Pony/Muscle Cars - Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Genesis (?)

[Displaced Flames fan]

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Dodge Challenger is, by far, the best looking North American vehicle in a long, long time. Absolutely gorgeous car.

[Royle9]

Before I purchased my Genesis last year I test drove the both the Mustang and the Charger. Each had their own perks I just found by the time I priced out what I wanted in the Mustang/Charger I was well over what I was willing to pay and in the end decided on the Genesis turbo.

As for the wing badge replacement, those pictures make it look pretty poor I agree, when done properly it sits flush and looks like its stock. Although I don't like the front badge so I will be replacing the whole grill instead, but do have the back wing badge which doesn't look out of place.

2013's are nice, but most of what you see (hood vents/skirt vents) are actually just for show, they don't even open up into anything which seems kind of cheap. The added HP is nice, but still obtainable through re-flash modules you can purchase/tune yourself for the 2010-12's.

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Dodge Challenger is, by far, the best looking North American vehicle in a long, long time. Absolutely gorgeous car.

Yea, if all you want is something to look at its great.

Its also a boat, underpowered, has bad ergonomics, is made with cheap materials, and has less bells and whistles.

I like the look of them, but i just cant get over their performance. All ive heard is that they are heavy boats that handle about as good as their 1970's predecessors.




Now that i think about it, there was a story Top Gear did about 5 years ago on the old GT500. It basically stated that "if all you want was a mustang that looks good and goes fast in a straight line, then why not buy the one that has the pedigree (referring to a 1960's GT350)"

It's a pretty good idea IMO. At least the Mustang could be considered a drivers car, the new Challenger is awful in that regards.

[Red John]

Lots of Mustang fanboys it would appear.

Nobody is denying that the Mustang right now is a faster car and cheaper than the Camaro and Challenger.

When car shopping, drove the Mustang 5.0 GT last year. Fantastic car...and tons of fun.

But ended up buying a Camaro SS anyway. Why? Simply put, the Camaro is a better looking car, was basically as fast (for the 99% who aren't going to be track driving, a difference of 0.2 seconds from 0-100 isn't going to be the deciding factor on what car to buy), and there aren't a million of them littered all over the road.

Everyone has different priority scale on what is important to them in a car. This poster found it important to drive a car that wasn't as common on the road. Obviously Camaros had an 8-year hiatus and Challengers even longer than that so of course there will be more Mustangs on the road, but nonetheless...and there are a lot of middle-aged women driving V6 Mustang convertibles around, cars which really were quite poor before the Challenger and Camaro came back, forcing Ford to up their game.

The Camaro has weight issues no doubt, the Zeta platform is admittedly a big and bulky one for building a pony car on. But like the Challenger, there aren't many on the road and that makes them more unique (in Canada anyways, tons in the States). It has a cachet about it which was helped along by the Transformer movies...and that new ZL1 is one FANTASTIC car.

For all the Camaro's problems with weight and such, the Challenger has even more. The SRT8 Challenger is great under the hood...but it is about $10K pricier than the Camaro/Mustang and Dodge never seemed serious about getting curb weight down and handling up. The Challenger has the best interior of the three but that's not what most folks look for when buying a pony car...which makes it funny to see posters complaining about the Camaro's cheap plastic interior.

In some ways, this is the best time to be a pony car fan as Ford and GM are constantly pushing each other to put a better car out there...but that competition combined with an increasing environmental awareness could be taking the vehicles in a bad direction. Camaro is talking about a twin-turbo V6 model for the next generation. Mustang is going to add independent rear suspension and it seems all the new concepts out there favour the direction of European-styling instead of the old-school American way with a small-block V8. The fact that the Genesis is now considered a pony car is a slap in the face enough as it is.

Certainly hope that the heritage and throw-back aura of these cars gets preserved rather than succumbing to the new age mantra of fuel efficiency and European styling.

[Northendzone]

does the genesis really fit in with the pony cars?

personally, i'd lean towards the mustang because i am a ford guy. that being said, the camaro and challenger are nice looking rigs.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Table 5

You know with all these nice cars on this forum, one of these days we should hold a CP car meet. Maybe hold a BBQ or something.

Of course then we'd have to talk face to face, which is always sub-optimal.

If you guys are down, I could arrange to shuffle some cars on our used car lot, and make some space, and we could do a barbeque out back on a Sunday or something.

It would be cool, I would love to see some of the rides you guys have.

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Red John

Lots of Mustang fanboys it would appear.

Nobody is denying that the Mustang right now is a faster car and cheaper than the Camaro and Challenger.

When car shopping, drove the Mustang 5.0 GT last year. Fantastic car...and tons of fun.

But ended up buying a Camaro SS anyway. Why? Simply put, the Camaro is a better looking car, was basically as fast (for the 99% who aren't going to be track driving, a difference of 0.2 seconds from 0-100 isn't going to be the deciding factor on what car to buy), and there aren't a million of them littered all over the road.

Everyone has different priority scale on what is important to them in a car. This poster found it important to drive a car that wasn't as common on the road. Obviously Camaros had an 8-year hiatus and Challengers even longer than that so of course there will be more Mustangs on the road, but nonetheless...and there are a lot of middle-aged women driving V6 Mustang convertibles around, cars which really were quite poor before the Challenger and Camaro came back, forcing Ford to up their game.

