Chevrolet will need a massive infusion of horsepower for the Corvette. They can’t let a GT hang with the LS-6 Z-06s. The 04 will have 405, which sounded like 10,000 about 14 years ago.
The Carrera GT has 600+. The Bugatti Veyron will have over 1000. Trickle down, baby.
I tell you, if the production '05 Mustang comes out looking essentially like that concept vehicle, I WILL have to buy one. That is an absolutely gorgeous car. And with modern traction control, I imagine you could even drive it in the winter (winter driving issues caused me to abandon my RWD sports cars 10 years ago).
The current Mustang Cobra is only a hair behind the Vette right now.
But hey, if you want to see a Ford spank the Chevy top-end sports car, look past the Mustang, and feast your eyes on the 2004 Ford GT. This is one of the most beautiful cars ever made. And, it’s got 500HP, goes 180+, and handles like a race car. Because it is a race car. A production, street legal race car.
Ford is the indisputable king of domestic sports cars with this beast.
Sam, you’re not gonna believe this, but there’s a genuine GT40 in Gulf Oil livery which drives on the road in my local town. For your reference, my home city is called The Gold Coast and it’s very “Malibu” if you know what I mean. But hell, I was born here - not my fault if it turned into a wannabe French Riviera - but nontheless, I actually cornered the guy in a gas station one day and openly challenged him…
“Go on, tell the truth, that’s a model isn’t it? A mock up?”
But he assured me it was the real thing. He opened the engine bay and showed me all of the original Ford id plates etc. Interestingly, I always though the GT40 had some giant all alloy 7 litre engine in it, but this car had an all alloy quad cam donk based on the 289ci Mustang of the day. Very high compression and red lined at about 9,500 rpm.
And boy, is it low… really, really low…
The owner told me he doesn’t drive it often, but when he does, it’s quite tractable - even in stop go traffic.