2016 Ford Mustang GT vs Chevy Camaro SS: Mashup Review - TFL Leaderboard Hot or Not Ep.13

Welcome to this very special episode of TFL's leaderboard hot or not and as always I have Paul our expert race car driver and today Paul it was exciting at the track because this was just an all-out cage match right we've got Mustang versus Camaro how American does it get? I know you sent me an email saying guess what I got this week and I was so excited I'm like yes I can't wait to drive both of these cars so. And usually it's hard for us to get cars that compete directly but these two compete not only do we have a Mustang versus a Camaro but we have the SS versus the GT the two v8 monsters. Yeah and the two that are pretty affordable as well that most people will buy I think often you compare you know the very top of the line ones which very few people actually get those cars these are the cars that people actually purchase. Yeah and for the first time for all of our European viewers the Mustang is actually readily available in Europe now and it's the hottest selling sports car in Germany. You would ever say those words you would ever utter those words. The home of Porsche and BMW and Mercedes and Audi keep going right. Yeah keep going and there it is right there Mustang. And at some point both Chevy and Ford decided that they were going to take it very seriously and take it on the track and you know turn the cars into all-out sports cars and I think there's nothing that says that more than the fact that this vehicle behind me which forever had basically a live axle now has independent rear suspension. Yeah and the platforms that these cars are sharing are just the technology and the cars they're they're not you know very expensive cars overall the interiors look pretty cheap but they're putting more and more money into the handling of these cars whatever proportion of it. The question we're going to try to answer on this show is which one has done a better job and you know these two companies and the two guys behind these cars are fiercely competitive so today's episode I think is going to be very eye-opening to them because it was quite astounding the result. So let's start with the 0-60 okay and let's go let's go to the Mustang first. The Mustang's Coyote 5.0 liter is a little down on power compared to the Camaro. It puts out 435 horsepower and 400 pound foot of torque and of course it's all fed through a six-speed manual transmission. Now the Mustang has line lock and get this it has launch control even with a manual and of course just like the Camaro it feeds all that power through the rear wheels. All right we're going to do a 0-60 run in the Mustang and see how it copes up here at a mile above sea level. Launch control set at 4,300 rpms. All right 5.73 seconds so pretty decent run and I upped the rpms on the launch control there because it was kind of bogging right when I got the clutch out just a little bit and that really helped it kind of it stayed out of that bog this time and it just kind of kept right on pulling so that was a good launch. So how did it feel to launch the Mustang? The Mustang first of all had launch control so normally I'm a person as everyone knows I turn off a lot of systems but I'm like let me try it and it was pretty cool because it was adjustable you could adjust it in 100 rpm increments and so I actually ended up at 4,300 rpm as a launch point and basically just floor it and let the clutch out and it moderates the throttle to kind of manage the torquey so it does want to spin the tires quite a bit and then it's just off you go second gear and you can hit 60 right at the top of second. Now interestingly this is down about 20 horsepower to that and it's down actually 55 pound foot of torque to the Camaro so launch and 0-60 is all about torque so how did it go in the Camaro? Let's cut to that video right now. Under the hood of the Camaro is a very throaty 6.2 liter v8 the LT1 which is basically the same engine that's in the Corvette. It puts out 455 horsepower and 455 pound foot of torque in this case through a six-speed manual transmission with not paddle shifters but rev matching. I'm sure Paul's probably not going to use that around the track he can do it manually the old-fashioned way and of course as it should it powers the rear wheels. All right here we go Camaro 0-60 run. 0.41 seconds to 60 and fairly good launch a little bit of wheel spin but probably maybe just a tenth or so worth the wheel spin so I think that's about it. All right so how did the Camaro feel launching? It took a ton of rpm and that was weird because it's got a bigger engine and it's got more torque so you would think logically that you'd be able to roll this thing off at 1500 rpms and and light the tires very gently and roll right through a quick 0-60 but this actually took like a 5-6000 rpm launch to not bog and that was really surprising so the power band is really shifted up in the Camaro versus the Mustang. 0-60 was faster it is a faster car that that horsepower and that torque does get you a quicker time but it was really surprising how it got you the quicker time. Yeah and the interesting thing is from just standing outside watching you is how good that sounds. That sounds awesome it's got it's got a 6.2 basically the LT1 out of the Corvette yeah that has a five liter coyote engine and it's a little bit more muffled it's a little bit more sedate. I ended up this video from a word from our sponsor that's right TFL and I've got some great news for you guys we've got a brand new YouTube channel called TFL now that you can visit by clicking on me or clicking above and on TFL now we're doing live video we're doing behind the scenes and we're doing drag races like this one the Camaro SS versus the Mustang GT how cool is that which one is faster well there's only one way to find out you're going to have to subscribe to TFL now and get all of the behind the scenes that's happening right here at TFL HQ. Please subscribe and thanks for watching and thanks for your support. Both of these cars and I got to tell you just from a tall driver perspective this is a lot more livable than that just because there's a lot more room in this one this one you