new vs old

[beef_bourito]

I want to hear your oppinions about th new and old muscle cars and pony cars. so i'm talking about the new "charger" the new GTO, the new mustang and the latest generation camaro.

I want to compare in terms of performance (relative to the current market and new compared to old), looks, and how well the new ones live up to the old ones.

first, my oppinion:
The new charger is a disgrace, first of all it's a 4 door, no muscle car should have four doors. second it has a big engine but it isn't at all like the 426 hemi that was feared on the street and the strip. dodge says on their website that it has more power per litre than the old one, well what a surprise (sarcasm) i mean now they have fuel injection, overhead cams, and lighter internals (as well as other things that increase efficiency). in terms of looks, it looks cool, i have to give it that, but it takes nothing from the old ones. this new one isn't a muscle car, at best it's a pony car. in my oppinion it's just a luxury car (300c) with a bored out truck engine.

I feal about the same about the GTO but at leased it has 2 doors, but it looks nothing like the old one, it's obvious in this one and in the charger that the companies are just using the historical names to sell cars.

Now for the ford mustang, finally a car that has it right. it looks alot like the old one, it has styling cues from the old one, it has good power, it handles well but not as well as the european cars in the same class, it's cheap. the one thing i would have liked would be the return of the 302 (the 5.0L) V8 to fit in with the older looks, i mean it totally makes sense, a car that looks like a classic mustang, put in the engine that has been with the mustang for longer than any other engine. but other than that i think it's great.

[BlackGT2000]

I agree with you for the most part. I love the new mustang. They have kept it to its roots and haven't changed too much, only refined it. The GTO, its ok its fast and effective, but pricey and for the most part looks like a Grand Prix. The Charger I have to say is very disappointing. Its huge and 4 door. It can't even be considered a pony car because of the 4 doors. All it is, is a overpowered sedan. Maybe they figure that with all its passenger space someone can chip in and defray some of the cost for the driver just to fill up the tank.

[fairladyz_gt-r]

i like the aus version of the GTO, don't know how to spell it, but the RHD version is sexy! and man 6litre V8, also due to the simplicity of the car it should be a joy to drive one

[Zachp911]

I agree that the new Charger is a disgrace, same with the GTO. I'm not a muscle car fan at all, but the new Mustang GT isnt that bad.

[z5ctz]

I also enjoy the new gt its performance is getting better, the new GTO is nice also , but its price is still up there. I also enjoy the 03/04 cobras, so much bang for the buck.

[beef_bourito]

i think the new cobra is cool but i think the engine is too small, i mean in '67 and '68, the two years when the gt-500 were available, it had one of the biggest engines on the market. it had the 428 in '67 and the 428 cobra jet in '68. this engine was bigger than the GTO's engine at that time and almost as big as the largest, no the most powerful, dodge engine, but it was bigger than the 426 hemi. so i think they should have a bigger engine than the GTO. although supercharging it, you might say, makes up for it in power. well yes it does... stock. if you had a bigger engine you could supercharge it and get even more power out of it, more displacement=more potential. i think a 7.0L engine would be perfectly reasonable, well maybe not to many tree hugging gas economisers, but i think it should at leased be bigger than the GTO's to sport the gt-500's badge.

[BlackGT2000]

I don't see ford developing a new 7 liter motor just to put in a mustang. As it stands the car is supposed to sell for under 40000. It also has more motor than the GTO can handle. I would say they made the right choice as far as motors go.

[flatlander757]

i like the new GTO design and power-wise, with the exception that it doesn't have a solid rear axle. and it should not be called a GTO.
as far as body shapes go heres an analogy:
old GTO:new bar of soap::new GTO:used/rounded out bar of soap


i like the new mustang, but the engine is too small, and it needs some good old pushrod power(read: resurrection of the 5.0, just redone a bit). i hate the ugly freaking booger green color, those ponies should all be lead to slaughter

i do not like the new charger one bit: ugly, 4 doors, looks like a 300c

i love all camaros, but im biased

aside from the charger, i like most of the newer "muscle cars"(note term being used very loosely), but honestly i would take any of their old late 60s over them any day. if i could afford the gas for them

[v10_viper]

Charger:

4 doors, all I'm going to say about design. Engine and performance wise, it's not too bad.

