C&D: Mustang GT vs. Camaro SS vs. Challenger R/T

[TBR]

What?   

I love how evil it looks, like its waiting for the right moment to come alive and kill people.  Every muscle car should have a heavy helping of sheer, untamed menace.

Yeah, I don't see how that's a negative at all.

I have to admit the high belt line pretty much ruins the Camaro for me.

Still don't know that I would take a Mustang over a Challenger though. I am sure the Mustang is the better performance car, but the Challenger is probably more comfortable and I imagine a suspension kit would put it  close to par with the Mustang.

[the Teuton]

I have to admit the high belt line pretty much ruins the Camaro for me.

Have you gotten to sit in one yet?  It's by far the worst thing about the car.

[r0tor]

The challenger seems to be perfect for a really stylish cruiser... not really as a hardcore performance car though except for straightlines.
The camaro is not as good as a cruiser with complete piss poor visibilty, but dominates in a straightline and improves over the Challengers sloppy handling.
The mustang combines good straightline speed with good chassis/suspension with less "look at me" styling.

really, its different strokes for different folks

[SVT32V]

What?   

I love how evil it looks, like its waiting for the right moment to come alive and kill people.  Every muscle car should have a heavy helping of sheer, untamed menace.

Except women have always made up and important if not majority buyer of pony cars. While you may like the menacing brutal look it may not trasnlate well with the fairer sex.

[MX793]

I wanna see how the Stang performs without the optional and currently unavailable Track Pack.

Ditto

[Raza]

What?   

I love how evil it looks, like its waiting for the right moment to come alive and kill people.  Every muscle car should have a heavy helping of sheer, untamed menace.

It looks like a cartoon.

[SVT666]

It looks like a cartoon.

It looks like a car from a kid's cartoon...like Transformers or something.

[sandertheshark]

It looks like a cartoon.

Have you seen one in person?

[SVT666]

Have you seen one in person?

I have, and I agree with him.  It looks like a caricature.

[Raza]

Have you seen one in person?

Yes. 

[CJ]

I'll have the Mustang.

[mojammer]

Has anyone downloaded the powertrain pdf?  Apparently the Mustang went 0-60mph in 11.7 seconds.  That is so fast.  I'm blown away.  With a skilled driver I bet the new mustang could edge out my sister's Kia Rio.  Oh man would that be close race. 

Add:
Also, if you read what they actually said about the cars, not just the rankings, they agree with the other magazines about how the cars performed, just not about which attributes are the most important.

2nd edit:
C/D corrected the chart.

[MX793]

Has anyone downloaded the powertrain pdf?  Apparently the Mustang went 0-6-mph in 11.7 seconds.  That is so fast.  I'm blown away.  With a skilled driver I bet the new mustang could edge out my sister's Kia Rio.  Oh man would that be close race. 

Ummm, are we looking at the same chart?  I see 0-60 in 4.9 for the Mustang.  The only 11.7 anywhere on the chart was the average 0-100 for all 3 cars.

[mojammer]

I guess they changed it.  Here's the original I downloaded:

http://docs.google.com/gb?export=download&id=F.e71e2b92-c108-4d5b-a5dd-78c99c546db0

[ChrisV]

The challenger seems to be perfect for a really stylish cruiser... not really as a hardcore performance car though except for straightlines.
The camaro is not as good as a cruiser with complete piss poor visibilty, but dominates in a straightline and improves over the Challengers sloppy handling.
The mustang combines good straightline speed with good chassis/suspension with less "look at me" styling.

really, its different strokes for different folks

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=6839

Infineon has every sort of turn, and I couldn't find any weakness at all in the Challenger's handling. In the fast stuff you can be absolutely certain the tail isn't going to come around on you, and in the track's two hairpins the car stays neutral. You can work with the throttle in the longer, medium-speed turns to adjust your angle of attack. There's a section of track that connects two turns like a straight but is itself a long, off-camber curve, with a sort of catenary swoop down and back up, and there's a lot of weight transfer. Most cars heel over and work the outside tires to death, but the SRT stays almost level, and the shocks keep the ride from getting choppy. In the Esses, the car changes direction crisply and remains stable over the curbs...

This car possesses something rare: an equal balance of its parts. The brakes are as effective as the engine, which is as effective as the handling ? and so on, allowing the driver to maintain an even rhythm as the car transitions from one attitude to another. But perhaps best of all is the way it takes the abuse, lap after lap. No brake fade, no overheating, no tires folding under the rims. Forty years ago, only a Ferrari could be driven to the track, raced and driven home again. Now there's a whole generation of tough, fast cars, and this Challenger is one of them.

