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Originally Posted by Idaho2018GTPremium
I like Deth's idea of keeping the Hellcat and selling the ZL1 for a C8, since the Hellcat is more comfortable and has a larger passenger and trunk space than the ZL1. You'd have your comfy GT cruiser with tons of power, and your "true" sports car (I know the ZL1 is essentially a "sports" car, but, semantics). Anyway...
For me, personally from a package standpoint, I like options and safety tech. That was a big selling point for me with the Mustang GT Premium and safe and smart package. My Mustang has heated and cooled seats, and I love them. Never realized how much I'd like that feature until I had it. If ordering a C8, I would get a 2LT package at minimum (would want the 3LT but that would depend on cost), and probably with the Z51 package. I would prefer a C8 over a Hellcat (and ZL1 and GT500 at similar price ranges) if I had to choose between the two.
I am surprised the 3LT doesn't have all the latest safety tech, including auto braking/collision warning, lane keep alert/assist, and adaptive cruise control or auto high beams. I didn't notice those as even options on the 3LT package but could have missed it in my scan of the options sheet. The auto braking/collision has proven to significantly reduce the number of crashes in cars with the tech. (by around 50% give or take), and reduce injury when crashes do occur because the brakes are automatically applied before the human can react and apply the brakes.
495 hp and ~3,550 lbs is ~7.2 lbs/ hp ratio. Pretty good by historical standards. That's like having 620 hp in your 4,450 lbs Hellcat. The torque rating is pretty darn good for an N/A engine (470 ft-lbs). I remember back in the 90s and early 2000s the LT1s and LS1s of that day making like around 340 ft-lbs and those were "torquey" engines. Now my Gen 3 5.0 Coyote makes 420 ft-lbs and is not that torquey compared to the current LT1 that makes 455 ft lbs. To be fair, the Gen 3 5.0 makes quite a bit more low and mid range torque than Gen 2 Coyotes for those that haven't driven an '18+ (and the 3.55 torsen rear diff on my PP1 w/ A10 really helps multiply the torque, too). Anyway, times have changed! It's great to be a car guy in today's day and age.
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They probably left out some of those features to keep costs and weight down. If it strikes at $59,999.99, it still would be under $60K but all those extra features would have pushed it over. They could have kept them as options for the 2LT and 3LT, but then maybe it would have pushed them higher than their target pricing limit (or whatever it's called) for the market. I don't think a lot of those features are necessary tho. Corvette owners are a different breed than Camaro and Mustang owners...even Bullitt, ZL1 GT350, GT500 Mustang and Camaro guys. Maybe they'll include them on the Z06s tho. You never know.
It will be a long hard decision on which car to part with. The Hellcat is a lease which is up in July so the easiest thing would be to turn it in. The ZL1 will have a lot of equity by then so I could do a trade in and that equity could go to the down payment. Or I could trade in the ZL1, turn in the Hellcat lease, grab a Base C8, and then picr car at some point to go along with it. Maybe a Trackhawk or something.
Anyway another thing that came to mind is the cost of modding these things. I'm assuming that with this design labor for things like a supercharger, turbo, cam will be thru the roof. I'd bet that the entire rear of the car would have to be disassembled or the engine would have to be dropped out to do a blower. That is unless there is some way to take the car apart from the top. And I'm assuming that any maintenance such as aftermarket supercharger belt replacements or spark plugs or injectors would also be labor intensive. The parts alone will be expensive. And then the manufacturers will have to worry about fitment and other issues even more so than with the current vehicles. I can see modding these cars being an expensive nightmare. Maybe when the Z06 comes out some of the companies can copy the supercharger design somewhat. But it still won't be cheap. Something to think about for those who might want a 1LT/2LT/3LT and figure they'll boost it at some point down the road. Could you imagine a belt snapping on one of those on a highway??