Well, Tom, I hear ya. But, my point is the Vette is designed to do the twisties well too. But, after car rag writers get done hyperventilating over 1/4 mile times, how often do they take the Vette and a challenger (Mustang, Dodge, whatever) out on a road track?

One of my favorite examples happened at a C4 gathering at Bowling Green one year.

As part of the NCM attractions, Corvette testing engineer, Jim "Jingles" lead a group of L98 powered C4s on a winding, hilly route through the Kentucky hills. When they stopped for some refreshments, a guy in a Mustang showed up too, and began running his mouth about how his ride could (kick-azz). He was being quite annoying about it too!

Finally, when Jim was about to lead the group out to continue the run, he invited Mr. Mustang to try to keep up with him. The story goes that in short order the Vette had put the Mustang guy so far back that he was out of sight - and he apparently turned off somewhere and disappeared (to avoid having to face his embarrassment)! (Or, as some joked later, maybe he slipped off the road and crashed somewhere!?)

Like Rick(?) mentioned: I'd like to see a stock 2+ ton Challenger try to pass (or even keep up with) a stock C7 Z06 at the NCM track.

A lot of L98 guys take a lot of guff from faster 1/4 mile cars. But, the shoe is on the other foot when the contest is expanded to include turns. I'm just sayin, car rags and their staff writers that get all agog over 1/4 mile times are either shilling for the car companies, or really are ignorant as they seem.

 

I completely agree.

 

Consistant with my age and the first vette I drove/rode in, I judge all cars with the benchmark of a 61 fuelie vette. Back in my day, they were the hot ticket for a used car (1966). Yes there were a handful of faster cars. My bench mark was set at the 14 second and 100mph mark. Anything under 15 sec started to be fast in my book. I wasn't much into road curves back thren, we did our thing in a straight line... even some evenings on the street ( yes, it was stupid back then as it is now a days). Anyway, I was up at the drag strip in Indy( this past summer), racing my 86 on a test and tune night. Several vettes were there,I was the only one racing mine.Its stock.Lots of cars beat me, some blowing my doors off (new mustang, GTOs, camaro or two). A hellcat showed up. Say what you want, that thing is flat out fast. I was very impressed. Still. I love my little L-98 86 and am happy it will at least turn the tires over. Don't know if the hell cat can go around corners or not, doesn't matter to me..that 1/4 mile run said it all to me.

 

great to see you posting again. i like all fast cars! cept the mid 80's mustangs they look horrible to me!

 

Miss my 86 4 eyed 5.0
90k mi of hammering on it couldnt kill that thing, good times.
beating an auto TPI vette was a bid deal back then the C4 could leave the line pretty good

 

Struck a nerve with that post. I just sold a Charger R/T and bought a 300. The market is in the gutter for these cars after a few years.

I know the hemi Charger is not quite the same as a Challenger, but they are both big cars and I thought they were almost the same weight. Although I haven't driven the Challengers, I can say that the hemi Charger does not handle nearly as well as the Corvettes. Mine was not the latest one or a Hellcat, but it was slower than the Corvettes for acceleration. If the Challenger is about the same weight as the Charger I would expect results to be similar.

Although I don't think they compare very well in performance, I still like them. My Charger was a nice car for my wife's daily driver. We put about 80k on mine and it was a good every day car and still some fun too.