[VADER SS L99]

Originally Posted by fielderLS3

Little gain? To hell with the expense? This is exactly the point I was trying to make. Who here thinks GM should have saved money by putting the 3.9L V6 out of the Impala into the Camaro LT instead of the 3.6L?

As for the V8s, Fords 5.0L makes as much power with 74 fewer cubic inches of displacement, and gets significantly better fuel economy without resorting to cylinder deactivation systems that limit what you can do with exhaust systems. I know that no one here thinks they care about fuel economy, but you will if the next Camaro SS is forced to go to a turbo V6 instead of a V8 because GM can't get their inefficient pushrod engines past escalating CAFE requirements. I'm not trying to start an argument about or support CAFE, I'm just pointing out a reality that has to be dealt with in the very near future. These cars are not being built in a vacuum. Other considerations have to be taken into account besides drag racing. They have to compete in the same environment as every other car out there.





The Mustangs SRA has been a detriment to both the Mustang and Ford in general. It's been reported that the Mustang's SRA, due to limited part sharing, has actually cost Ford more per car than using an IRS would have. It is also a big reason why any notion of other RWD Ford cars being sold in the US market have fallen through.

There is a reason why the Mustang is the ONLY SRA car sold in the US that isn't a truck. If these cars are going to be successful in the marketplace they are going to have to be built for mass appeal, and sold to people who occasionally drive off a dragstrip around such road challenges as corners, and worse, over road hazards known as bumps. I understand why some want to keep it old school for drag racing and modding purposes, but at the same time, you have to realize that if these cars don't keep up with the rest of the automotive world technology wise, they may end up going out of production all together, just like the 4th gen Camaro did.

So what would you rather have, IRS and DOHC cars in prodction, or SRA and pushrod cars out of production?

The Camaro's Mpg is a result of weight, not pushrod tech. If the Camaro was 3500lbs it would get as good or better mpg than the smaller displacement DOHC Coyote motor. The Corvette has no problem with mpg and my bolt on 4th gen with a automatic trans got 28mpg. I know of some Vette owners getting above 30mpg with over 400RWHP. All it would take for the LS3 motor to get better mpg in the Camaro is less weight. I think in the future the gen V motor will have direct injection and VVT and that will make it very productive even for a pushrod motor. Put the new gen V motor with direct injection and VVT in 3200-3500lb F and Y bodies and you will see a major improvement in MPG.