The Camaro has weight issues no doubt, the Zeta platform is admittedly a big and bulky one for building a pony car on. But like the Challenger, there aren't many on the road and that makes them more unique (in Canada anyways, tons in the States). It has a cachet about it which was helped along by the Transformer movies...and that new ZL1 is one FANTASTIC car.

For all the Camaro's problems with weight and such, the Challenger has even more. The SRT8 Challenger is great under the hood...but it is about $10K pricier than the Camaro/Mustang and Dodge never seemed serious about getting curb weight down and handling up. The Challenger has the best interior of the three but that's not what most folks look for when buying a pony car...which makes it funny to see posters complaining about the Camaro's cheap plastic interior.

In some ways, this is the best time to be a pony car fan as Ford and GM are constantly pushing each other to put a better car out there...but that competition combined with an increasing environmental awareness could be taking the vehicles in a bad direction. Camaro is talking about a twin-turbo V6 model for the next generation. Mustang is going to add independent rear suspension and it seems all the new concepts out there favour the direction of European-styling instead of the old-school American way with a small-block V8. The fact that the Genesis is now considered a pony car is a slap in the face enough as it is.

Certainly hope that the heritage and throw-back aura of these cars gets preserved rather than succumbing to the new age mantra of fuel efficiency and European styling.

Ill agree there arnt as many Camaros as there are Mustangs but there sure are a lot of them still, i see them pretty constantly around, they look good from the front but from the rear and side... uggh, just cant agree with the styling. The new Mustang is good but just sort of "meh" for me. The GT500 is a beastly looking car though.

Sad thing is the ZL1 is actually slower than the current 2012 GT500... the 2013 650HP one is going to decimate it.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by pylon

If you guys are down, I could arrange to shuffle some cars on our used car lot, and make some space, and we could do a barbeque out back on a Sunday or something.

It would be cool, I would love to see some of the rides you guys have.

I'd bust out my Stang for something like that.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by pylon

If you guys are down, I could arrange to shuffle some cars on our used car lot, and make some space, and we could do a barbeque out back on a Sunday or something.

I'd definitely be into that.

Especially if you'd bust out the Rx7 you bought last year.

Double especially if you'd have a Golf R for us to take turns trying out.

[Regulator75]

I'd take the Nissan GT-R over any of the above cars.

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

I'd take the Nissan GT-R over any of the above cars.

100K GTR is not the same as 40K Mustang.

[Table 5]

Well yeah, I'm sure most would, but that thing is thrice the price of anything we discussed.

[Burninator]

/\ And you would be paying double everything mentioned in this thread...Ferrari's are neato too


What about the Mitsubishi Evo or Subaru STi? I suppose they are not really pony or muscle cars per se but they are fast and handle better than all of them. And with 4 doors and AWD they are almost practical vehicles.

[Burninator]

Also from Subaru is the new BRZ. 200hp RWD so it might be a little light on the ponies for you.


Looks like Subaru also has a new c******** for Table 5's enjoyment.

[Regulator75]

Ahhh, my bad.

Carry on.

[Table 5]

Don't mention the C word in this thread.

I'm totally looking foward to the BRZ. That car is right up my alley... negligible power, but light and thoroughly tossable.....kind of like my current car. Can't wait to get a chance to test one out.

[photon]

They had one on a podium at the car show, it looked pretty cool, I didn't know they were coming out with that kind of car so I kept looking at it trying to figure out what it was.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I'd definitely be into that.

Especially if you'd bust out the Rx7 you bought last year.

Double especially if you'd have a Golf R for us to take turns trying out.

Rx-7 turned out to be either a combination of either a rebuild or theft recovery, or a vin plate switch. The seller and I quit trying once we found out the odo was a replacement, and the car was originally US spec'd. The car was perfect, but I couldn't trust it's origin with what I paid. So the dude who sold it to me unwound the deal no questions asked.

The color combination on the car was impossible to match the year/spec is what set my radar off after some research. It ended up with a tuner south of the border for pretty much what I paid, and who knows how molested it is now which is a shame.

I will not have a Golf R unfortunately. Sold them all out a year ago, and they have all been picked up over the last few weeks.

I am sure we have a sweet low mileage 99 Intrepid RT we can bust out though.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by pylon

I am sure we have a sweet low mileage 99 Intrepid RT we can bust out though.

Set up some (ahem) pylons in the parking lot and we can have ourselves a good time with a CP autocross.

Sorry to hear about the RX7....that one did sound like it was a little too good to be true. It's a shame it's almost impossible to find one these days that hasn't been riced out.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Set up some (ahem) pylons in the parking lot and we can have ourselves a good time with a CP autocross.

Sorry to hear about the RX7....that one did sound like it was a little too good to be true. It's a shame it's almost impossible to find one these days that hasn't been riced out.

I do have my 135i though. I have the Berger motorsports tuner box for it, and once I put it in, it boosts the thing to something ridiculous like 420 HP, and 400+ foot pounds. That is in early 2000's 996 turbo range.

So I still have a toy.