Autobytel’s Benjamin Hunting elaborates on how the worlds of sports and muscle cars have, as least to some degree, bled into each other since the original factory cubic-inch surge of the late ’60s and early ’70s, “These days, almost every member of the muscle car family can do a decent job in the turns.”
According to Hunting, American muscle is far from the market’s most light-and-nimble class of auto, though the new generation of street muscle does differ drastically from the old in suspension and overall platform quality.
“Sure, this class of vehicle might not be the most agile on the market, and weight might in some cases make it harder to cut them through the corners than it otherwise should be, but modern muscle features handling dynamics that are light-years ahead of the automobiles that gave birth to the segment,” Hunting said.
It’s true that technology has added a different driving dynamic to that which we call “modern muscle,” but don’t think that the computer age has watered-down the brute factor of American performance either. In a recent assessment, Ben Hunting and Autobytel listed what they think are 2012’s 10-fastest production muscle cars, all of which belong to the upcoming ’13 sales year with the exception of Dodge’s top-shelf Challenger.
At the top of their list is the ’13 Shelby GT500, not only the first production Stang to break the 200 mile per hour barrier but currently the domestic model lucky enough to boast the title of world’s most powerful production V8, the Shelby’s blown 5.8 mill producing 662 horses with 631 feet pounds of torque.
Just a notch faster than the ZL1 Camaro, the GT500 pulls off a 0-60 run of just 3.5 seconds with a quarter-mile pass of just under 12.
The 3.5 second launch to 60 in the supercharged Shelby is impressive at the least, and consequently the new ZL1 just didn’t quite reach Ford’s mark. But even though the ’13 Camaro ZL1 only made it to #2 on Autobytel’s list it is not far at all behind the Stang.
Nevermind that Chevy’s latest blown super-Camaro only made second on this list, because with an equally impressive 0-60 run of 3.9 with a top end of 184 the ZL1 cuts it pretty damn close to the GT500. In comparison to the Shelby, the Camaro ZL1’s biggest setback is the 184 mile per hour top speed limit.
Chevy claims that the ZL1 has no problem staying in the top-optioned Stang’s quarter-mile bracket, “You don’t have to be a gear head to feel the rush of an engine that goes from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds with available Hydra-Matic 6L90 automatic transmission. Or one that can cover a quarter-mile of pavement in a mere 12 seconds and tops out at 184 with the available automatic.”
Dangerously close to the GT500 in rank, the ’13 ZL1 represents the apex of GM LS performance, as the 5th-Gen Camaro’s blown 6.2 liter LSA produces a sideways 580 horses with 556 feet pounds of torque, not quite up to the Stang but still faster from a stand-still than the SRT Challenger.
Speaking of the late-model Mopar, Dodge’s SRT392 Challenger made #3 on Autobytel’s survey, the heavier of the out-of-the-box muscle cars but the most sturdy and therefore among the market’s most desirable.
With a 6.4 HEMI cranking 470 horses with 470 feet-pounds of torque, the Challenger’s 0-60 of 4.5 seconds seems meek in comparison to the Camaro and Mustang, but remember that the SRT8 is also the market’s most affordable muscle car, the ZL1 and GT500 running in the $55k+ range while the HEMI Challenger sits in the low-$44k window.
Will we ever truly know which of America’s “Big 3” builds the fastest new production muscle car? Honestly probably not, but as long as the search for more horsepower continues you can rest assure that automakers will continue on as they did in the ’60s, each trying to outbuild the other under the hood!