The new 5.0 GT has spectacular potential for light modding. Contrary to what most people here wish to believe, it DOES respond well to minor bolt ons like a cai/tune/exhaust. However, the weakness in the motor itself lies in 2 areas. 1) the internals are NOT very strong, according to my sources its got the same toothpick I-beam rods my car has, and rods are usually the weak link when it comes to internals. this, coupled with the stock 11:1 SCR, means that while this car will make power on boost, its not a setup you can "set and forget"......it would seem to me that anything over 6 PSI is pretty risky on the new coyote motor, you can't just supercharge it and run it every day and beat on it. In addition, naturally aspirated mods are pretty limited. It is an OHC motor, and i don't think you can swap cams/heads and get 500 rwhp like its been shown is possible on an LS3. Plus, the stock heads on the 5.0 already flow better than stock gt500 heads, so im not sure what, if any, room there is for improvement other than eliminating emissions chamfering and other such factory crap.
my opinion? for small bolt on mods the 5.0 has great bang for the buck. but it just doesn't have the bigtime, long-term potential of the LS3.
metaphorically speaking, its like the mustang has 4.10's that run out real soon and the camaro has 3.08's..........the mustang will jump ahead in the short term but the Camaro has the hardware to really reel it in when you wanna start getting up into some serious power.
It's interesting because the debate doesn't seem to be in a style where its like "which is faster so i can buy that car?" people generally choose a car on some sort of gut feeling (or even brand loyalty) and then worry about bench racing and which is faster. I'm STRONGLY leaning towards the SS because........well it's just got that musclecar charisma and swaggers like a badass in a way that just doesn't seem present in the new mustang. Yea, it's an emotional thing, but at the end of the day, which car do you want to hop in and rip around town in? Are you gonna be sitting at a red light sweating a .2 second ET difference or 1 or 2 mph in the big end? i doubt it.
one thing that does disturb me, however.......is the issue of TRAP SPEEDS. I know i know, its all about ET, but to me the real measure of how much fun a car is is in the trap speed, because that shows how hard the car pulls and for me, a car that pulls like a motherf**er is more important than one that posts good numbers just by getting a great launch.................The mustang seems to have gotten a 118 mph trap speed with BOLT ONS..........but for some reason very few SS's, even those with swapped cams, seem to be getting much higher than 112? is there a reason for this? When i look through the fastest times, there seems to be a cut off (especially with bolt-on cars) that's right around 113 mph......................any thoughts?
EDIT: didn't realize theres no language filter on here