[Raza]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=6839

Even though that's contradictory to most reviews I've read, it's great to hear.  Do you happen to know how different the RT suspension is from the SRT?



My god; all it takes is one picture and I'm head over heels again. 

EDIT:  The SRT8 is available with a manual?  Hello!

Wait, the black with gray stripes isn't available anymore?

[SVT666]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=6839

The SRT-8 has much much better handling then the R/T.

[Vinsanity]

It'd be cool if Dodge offered some kind of "SRT Performance Handling Package" which would basically be the SRT-8's suspension and rims/tires for the R/T model, but it's not like the R/T's sticker price isn't already steep enough...

[r0tor]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=6839

lots of cars will handle good when compared to a 30 year older model

[ChrisV]

if you read it, it was a race car they were comparing it to, and the race car was still faster around the track. The thing you were supposed to take away from the article if you had ANY reading comprehension, was that the car as a street car handed very good around the track, and didn't have any balance problems, brake fade, or any issues that made it unsuitable for that purpose in factory stock form. Nothing stood out and said, to a trained road racer, that this car sucked for handling.

but take it as you want to, since you're going to have to always have a reason to hate.

[Raza]

if you read it, it was a race car they were comparing it to, and the race car was still faster around the track. The thing you were supposed to take away from the article if you had ANY reading comprehension, was that the car as a street car handed very good around the track, and didn't have any balance problems, brake fade, or any issues that made it unsuitable for that purpose in factory stock form. Nothing stood out and said, to a trained road racer, that this car sucked for handling.

but take it as you want to, since you're going to have to always have a reason to hate.

I was surprised that it was the race car, and I was even more surprised that the race car was faster.  But damn, I want the Challenger, even if it is a fat pig that weighs 900 pounds more than my five seat sedan! 

[r0tor]

if you read it, it was a race car they were comparing it to, and the race car was still faster around the track. The thing you were supposed to take away from the article if you had ANY reading comprehension, was that the car as a street car handed very good around the track, and didn't have any balance problems, brake fade, or any issues that made it unsuitable for that purpose in factory stock form. Nothing stood out and said, to a trained road racer, that this car sucked for handling.

but take it as you want to, since you're going to have to always have a reason to hate.

and yet every other comparison involving a modern competitor has it being comfortable, competant, but not being set up to be run hard through the turns with... of course nobody is ever correct as long as their opinion doesn't match yours though

[SVT666]

and yet every other comparison involving a modern competitor has it being comfortable, competant, but not being set up to be run hard through the turns with... of course nobody is ever correct as long as their opinion doesn't match yours though

I've read that about the R/T, but not the SRT-8.

[ChrisV]

of course nobody is ever correct as long as their opinion doesn't match yours though

pot...kettle...black.

[r0tor]

Nothing flusters this big pleasure craft until the thrashing starts. Then it sways, it bobs, and it squats back and squirms at full throttle like a fat man settling onto a cold toilet seat. Dodge fits the R/T with all-season Goodyear Eagle RS-As, the same tires you might fit to your pastor?s Diplomat. Trying to corral 4140 pounds on a twisty road, they backslide into a decent impersonation of Goodyear?s long-gone Polyglas donuts.

-car and driver

[GoCougs]

The R/T is commonly criticized for its handling; relative to the torsion bar, leaf spring solid-axle forbearfer it's lighter years better, but relative to most any two-door coupe or sedan, especially its immediate competition, it's the luxo-barge of the group. Is this "bad" per se? Depends; I see it more as the intent of the design to go more towards a cruiser rather than a handler, but strictly by the numbers it's not very good.

[Raza]

"R/T"

[TBR]

pot...kettle...black.

That's rascist!

Seriously though, in comparison to its modern competitors, the general impression seems to be that it is more of a cruiser than the Mustang or Camaro. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just different.

[Vinsanity]

I'd totally embrace the Challenger as a powerful highway cruiser if it had a fittingly stylish interior, available in another color besides the monochromatically boring black.

[TBR]

I'd totally embrace the Challenger as a powerful highway cruiser if it had a fittingly stylish interior, available in another color besides the monochromatically boring black.

I think it has the best interior of the three. I don't like interiors that try to be trendy.