuse it bad not its fault.

the frod lightning cant pull the trailer with out causing undue stress on engine and trans and brakes.

its not that one is better but that one fits better into your personal style and needs ,

a harley davidson is a more realistic comparison .

more of a fullsized truck

I like the dodge I own a 2002 ford supercrew cab two sc,s
a pt cruiser, a 70 dodge demon, and a 70 chevelle ss 396 soon to be 454 ls6,

and a 70 cuda 340 thats on its way to my house today , got for $500 needs trans rebuild ,

and a 92 ford exploder so i have a good mix of brands

not really bias on brands each car has its points that fit my life and needs .
 
Dave..

I know many people that autocross and road race both mustangs and f bodies alike. However the basic unibody construction of the F body is plain crap..The quality was garbage as well untill the last day they were produced. Basically everything about the car was crap besides the fact the later model F bodies were quick. How many older F body cars do you see driving around?..Not many they fell apart... Tire sizes and no rear disc changed in the stang for the 94 model(93 Cobra). As a matter of fact the stangs were getting 17 inch rims while the F bodys were still stuck on 16's(which the stang started getting in 91)..The stang was always a better overall car which is what I had stated in the beginning..And with the introduction of the 94 and up model it no longer gave up handeling to the F body..Yes the F bodys had more HP..But not a better car

I grew up in that same Fox body era being 32 myself..

I guess I can later pull out some info to back up the handeling and braking info aspects of the fox 2 stangs but I dont have the time now....

Suprised you never asked me why if F bodys were such junk I decieded to put a panhard in my stang and both a torque arm and panhard in my cougar:O)
 
My good friend Mark Madarash runs his 88 GTA in SCCA Solo II. He has won several national championships and is STILL in the top 3 with his Fbody POS. This is national competition in an extremely competitive class which permits only bolt on modifications to the cars. SCCA is very strict about that. This means that with a vintage 2nd Gen 5.7L (crap in your opinion) he not only runs with but usually beats all comers in the class. He is not the only one. There are other 2nd gen Fbodies doing extremely well in the class against late model Cobra's AND Cobra R's. I like this class because you are not permitted to alter the basic design of the car with chassis stiffening or modified engine internals, etc. A car running in ESP still reflects the basic charactor of the car it began life as.

I don't really care about either one personally, but to say that the Mustang is better in any form other than the Cobra is just simply wrong. I'm not sure what Mark has or has not done to keep the unibody together on his, but he's been avidly autocrossing it for about 10 years.

I take his experience way above my own because I worked with him and drove with him in his Mustang for many years. Knowing Mark, to have him switch from a Ford to a Chevy speaks volumes. What would it take to get you to try out a Chevy? A lot! Same for him. I couldn't believe he would have done that either but he said to me "How long am I going to keep banging my head against the wall?" He was not being recognized for what he could do because this car was holding him back. There are NO live axle Mustangs in the top of ESP. There is a reason for that.
 
Manny I think you forgot about the 427 Vettes, The 427 L88 Vettes, the Copo Camaro and Yenco SC Camaro. Most with between 500-600HP but factory rated at 450 for insurance.
 
ok

Each manufacturer has had cars that had great horsepower and not so good handling. I think as Manny put it best, it all depends on what your needs are and what you want to get out of a vehicle. I myself would choose a Mustang over a Nightmaro simply because I'm a Ford person. Doesn't mean I think the Mustang is better and the Camaro is worse. Just my personal choice. I think when it comes down to the SRT-10 and the Lightning, it's the same thing. What your needs are in a truck and also what you can afford.:D

So can we all get over this, 15-16 pages now. I think it's been over analyzed at this point. They are both fine trucks in their own right. Anybody want to discuss a 74 Mustang II Cobra vs. a 74 Nightmaro Z28???LOL!!!! Oh, I almost forgot, when dodge brought back the Challenger name plate in the late 70's for that disappointment of a car, they ruined the name at that point. GTO, Chevelle SS, could they be next????



David
 
I didnt forget the copos and the others , the 69 hemi darts and barracudas beat them all,

still to thios day the records are held by them , a hemi dart ran low tens from tyhe show room and with a little fine tunning and slicks ran very respectible times in the 8,s a canadian named
Ray Barton can tell you all about it he has built the fastest of them all . and there is a guy in michigan driving a volarie with a blowen hemi turns sixes in the 1/4 steel body street car ,
 
Although a lot of people do not like the GTO styling, they stuck exactly to what the original GTO was. It was nothing more than a sedan with a big motor. The new GTO is nothing more than a plain sedan with a big motor. Everyone seems to think the old GTO was some amazing special built HOT ROD when it was nothing more than a car with a big motor. Same as it is today. They could have put the motor into the Grand Am and called it a GTO and it would still be the same.
 
Although that is not really a comparo. Those record holders were not licensed cars. They were factory race cars that could be bought off the show room floor with no vin numbers and modified wheel bases for racers only.
 
Well, there is a ton of folklore about what was fastest and when. Manny is right about one thing, the Hemi's were very fast. There are no less than 9 different Hemi models on the fastest 50 Musclecar list. None of them ran slower than a 13.7 either.

But you are incorrect sir about the fasted recorded *stock* musclecar. It happens to be the 427 Shelby Cobra. 12.20 @ 118 for that bad boy.

It also interesting to note that in stock trim a 440 Six Pack actually beat the Hemi on one occasion.

It is also interesting to note that the only 2 small blocks on that list were the Boss 351 and a 327 Vette.

Check it yourself here.
 
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