ORIGINAL: Albeeno
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Head-to-Head Comparison: Shelby GT500 Mustang vs. Challenger SRT8
Last week I pitted the Mustang GT against the Challenger SRT8. This "Basic" Mustang vs. "Performance" Challenger comparison was designed to see if the most basic of V8 Mustangs can compete with what Dodge calls the "Performance" Challenger. After all, a lot of people say the Challenger will hurt Mustang sales, so I wanted to see what impact, if any, the SRT8 would have on the base 4.6L Mustang. In the end, the GT was able to keep up with the SRT8 in the numbers game. It was also cheaper and achieved better gas mileage. That's a given. It's a basic model and the SRT8 is a performance model vehicle. What really surprised me, though, was the performance comparison. I thought the SRT8 would boast superior performance numbers against a basic V8 Mustang. It didn't.
This is the basis of why you don't understand, the SRT-8 was never made to compete against the GT, that was never its intention and I'll never understand why you so desperately want that to be the comparison (actually I do and that is why your insisting to compare these two against each other). A $40K car is not going to take sales away from a $27K car, an argument of such is completely illogical. The other way is certainly possible, but the inverse is not on a large scale. When the R/T model comes out, there will be some crossing over, but the Mustang will hold the sales lead no matter what happens. I've been saying it from the beginning that no matter what the Mustang will remain the sales leader thanks to its almost 45 year momentum behind it.
The fact of the matter is the GT500 is not that much better than the GT, so you could also use that argument in the case of the GT vs. the GT500. The Challenger SRT-8 is going to take some sales from the GT500 thanks to the fact that it is a bit cheaper and provides similar performance and a higher top speed. Again, this comparison was not based off of REAL results, it was a comparison done by a bunch of guys who were probably drunk at the time and needed something to argue about. It's entirely irrelevant.