sit down low in right and you feel like you're in a cave and you're looking out out of like a submarine right and this one it's more traditional car so actually in this car well let me just cut to that video and you can see me driving both of these cars you can see the difference between which one is more of a cruiser or which one is more of a well a traditional kind of low slung almost hot roddy and you can tell immediately that this is a much smaller car than the Mustang and that's the sense I get you're more well you're more confined and if you like that that's pretty cool because everything is kind of much lower much smaller much tighter and this is the kind of car that you kind of want to drive with the window down and your arm up and your head back and of course your right hand on the six speed shifter and what a good shifter this is short throws precise easy to find the right gear it hooks up just at the right place when you let off the clutch not too early not too late it's a car that both a novice and somebody like Paul can get behind the wheel and feel comfortable and drive easily and if you're looking for something that just likes to cruise this is actually a very sorted car is it assorted as a Mustang on the road I think it's not quite as comfortable as a Mustang the Mustang is a little bit more softly sprung a little bit easier on the old butt more friendly for kind of a cruise night at your local neighborhood main street and this car is a lot roomier than the Camaro so take that with anything I say when it comes to this drive in the Mustang because I just fit a lot better in this car and I feel a lot more comfortable in this car there's shoulder room there's headroom and actually unlike the Camaro I can actually see where the stoplight is and the Camaro if I pull up to a stoplight I can't see the stoplight because it's so low let's talk about shifting how does this Mustang shift compared to the Camaro you know what it's very similar I think you can't even squeeze a penny in between the two in terms of kind of how dynamically they work they're both really good really short throw really well executed and engineered and really well made it to the engine now of course this has a smaller engine a little bit less torque a little bit less horsepower but the torque seems to come on just a little quicker also this Mustang and you can tell when you're driving it is heavier it's floatier it's not quite as buttoned down the chassis isn't quite as tuned in it's not quite as razor sharp when it comes to the steering but for a typical American road which is bad and rutted out and not particularly smooth this is probably the better chassis so if you're looking at a car that you're going to take on the track hell yeah go for the Camaro but if you're looking for a car that you're going to drive to work every day and you want it a little bit more compliant a little bit more well softer then definitely look at the Mustang how about you you're a bit shorter which one is it better to drive so so this is funny because you could probably cut to this video as well but me driving the Camaro around the track and actually doing this looking over the dash I couldn't see over the dash in that car so it's actually stretching up in the seat we've got those hills on the track and I couldn't see out of the car uh you know so so yeah it's funny where you're saying it's not good for really tall people not really good for really short people either so I guess if you're five foot nine to six foot it probably works pretty well but if you're below that or above it not great yeah I mean this is definitely the Camaro a car where you drive with your hand up here yeah that's why it looks so cool from the outside yeah you look cool yeah badass you got that little slit yeah you know just see your eyes but yeah it's from a from a driver standpoint it's cool but it's not really driver not ideal yeah no so let's talk about why these two cars match up so there are three engines that are available in these vehicles right now there is a four-cylinder turbo there is a six-cylinder and then there's the eight-cylinder and so these are both the eight-cylinders now there's also a whole other kind of performance variation on these so the Mustang of course has the GT350 the Shelby the Camaro they're coming out with the ZL1 yep but that one's not out yet there's also a track pack you can get for this there's also a track version of that but none of those what none of those are here what we have are the two identical cars in terms of the way that they match up so I said that because we're setting up the track battle and it was a track battle so let's cut to the Mustang first let's go to the Mustang and let's see how that went around the track now there is a difference in the rubber these two pony cars or are they muscle cars are these sports cars well we'll find out where this Mustang has Pirelli P Zeros with 255 40 ZR19s and they're not offset which means that they're the same size in the front and in the back these are aggressive all-season tires all right we're going to try the Mustang GT California Special see what she's got and you can use the launch control 4300 rpm launch this car is all over the place trying to be as smooth as I can with it but a little bit snappy through the S's there you can feel that it's an all-season tire just wants to kind of drift doesn't want to go hey Paul so that looked uh floppy and messy and shaky and loose that was all me tell me about it what's the car like um it's soft it's just it's not a it feels like you know it's a California cruising down Santa Monica Boulevard edition and not a ripping around a truck edition yeah and the time shows it it's a 108 81 yeah all right Paul so I watch you go around the track in the Mustang and you were working hard I was I was really really surprised and I always talk about how the car feels tipping it into the first corner and the Mustang was just like syrup you know it was really soft and really rolly and not much grip the car's balance was quite good but but as far as the actual performance of the car it was pretty underwhelming as far as the handling goes yeah and 108 liter board time yeah it's not great dude no no