2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse vs. 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray | Edmunds U-Drags

Hi, I'm Alistair Weaver. That is the devilishly talented Reece Counts. This is a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. That is a Ford Mustang Dark Horse. And this is Edmunds U-Drags. Let's get on with it. And here we go. Today, we have the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray with 495 horsepower and 470 pound feet of torque. It's running on Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S's. Going up against the 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse with 500 horsepower and 418 pound feet of torque. It's running on Pirelli PZero Trofeo RS's. These two are going head to head on our Edmunds U-Drag track, which starts with a quarter mile drag. Then they hit the brakes, do a 180 and power back to start finish. After the first run, we'll swap drivers and lanes and do it again. You love Edmunds U-Drags. Subscribe now and visit Edmunds.com where you'll find all the info and inventory you need for new or used vehicles, including the famous Edmunds ratings. And if you're looking to sell, we'll even make you a cash offer for your car. So you might be sat there thinking on paper, the Mustang doesn't have a great deal of chance and Chevy should win. And to be honest, we tend to agree with you because we crunch the numbers too. But we do have an ulterior motive. We own that Mustang and we intend to supercharge it using Ford's own kit. That will give it over 800 horsepower. So what we want to do is run the race today, set a benchmark for Corvette versus Mustang Dark Horse, and then come back and rerun the race once we've added all the extra ponies. Sound exciting? Of course it does. So please like and subscribe to our channel and you won't miss a thing. Let's get on with the launch. So how do you set up the Stingray? Well, Edmunds used to own one of these. We lived with it for a couple of years. Absolutely adored it. Sadly, it had to be sold in the end as we refreshed our ownership fleet. So this car is on loan from GM. How do we set it up now? It's a little bit complicated. You twist the mode knob here, put it into track mode. Then you double-click the stability control. That activates the traction settings. We're going to race one. That gives us access to launch control. Then it's left foot on the brake, right foot on the gas, and release at the appropriate moment. Now, we have a little bit less power than the Mustang, but we have more torque. We have a little bit less weight. And we do have the advantage of a much more sophisticated gearbox, which gives us launch control, which, of course, the Mustang doesn't have, bizarrely. The manual Mustang does. The automatic Mustang does not. So it should be advantage Corvette. But how will it turn out in reality? Because that car has much more aggressive tires. And that will help it not only through the braking, but also through the corners and ultimately the traction back onto the straightaway. So I'm confident, but I'm not certain. See how we get on. OK, I am here in the Ford Mustang Dark Horse going up against the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. This is going to be an interesting one. Stingray is better balanced with the mid-engine. It's got launch control, which will help it off the line. But I have more horsepower. So I'm hoping once we get going, the Mustang will be able to reel it in. This doesn't have launch control, not in the automatic, at least. So the way I'm going to get the best start is just by a little bit of power brake. Bring the revs up to about 2,000 RPM. And then as soon as I hear go, I'm going to release the brake and quickly but smoothly feed on the gas to try to prevent any wheel spin. Hopefully, that will give me the best launch. But it's going to be really, really tough to beat the Stingray out of the hole. So we'll see how it goes. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We hide. Wheel spin. Come on, Chevy. Feed the power. Full beams. There we go. And away we go. Back on the straightaway. A clear victory for the Stingray. The Mustang is done. How was that race? No beating that Corvette launch control. Man, it launches so well. Mid-engine car with a sophisticated launch control. Oh, wow. It's such a great car. We had the Z06 last time we were here. And I think that is a phenomenal car. But this, just the standard Stingray, it's incredible how good a job GM did with this. It's so well-balanced. It brakes well. It turns well. That 6.2 liter V8 is a real peach. Yeah, it just got away at the start and I was never, ever able to reel it back in. So what can I do better in the Mustang, if anything? I mean, you've got tires. You've got grip. But I guess you've just got nothing off the line. It's the same problem our old GT500 had, where it just has trouble putting the power down at the start. But once it gets moving, this car is fantastic. Right. I think we should swap and go again. You need to experience this Chevy. It's such a cool car. I'll even put the air conditioning back on for you. That's how kind I am. Yeah, I want to get a go at Bowling Green's best. So into the Mustang. Pretty clear that I'm going to get beaten, to be honest. It wasn't such a close race. So what can I do differently? Well, not a lot, really. I'm going to run in track mode, trying to finesse it off the line. That's really where this vehicle loses. If it had launch control, if it had better traction off the line, then we'd be in much better shape. I'm going to brake like hell. I'm going to try and carry as much speed as possible, take advantage of the tires. But apart from that, I'm just going to enjoy the noise. Out of the Dark Horse and into the Stingray. Mid-engine Corvette, man. This thing is great. I wish I liked the way it looked better, because it drives fantastically. I've got launch control, but the Dark Horse doesn't. So I'm going to use all the tools at my disposal and see if I can win again. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. OK, he's gone, but he's on. Let's see how late we can brake. Man, these things get under brakes. Carry the corner, carry the corner. And back we go. The Vette's ahead. A win, but it's not so far behind. It's all about the launch. After that, it was pretty even. Yeah, once you got going, you were right in my mirror. And honestly, I think you might have been making a little ground. But it wasn't enough to make up for the launch. This Corvette just gets off the line so, so well. That Mustang, you've got to be careful with it and not light up the rear tires. Yeah, this Mustang is great. I was really enjoying it. I was really aggressive on the brakes. And it's just great. But yeah, ultimately, that is a mid-engine supercar, genuinely. I think that is a genuine mid-engine supercar, and just with a very trick gearbox, which this simply doesn't have. And I think the combination of the gearbox plus the weight distribution plus the electronics just makes a difference. But this put up a pretty good fight. See, this is why we love you drags. Here's the track conditions. And for the best numbers, 0 to 60 goes to the Corvette at 3.4 seconds. Quarter mile goes to the Vette again at 11.7 seconds at 120.4. Max cornering goes to the Vette, pulling 1.23 Gs. And the win goes to, I bet you can't guess, the Corvette with a time of 33.8 at 130.7. For the official leaderboard, head on over to edmunds.com slash udrags. Neither car is able to improve on their previous best time. So the Stingray stays in 23rd, and the Dark Horse stays in 30th. Well, Rhys, I kind of feel like this was almost the calm before the storm. Because we talked about in the commentary, we do intend to come back with an 800 horsepower version of that very, very car. But it's still a really exciting race. I mean, there's two really fun cars here. Yeah, that's the thing. The Dark Horse may have lost, but it was a ton of fun to drive. It's so great down here. It's fast. It turns well. It brakes well. It just can't quite keep up with the mid-engine Corvette. Once you're about 50 yards into the race, they're pretty much neck and neck the whole way. Yeah, I don't feel like one car was gaining on the other. But yeah, we'll see how it happens when we add another 300 horsepower on top of the current output. It's definitely not going to solve the traction problems. That's for sure. It's going to be an exciting story. So be sure to follow us everywhere we're found across social, YouTube, and of course, edmunds.com for all the latest. And in the comments, tell us what you would like to see raced, and who knows? We might even make it happen. Thanks for watching. See you next time.