Photos by: Motor Trend
For us old codgers who remember “the good old days” of the LT1 and the LS1 Camaros beating their Mustang counterparts without any trouble, these last five year have been pretty rough for us. However, the playing field has been leveled with the Camaro packing on a few pounds and Ford finally selling mainstream Mustangs with a proper naturally-aspirated V8. It’s taken them awhile, but they’ve pulled it off.
Anyway, now that both car makers, Chevrolet and Ford, have launched new versions of their respective pony cars to the masses, it only made sense for our colleagues at Motor Trend to pit these two together. Again. For like, the 68th time. It’s a rivalry that has commenced since the first Camaro rolled off of the General Motors assembly-line in the Fall of ’66, hot on the heels of the Mustang.
Earlier version of both cars were compared last year, when MT compared the all-new 2015 Mustang GT Performance Pack against the aging 2015 Camaro 1LE. The Camaro won the battle, much to the surprise of everyone, but the war was not over. Ford made a few adjustments to the ‘Stang since that time and Chevy answered the call with their completely different 6th-gen. It might look a bit like the old car, but literally every component is brand new; from the chassis, to the drivetrain, the interior… you name it.
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- The 2016 Mustang is largely carried-over from its 2015 refreshening…
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- …but the 2016 Camaro is completely reborn from the ground-up.
Even better, is that despite the Coyote’s boost in power from earlier versions, to 435 hp, Chevrolet turned up the wick in the Camaro from the outgoing LS3’s 426 hp, to the LT1s 455 hp for 2016. Oh, remember the 5th-gen’s biggest fault, the curb weight? Chevrolet has turned the tables on Ford, as the Camaro SS dropped over 200-lbs. from the outgoing version, while the Mustang packed on quite a few. Per Motor Trend‘s recent test, the Camaro weighed in a rather svelte 3,672-lbs. to the Mustang’s 3,825-lbs.
While we won’t dig into all of the details from either car, their specs or the full, in-depth review from Motor Trend, we will point out their performance attributes. The Camaro SS clicked off a 12.4 quarter-mile time at 114.6 mph, which is rather astonishing. The Mustang, played follow the leader with 12.9 at 110 mph. In the 0-60 sprint? Try four seconds flat for the SS, with a 4.6 for the Mustang. In literally every other performance category, the Camaro trumped the Mustang, with the Motor Trend staff electing the Camaro as their winner. Well played, Chevy! However, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the next round, where the GT350 stacks up against the Camaro Zxx…
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
