There’s a muscle-car war brewing in Detroit these days. Right as the handling-champion Z/28 goes out of production
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00:00 (engine revving)
00:02 Welcome to the Wild West,
00:10 a place that earned its worldwide reputation for debauchery
00:13 thanks to a bunch of dopey dudes
00:14 running around shooting each other
00:16 for no reason other than it was fun.
00:18 Same thing's happening in Detroit right now
00:20 and at the car companies that are based in Detroit.
00:23 Welcome the two big guns,
00:24 a 505 horsepower Camaro Z28
00:27 and a 526 horsepower Mustang GT350R.
00:31 There's no one around except for the sound guy
00:34 and camera, camera and some cops.
00:35 So let's go make some noise.
00:37 (engine revving)
00:39 Woo hoo!
00:47 (laughing)
00:52 This is the manliest thing I've ever done in my life.
00:55 (engine revving)
00:58 (upbeat music)
01:00 All right, it's been a long time since I've been a Z28
01:12 and the first thing I notice is everything looks
01:15 like at least a generation old,
01:17 which is probably a compliment
01:18 because this car is like 22 generations old.
01:21 There's a lot of scratchy plastic in here
01:24 that is, oh, it's disgusting.
01:29 Anyway, it doesn't matter
01:31 because there's an LS7 under the hood.
01:33 God damn!
01:42 All right, that is how you do a V8.
01:46 This isn't a big honking seven liter American V8,
01:50 loves to rev but it makes power everywhere
01:53 and the engine note is pure muscle car.
01:55 It's just deep, throaty and violent.
01:58 Z28's a big car and good God,
02:07 I can't see a single thing behind me
02:10 or alongside me or really in front of me.
02:13 Yeah, visibility is not really one of these cars
02:16 best attributes, let's say.
02:17 LS7.
02:22 The motor makes torque everywhere.
02:25 My initial impressions about this Camaro
02:30 being a little bit old are true.
02:32 I mean, the Camaro is about to go out of production
02:35 and the LS7, this engine was introduced in 2006.
02:38 This is kind of old stuff
02:40 but it's a really good reminder
02:41 that there is no replacement for displacement.
02:44 It is a seven liter, 7,000 RPM, 505 horsepower V8.
02:50 It defines this car and even though
02:52 there are so many good things about the Z28,
02:54 the best thing is unquestionably this engine.
02:57 Shifter's pretty nice, the clutch is really good.
03:02 It's just a pleasure to row this thing through the gears.
03:05 I would like to know exactly at what point
03:11 General Motors became an authority on steering tuning
03:14 because this is really good
03:16 and this was one of GM's first ever electric steering setups.
03:19 It doesn't have a lot of feedback coming through
03:21 but it's really precise and natural.
03:24 That's hard to do, especially in such a big car.
03:26 And it's easy to forget,
03:30 this is the muscle car handling benchmark.
03:33 When this thing came out, mind's blown.
03:35 Had the biggest front tires ever put on a production car.
03:38 Grip is absolutely huge and it always takes me a long time,
03:43 longer than I should admit,
03:45 to realize I'm not actually at the limit.
03:48 (engine revving)
03:50 Other than the fact that it's as wide as a school bus,
03:55 everything about this car
03:56 feels like it's ready for a racetrack.
03:58 There are no excess body motions,
04:01 the steering is immediate and the brakes.
04:03 But LS7!
04:15 You can get into some serious trouble in this thing.
04:19 It is good, good, good, good, good, good.
04:23 It was a really good idea for me to get into this car first
04:29 because it's a reminder that it may be going out
04:32 of production but the GT350R's target is beat this thing.
04:36 It has to beat this car in handling,
04:38 in acceleration, in braking
04:40 and that is a hell of a tall order.
04:42 (upbeat music)
04:45 Oh yeah, all right.
05:01 If you're gonna spend 65, 75 grand on a muscle car,
05:05 it needs to feel special
05:06 and right away this GT350R feels really special.
05:10 It has no back seat which automatically makes me think cool.
05:13 Steering wheel also has Alcantara on it
05:15 but it's got this really well done racing stripe up top.
05:18 The seats, also Recaro but a lot more supportive.