New Mustang: Ford did awesome in making the new mustang, good handling, acceleration, I'm also dissappointed in only having a 4.6 but I've heard good about it. Price is awesome factor too. (I hate Ford, just so you know, cuz it really doesn't sound like it).


GTO: I love it for performance, and I do like it's looks a lot, although I would have like something more agressive, and since I can't afford any of the cars so far I could care less if it's 40 grand, it's an awesome car that GM didn't do too bad on, they wanted it in a hurry and never could have came up with something better looking in the amount of time. I think it was just something that popped up one day and they didn't want to spend tons of money designing it when they knew it would sell because of the name, but the sales didn't turn out to be so great either.

Camaro: Perfect. LS1, manual, solid rear axle. Interior's were decent for a 20-30 grand car.

[TatII]

i absolutely hate the new charger. there is nothing attractive about the body design. i mean it basically looks like an uglier dodge magnum.

i must admit the new 05 ford mustang GT's don't look too bad even though i hate how they're just doing retro styling and calling it quits.

the 04 GTO with the LS2 is very nice, i love the dual exhuast. even though most say it looks like a beefed up cavilier ( and i agree ) that doesn't mean its a bad looking car. beefed up caviliers looks okay to me.

out of the three i would pick the GTO, no retro styling, better interior then the ford, and better performance also. i would pick the ford next , and i would never take the charger... EVER!!! i would rather take the 300C SRT8 over that POS anyday.

[Muscletang]

Magnum + 300C + Viper + Intreped + Neon + a little out of every Dodge car and truck = THE NEW CHARGER!

If you'd like a Grand Am with a LS-2 in it then by all means get a GTO.

The new Mustang is awesome BUT Ford messed it up with all the computer controls. I hear the computer needs to be re-tuned after you put in something as simple as a cold air kit.

As for the Camaro, it's an awesome car and the SS was the best bang for the buck...right behind the Cobra

[BlackGT2000]

Originally Posted by Muscletang

Magnum + 300C + Viper + Intreped + Neon + a little out of every Dodge car and truck = THE NEW CHARGER!

If you'd like a Grand Am with a LS-2 in it then by all means get a GTO.

The new Mustang is awesome BUT Ford messed it up with all the computer controls. I hear the computer needs to be re-tuned after you put in something as simple as a cold air kit.

As for the Camaro, it's an awesome car and the SS was the best bang for the buck...right behind the Cobra

I heard the same thing about the computer. I am sure I would get a predator tuner for that car. All those governors and crap. I heard with just a retune it shaved a few tenths off.

[LancerZero]

Let me tell you all where the new GTO got its styling: GM did something stupid. They took the body of a cult favorite performance coupe sold only in Australia, slapped a legendary US musclecar name on it, and started selling it. I don't get it either.

I remember reading a performance test where they took a bunch of restored pony and muscle cars and compared them to the new versions. In some tests the old ones did fairly well, but in most respects the new ones performed much better than the old.

I actually sorta like the new Charger, but I'm disappointed they didn't take a hint from the huge success of Ford's new Mustang to take more styling cues fron the original. Instead, it looks like a sedan version of the Magnum with a Dakota front end. The police interceptor version of that car could be scary, though. More intimidating than a Crown Vic or an Impala.

On an almost-related sidenote, I found two funny things the other day: a pair of titular pony cars from the '80s. One, a 1986 ( or was it 85?) Camaro Z28 with a V-8 making a paltry 155hp, and a four cylinder Mustang from about the same time making only 88 hp! It should be a crime to put the Mustang name on such a vehicle.