Funny thing this fall, Ford is bailing out on performance across the board.

1. After three decades, they have dropped sponsorship of the most successful drag racing team/program in history. Force racing announced that they are no longer under the Ford umbrella.

2. After ten years of owning the muscle/pony scene, they dropped the 662 horsepower 5.8 supercharged engine from production.

3. The GT 500 is gone. Shelby sold all of the intellectual property, Cobra, GT 350 and 500, etc to Ford. The next GT350 will be a 2017 model.

I called down to Shelby American this afternoon, and they have no clue what is going on, other than that they are pretty well screwed. They may have to buy new Mustangs and do packages without Ford's assistance.

Soooooooooooooo...

580HP Camaro's and a new Z28.

Dodge, can you say "707 HP Hellcat"

Ford, diddly...

When just about every other car company is running in the other direction, Ford is putting applesauce and cookies under the hood. With gas prices dropping like a stone, horsepower is king once again. Someone at Ford didn't get that memo.

Horsepower may be king once again, but the question is: How do you get that horsepower? High capacity is one way, the old fashioned way, the Europeans and Japs are taking a different direction, turbos, twin turbos and superchargers etc. etc and their vehicles are no slouches. It used to be that the standard was 0-60 in 6 seconds. Now even sedans achieve that with ease.
Not an expert,
Peter.

Oh, yeah, the new mustang does have a turbo-4 cylinder package that makes 310 horsepower...

F TYPE (R) 500 HP, 5 litre, V8 SUPERCHARGED. 0-60 in 4 seconds. Why go from one extreme to the other?
Audi RS 5 4.2L V8 450 HP (variable valve timing), no turbo!
Audi V10's (5 litre) over 700 HP. Pricey though!
Why can't US manufacturers do this?
Peter.

Personally I am waiting for the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V. 455 hp with a 0-60 in 4.9 with a top speed of 190 (not that that matters much on the street). But will certainly take a BMW M-3/M-4 and dance all around it with ease on the street or track along with most anything else under $120,000.

Yep a Cadillac. What goes around comes around.

Opus, I tend to agree. Chevy Corvettes and the new ATS both look like they can compete with the Europeans in performance and handling. Good for them. Having said that, over $100K for a car is stretching it a bit, IMHO.
Peter.

In regards to a track car, you would be hard pressed to beat the ATS-V. Remember that the CTS-V broke the Nurburgring track record for a production car on street tires. The ATS-V promises more with a better power to weight ratio...

In addition, for straight line acceleration, it's pretty rarefied air for sub 5s 0-60 under $120K.

Opus 1,

you are correct, the list is a very short one.

Starts with the Hellcat, 707 HP at $59,995.

The dealer by me sold two hell-cats for 20k over sticker. He has more waiting for them at that price

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
Horsepower may be king once again, but the question is: How do you get that horsepower? High capacity is one way, the old fashioned way, the Europeans and Japs are taking a different direction, turbos, twin turbos and superchargers etc.

Regular GT500 Shelby Mustangs of recent times used the Eaton-design super-charger,
(as factory fitted on their supercharged crate engine)
The more elite higher HP Shelby GT500 SuperSnake and the Shelby 1000,
used the superior-higher flow KB design 3.6L-LC mammoth supercharger.

Shelby has also teamed with Nelson Racing Engines, to do a 1000+rwhp twin-Turbo GT500.( called "Code Red" )

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
The dealer by me sold two hell-cats for 20k over sticker. He has more waiting for them at that price

Chrysler wants those dealers reported to them. They made a pledge from the beginning that dealer gouging would not be acceptable.

The Hellcat was represented as a production line car not a limited edition.

Here is the dealer. They have a black one coming in.
http://www.nielsendodge.com/ne...5c8536d4b52bb4a0.htm

there are two in this month's DuPont Registry for $85,000. I forwarded the data to Chrysler Customer Service.

Not allowing dealer gouging is good business. That is the stand Harley-Davidson took with their dealers back in the mid-late 90's. Any dealer caught would lose their H-D dealership. They stated they would fill any Hellcat orders that came in regardless of the amount...that it is a production car altogether. Now lets see if they are going to honor their word. I am betting they don't do shit about the scalpers as they really have no honor...it's just about money and that's it. That is why GM performance cars have the following they do....GM knows who keeps coming back for those Camaros, Caddys and Vettes. Dodge is just a 1 car wonder!

I guy at work is actively looking for now. Cannot find one for less than 20 over sticker. If Chrysler is going after these dealers they are not doing a good job.

turns out that some dealers buy their units as they are unloaded, the rest finance thru Chrysler.

The ones that own their inventory can charge what the market will bear.

My local guy says Chrysler can "influence" the markups by adjusting the financing dealers interest rate.

He also told me they have two ordered, but may not see them for six to eight months.

Let's see. Chrysler is selling as many of these as they can make, right? Can I ask a dumb question? Why not make more?
Peter.

While it may sound simple, parts are ordered for production runs long before production runs begin. You just can't suddenly decide to "make more". Plus there is the exclusivity factor - flooding the market can be counterproductive.