05:22 No scratchy crappy plastic, screens with colors,
05:26 a reverse camera, switches, I don't know.
05:30 This car feels special
05:31 and I haven't even started the engine yet.
05:33 (engine revving)
05:36 (laughing)
05:37 Okay, that is loud
05:39 but there's an exhaust button to make it louder.
05:41 (engine revving)
05:44 I'm gonna get arrested driving this thing.
05:46 (engine revving)
05:49 Okay.
05:50 (engine revving)
05:55 Wow, that is loud.
06:08 (engine revving)
06:10 What are we, six grand?
06:21 (engine revving)
06:24 (laughing)
06:27 Are they kidding?
06:29 They're kidding.
06:29 (laughing)
06:30 Holy (beep)
06:31 (engine revving)
06:34 (laughing)
06:37 I have nothing to say.
06:43 What can I say?
06:43 Do you hear that?
06:44 (engine revving)
06:47 Kind of speechless.
06:50 Don't really need to say anything
06:51 because I'm just gonna let you hear the engine.
06:54 (engine revving)
06:56 (laughing)
07:02 Oh my God.
07:04 Well,
07:05 there may be a replacement for displacement
07:11 and it's revs
07:13 but you didn't hear it from me
07:14 because I love displacement and
07:15 (engine revving)
07:18 I am a little bit of a...
07:25 (engine revving)
07:27 Speechless or not,
07:28 it's my job to explain the difference
07:30 between the two engines.
07:31 The best way for me to do that
07:33 is to put both cars on the rollers.
07:35 With the help of our friends here at K&N Engineering
07:38 who are the guys who make the intake for the Z28,
07:41 we're gonna strap these two cars to a dyno
07:43 and measure their engines output.
07:44 For those of you who don't spend your nights
07:46 fantasizing about graphs and curves,
07:48 a dyno or dynamometer
07:50 is a device that measures an engine's output.
07:53 We're gonna look at the charts
07:54 and see the difference in how these engines
07:56 deliver their power
07:57 so I can explain how differently they feel on the road.
08:02 (engine revving)
08:04 (upbeat music)
08:31 (engine revving)
08:34 Okay, this was really hot out.
08:52 104 and 106, 105 and 106 degrees basically
08:56 between the two runs.
08:57 So these are not ideal conditions by any means.
09:00 Okay, on the top here is the horsepower graph
09:03 and on the bottom is the torque.
09:04 Green line is the Z28, red line is the Mustang GT350R.
09:09 And you notice a couple things right away
09:11 on the horsepower graph.
09:12 First of all, the fun's over on the Z28
09:15 before the Mustang even has its horsepower peak.
09:18 Mustang pulls all the way to 8,200 RPM.
09:21 The Z28 sometimes will rev to 7,000,
09:23 sometimes it hits its limiter a little bit early.
09:26 The other big difference is this huge difference in torque
09:29 between the two engines.
09:30 At 2,500 RPM for example,
09:32 there's way over 100 pound feet of torque difference
09:35 between the two motors.
09:36 And this is why the Z28 feels so strong down low
09:40 and the GT350R feels like nobody's home until 3,500 RPM.
09:45 And then finally, when we go to the peak horsepower values,
09:47 they're within two horsepower of each other.
09:49 That is actually not a significant difference.
09:52 Two horsepower is within the noise,
09:54 meaning within the variation we've seen
09:56 on multiple dyno runs on these same cars.
09:58 So effectively, these two engines make the same amount
10:01 of horsepower and the big seven liter makes a ton more torque.
10:04 There it is, chart nerds.
10:06 Graphical representation of two V8s
10:08 that make similar amounts of power very differently.
10:12 (engine revving)
10:14 Funny thing is the Mustang is not exactly a small car either
10:20 but after that Z28, this thing feels like you're driving
10:23 a GTI or something.
10:25 It feels tiny.
10:27 You can feel how much newer the Mustang is
10:30 than the Z28 through its steering wheel
10:32 because Ford has had multiple generations
10:34 of electric power steering.
10:36 This thing not only feels like a hydraulic in its weighting
10:39 but actually tells you what the front wheels are doing.
10:42 I feel surface changes.