and it's not like I was you know babying it around the track I was trying to get everything I could out of it but it just tended to be with that softness you know I was getting I'd get understeer and so I could trail break it and get the rear end out and have it pretty well balanced everywhere but it just wasn't that fast and um and you know that comes down to the softness of the suspension and also the Mustang happened to come on a high performance um all-season tire not a summer tire yeah and those tires on the Mustang that has about almost 9,000 miles that has 500 miles and those are pretty used up so that could have something to do with it but nevertheless even if you take that well let's just cut to the chase let's just go to the video of you in the Camaro looking at the tread you can tell immediately this is a much more aggressive stickier tire it's an Eagle F1 summer tire it's going to be a little bit a little bit faster around the track it's also offset which means that the rear tires and wheels are wider than these fronts after just getting out of the Mustang getting in this the level of grip this thing has it's just on another planet compared to the Mustang it's amazing not much torque coming off the corners though but I'm just kind of carving it around wow what a different car oil not much brake bite either which I was complaining about in the Mustang a little bit of understeer there and then not quite enough torque to kind of carry wow four seconds that is an eternity so I'm not going to tell you how did that feel miles better yeah yeah it was miles better dude I mean literally miles better a 104.89 seconds faster yeah as soon as you turn it I always love that sensation of never driving a car around a track and I go for this hot lap and I turn it into the first turn and it's always like what's gonna happen and this one you're just like oh wow four seconds faster that is incredible yeah and and you look at these cars from the outside you look at them on paper and you're like boy they stack up this is gonna be you know we're gonna be splitting hairs with tents here and and again tip the Camaro into the first corner and you're just like night and day night and day the the amount of grip the amount of poise the the amount of everything the one thing that the Camaro lacked was what I mentioned on the zero to 60 not a lot of torque coming off the corners so here's the funny thing it's got more horsepower but you drove it like a car with less horsepower where I tried to really rail the corners and and maximize corner speed because it had a great chassis and with the with the Mustang it was more I had to get it straightened out to get the power down because it wanted to kick the rear end out all the time because it has a lot more torque down low than the Camaro does so there were a lot of kind of surprises I would say driving these cars but overall the Camaro hands down the better track car the Mustang felt like it didn't belong out there and the Camaro felt like it was bred to be out there now this is not going to sit well with Ford because you know I could see them saying well a one second time but four seconds is is on a one minute plus track is just an eternity and so it really has to do with the fact that you've got this I think spectrum right where you've got let's say you've got the muscle car on this side and you've got an all-out sports car on this side yes and now we basically have two cars so we have the Camaro which is the sports car yeah we've got the Mustang which is kind of in the middle right at least this one yeah halfway to sports car and then we've got the Challenger which is a complete and utter muscle car yes we don't have that one here but between these two it seems like that one is bred for the track this one is bred for the road yeah and of course there's variants of this that are more track variants but I think the Camaro the Camaro to me feels like just a generation a league ahead it's like you know this car's kind of a the Mustang's aiming at the Camaro and the Camaro's aiming at the m3 and pretty much nailing it so this this handling you know out of the Camaro feels more like on par of what you would expect from you know a really good German sports sedan this feels like a really good the Mustang feels like a really good muscle car this is in a different league altogether all right it's that time in the show when we find out is it hot or not so let's start with the Camaro is it hot or not very hot we've got one hot for the Camaro and how about for the Mustang not on not on my book on the track nope all right I'm gonna give it no I'm gonna give it I just love that especially that California Specialist behind us it is so cool so what we have basically are two cars that directly compete but one is more street worthy and one is more track worthy so here's the question right they're both about the same you know 40 to 45 range if it were your money which one would you buy oh Camaro all day all night long and I'd get the Mustang hot or not that is not fair that is not fair you know I would get the car where I spend most of my time driving it I agree I agree all right guys as you know this has been another episode of TFL's hot or not please come back every week when we decide if two American cars or two Japanese cars or two any cars are hot or not thanks for watching and see you next time ciao welcome to another episode of TFL's leaderboard hot or not and I'm Roman Mike and I'm an automotive journalist and I'm Paul Gerrard and I'm a professional driver that's right and today we've got something really special sometimes we've got brand new cars and sometimes we've got cars that are well interesting how would you describe the Velocity Paul uh well the name I think says it all doesn't it yes indeed so it's it's you know it's kind of a car and actually in the name is also exo so it's like an exoskeleton so it's basically it's a tube chassis car whether you're hanging on components from production cars whether it be suspension or engine and drivetrain and creating something what you end up with of course is when you're shedding the chassis you get something really light so you get a crazy power to weight ratio yeah it's very