10:44 I feel camber changes.
10:46 I feel my heart being ripped out from this engine.
10:50 God.
10:51 (engine revving)
10:53 This thing changes direction like pretty much nothing
10:57 this size.
10:59 (engine revving)
11:00 And I don't know what does it.
11:01 Maybe it's the carbon fiber wheels.
11:03 This is the first real production car application
11:06 of full actual carbon fiber wheels
11:08 and eliminating all of that rotating mass
11:11 pays huge dividends in responses and the way a car handles.
11:14 The other big difference between this and the Z28
11:18 is that all of the controls feel really light and tactile.
11:21 Everything in the Z28 feels like it's a little bit
11:23 too damped and too heavy.
11:26 This car, the steering is lighter, the clutch is lighter,
11:28 the brake pedal is lighter,
11:30 and the brakes react more quickly.
11:31 And the engine actually revs up more quickly.
11:34 (engine revving)
11:35 And that of course is the benefit
11:37 of having a flat plane V8.
11:39 They respond quickly to blips of the throttle.
11:42 So I can just blip the throttle and it goes.
11:44 We're not talking Ferrari levels of blipability let's say
11:48 but this is certainly better than that big V8 in the Z28.
11:52 (engine revving)
11:55 It's pretty clear the Shelby GT350R
11:57 is the far better car on the road
12:00 but these cars are about more than that.
12:02 They're about racetrack performance
12:04 and you can't, cannot get close
12:06 to these cars limits on the road.
12:07 So next stop is Chukwala Raceway
12:10 where Randy Popes can set a lap time
12:11 so we can find out which one is actually quicker
12:14 around a racetrack.
12:15 (engine revving)
12:17 (upbeat music)
12:22 (engines revving)
12:24 - Yeehaw!
12:28 (engine revving)
12:31 - Here we are at Chukwala in the desert
12:36 of Southern California.
12:37 Have you ever been here before?
12:38 - Nope.
12:39 Couldn't you tell that from my line?
12:41 - Well if I went by that I'd think
12:42 you'd never been to any track before.
12:44 (laughing)
12:45 (engine revving)
12:47 - Every time I get in the Z28 I'm a little bit scared of it.
12:50 I have to be honest.
12:51 It's just wide and big and heavy
12:54 and let's be honest, ridiculously capable.
12:57 (engine revving)
12:58 - Yeah it's our best driver's car for 2014, yeah.
13:02 - I mean it's kind of hard to fault
13:04 when a car this big does this around a track.
13:07 (engine revving)
13:08 - It has those enormous Pirelli Trofeo tires,
13:11 305s all around.
13:12 - And now the GT350Rs are bigger.
13:16 - No kidding.
13:17 - Bigger, 315s instead of 305s.
13:19 - The beat goes on.
13:20 Bigger and better.
13:21 - You know what else is bigger and better?
13:23 This motor.
13:24 - I hate to ask.
13:25 (laughing)
13:26 (engine revving)
13:29 - This motor. - It is.
13:31 - This motor is delicious.
13:32 - It is.
13:33 - It's seven liter V8.
13:34 - It's seven liters.
13:35 That's 1.85 gallons.
13:38 Don't look at me like I'm trying to kill you.
13:40 (engine revving)
13:41 Right on the side of this it should say 1.85 gallons.
13:45 - That's a lot.
13:46 - You're not even noticing.
13:48 (laughing)
13:50 He doesn't even react.
13:52 - Admirable car control skills.
13:54 You do have to be a little careful with the throttle.
13:57 Especially the initial.
13:58 - The initial throttle.
13:59 - Yeah.
14:00 - No matter how smoothly I roll into the throttle,
14:02 and I'm not a smooth driver,
14:04 it always initially wants to rotate out first,
14:07 and then it's fine.
14:08 It sticks there.
14:09 I would love for this car to tolerate
14:12 throttle applications a little bit more,
14:15 more than it does.
14:16 'Cause here we go.
14:17 Throttle, boom, sideways, and then it's controllable.
14:20 (engine revving)
14:21 But every time I get on the gas,
14:23 unless I'm really trying hard.
14:25 - Try hard, Jason.
14:26 - Okay, ready?
14:27 I'll try hard.
14:28 Okay, we'll just do nice.
14:29 Just roll into it.
14:30 (engine revving)
14:31 - That's it?
14:33 - Yeah, look at it hook up.
14:34 - It's slow.
14:35 - Oh man, that felt good.
14:37 - I know, but it wasn't sideways.
14:38 Boring.
14:39 - It's slow.
14:40 - You know what I also notice on,
14:42 Chuck Wall is a really smooth track,
14:45 until you're in this car.
14:46 (laughing)
14:47 It's firm.
14:48 - It invents bumps.
14:50 (engine revving)
14:51 - But the reward is a lot of control on the racetrack.
14:53 - In reality--
14:54 - It is stiff though.
14:55 - It is, it's really stiff,
14:56 but it's so well controlled.
14:57 I mean, look, curb, doesn't care.
14:59 Curb, doesn't care.
15:02 Yeah, it's a really well composed car.
15:04 (engine revving)
15:06 Also, you know what the other thing is?
15:08 This steering, even though it's really precise,
15:12 no feedback.
15:13 - Well, I agree with you there.
15:15 The car is a little bit numb at the limit.
15:18 - Yeah, I can just keep turning it in,
15:19 and turning it in, and look, nothing.
15:23 As I turn past that point of understeer,
15:26 there's no increase or decrease in effort.
15:28 It's almost like the steering system doesn't know
15:31 that the front tires are sliding.
15:32 - Is that me being picky?
15:34 - No, I think you have a point there.
15:36 The Z28 is super capable, but a little bit numb.
15:39 (engine revving)
15:40 - And yet, most of it, you can undo with this motor.
15:44 (engine revving)
15:46 - Well, it was the best driver's car.
15:51 - Wait, wait, wait, wait.
15:54 BDC is not best drifter car?
15:57 - Oh, no, it's not.
15:59 I'm sorry, wrong magazine.
16:01 (engine revving)
16:03 - All right, I think I'm having too much fun,
16:07 judging by the look on your face.
16:09 So why don't we cool this thing down,
16:11 and get into the Mustang.
16:12 (engine revving)
16:15 - GT350R.
16:19 (engine revving)
16:23 (laughing)
16:41 - How did it put all that power down?
16:43 (engine revving)
16:45 - Is this four wheel drive?
16:46 (engine revving)
16:48 - It does put the power down.
16:49 (engine revving)
16:52 Let the banking catch him.
16:56 (engine revving)
16:59 - God, you see, it's so hooked up.
17:03 - Holy Jesus.
17:04 (engine revving)
17:07 - I feel like the GT350R comes off a corner harder,
17:11 and goes through the mid corner faster.
17:13 (engine revving)
17:15 The GT350R is an easier car to drive at the limit,
17:20 than the Z28 is, and the Z28 is good.
17:22 - It certainly doesn't feel like it does that back end twitch
17:25 either you're just that much smoother than I am.
17:27 - Well, I am.
17:28 - Well, yeah.
17:29 (engine revving)
17:32 - Yeah, you went straight to the floor there,
17:34 and there is no back end twitching.
17:36 - No, it is hooked up.
17:38 - I love the way this car puts power down.
17:41 (engine revving)
17:44 - I can't get over how stable this feels
17:45 from the passenger seat.
17:48 I mean, that grip.
17:50 How did it do that?
17:52 (engine revving)
17:55 - That's probably where it's gonna beat the Camaro,
17:57 is the way it comes off a corner.
18:00 - Yeah, the Camaro won't take that much power coming out.
18:02 - Well, I used to think it was pretty good.
18:05 But this car is better.
18:06 (engine revving)
18:08 - A whole new world, Randy.
18:09 - A whole new world.
18:10 - A new fantastic point of view.
18:12 (engine revving)
18:13 - There are cars like this GT350R
18:15 that handle so well that it's not work.
18:18 It's just a pleasure to drive fast.
18:21 It's that kind of car.
18:22 - What would you do,
18:23 what if you had your way and you could ask for it
18:25 to do something different slash better,
18:27 what would you ask for?
18:28 - A hundred more horsepower.
18:30 Always.
18:32 - No, no, no.
18:35 - Let me think about that.
18:37 (engine revving)
18:40 - Jason, I don't have any complaints.
18:45 - That's pretty high praise.
18:48 - Yeah, I mean, the ride handling balance is exceptional
18:52 in the GT350R.
18:53 - It's interesting, the car feels so much softer
18:55 in the straightaways.
18:56 I don't feel any of those bumps.
18:58 And then there's no body roll.
19:00 There's no nothing.
19:02 - It has the body roll, but it's happening so slowly
19:06 because it's so well damped and so well controlled.
19:09 Modern technology.
19:10 Ford has done a great job with this shock system.
19:14 - Nailed it.
19:14 - I would love to go around this racetrack
19:19 in this car all day.
19:21 - All day.
19:22 - All day, it's so satisfying.
19:24 Puts a smile on my face.
19:25 - Mine too.
19:26 It's fun even in this seat, I gotta tell you.
19:28 (engine revving)
19:31 - So what's next?
19:35 - From the passenger seat, I have a hard time
19:36 figuring out which one's gonna be faster.
19:39 So I need to get out and let you go do some time lapse
19:42 with the helmet.
19:43 And--
19:44 - All right.
19:45 - Yeah, let's see what these things do.
19:46 - All right, 'cause they're two great cars.
19:48 - Oh yeah, you look like you're really miserable about this.
19:50 - It's gonna be a pleasure.
19:52 (engine revving)
19:54 (engine revving)
19:57 (engine revving)
20:00 (engine revving)
20:03 (engine revving)
20:06 (engine revving)
20:08 (engine revving)
20:14 (engine revving)
20:25 (engine revving)
20:35 (engine revving)
20:38 (engine revving)
20:42 (engine revving)
20:51 (engine revving)
20:56 (engine revving)
21:03 (engine revving)
21:06 (engine revving)
21:14 (engine revving)
21:32 (engine revving)
22:01 - I'm this close to crowning a winner for this head to head,
22:04 but these are muscle cars,
22:06 and the only way the GT350R can win is to win a drag race.
22:09 So for that, I've brought in my cousin from West Virginia.
22:13 Meet Bob.
22:14 (burps)
22:17 (door creaking)
22:23 (door slams)
22:26 (door creaking)
22:29 (dramatic music)
22:35 - Three, two, one.
22:44 Whoa, wait, wait, wait, hold on.
22:46 - Dude, what?
22:54 Oh dear Lord.
22:57 Oh, would you just die already?
23:11 Crossed already.
23:22 (engine revving)
23:25 Good Lord.
23:30 Damn.
23:34 (engine revving)
23:40 (engine revving)
23:47 (engine revving)
23:50 (engine revving)
24:01 (engine revving)
24:13 (engine revving)
24:16 - It's settled then.
24:26 The new Mustang GT350R left me speechless on the road.
24:31 It beat the Z28 around a track
24:33 and reduced me and Randy to screaming idiots.
24:35 (laughing)
24:38 - I kind of want this car.
24:40 - It's watchable.
24:42 It's 5.2 liter produced as much power
24:44 as a hyperactive seven liter.
24:46 And then it left Bob and his old Camaro Z28
24:51 in the dust at the drag strip.
24:53 - What the hell you mean this thing didn't win?
24:57 I just took a second mortgage on Granny's double wide
24:59 to buy one.
25:01 Oh, damn it.
25:03 - Victories don't come any clearer than this.
25:06 The GT350R is the easy winner of this head to head.
25:10 (engine revving)
25:13 - Immediate brakes.
25:15 Like Jesus, Tony just dumped out of his (beep) skin.
25:19 You're right.
25:24 - Yes.
25:25 - I'll do that again.
25:26 We don't need no stinking turbos.
25:29 You're giving me that dirty look.
25:30 - Yeah, I'm watching your eyes.
25:32 - Oh, I'm just watching.
25:33 - You keep your eyes into the corner.
25:34 - Ha ha, what?
25:36 Do you people hear what I have to go through?
25:39 I do everything to give you fun,
25:41 stupid tire shredding nonsense,
25:44 and this is the thanks I get?
25:45 - That was pretty good.
25:46 - Fine with that.