Someone from Romeo...
Quote:
|
The media giants are strange. I work in the Romeo Engine Plant and have known about the new engine for months. Yes, there is a fifty million dollar investment in the plant; this is old news that has been in process for years, though our union is taking credit for it as part of the contract highlights. No, they do not have to ask the UAW’s permission, but they let them play the game. No, the money is not all for the new engine, mainly it is for the 5.0 liter machining of con-rods and other components for other Ford engines. The niche line, which will build the engine, is down now and being retooled for the new engine, and we are excited to see production start, but the union did not win this motor, and the investment is only partially for it.
|
All of KXRM's points are valid. In fact, when you start comparing advantages to an early release to the disadvantages... You start to question "why would anybody do anything different?". Performance models (pretty much everything in the Mustang and Camaro lineup) absolutely have to be available before the start of the racing season regardless of MY (in the customers hand). That being said, model years can be confusing when direct competitors do an offset release of their cars. It is true that both the 2012 ZL1 and the 2013 SVT Mustang will be available to order at the same exact time so aside from the model years, they will be in the ring together. I think that Chevrolet is doing a mid model year release because they didn't intend for SVT to keep laying down aces. I would have thought that being so close to the 2015 redesign, Ford would have just continued the GT500 as is or... discontinued the GT500 altogether due to the Shelby/Ford contract ending in CY13/MY12. Now that the ZL1 will be available to order Q1, it is highly unlikely that there will be a performance upgrade until Q1 2013. Releasing a more powerful 2013 ZL1 in June 6 months after the 2012 is released would kinda upset those that are still waiting for their '12 to be shipped. If Ford can beat the ZL1 with 591hp then I expect that is what they will go with so they have room in 2014 for a bigger bang if GM does move ahead. So goes the horsepower wars, buy today... slow tomorrow...
I am still waiting for suspension and tire details, could SVT move to a Ford Racing coil over? Will the rears be 19's and exceed 305s? Will the Goodyears be swapped for Pirelli's? Will SVT and Europe's RS try the Control Blade IRS on this hopefully new "Terminator"? One thing is for sure, they aim to make the Boss look slow and the best way to do that is adopt some of the Boss's character traits and add horsepower... and a lot of it...
The current GT500 is moving alarmingly close to the GTR and Z06 for the money... If you look at the 2011 GT500 at a place like Willow vs the other two behemoths, the GT500 was 3 seconds behind on a 1:20 minute lap. Since Willow is a very fast track (fast gradual turns with few carousels), simply multiplying that 3 seconds to get an feel for where the GT500 would be at in Germany (If the GT500 wasn't limited to 155mph). That would bring the outgoing GT500 very close to the current ZL1's lap time and was said that the Black GT500 mule was the outgoing car/engine (which was very close to that 7:41). If Ford wants to win a drag race then they can point you to a nice set of Weld Racing wheels and some ET slicks because a car with a 6.1 PtW ratio is going deep into the 10s with a change of wheel/tires. It is much more of a challenge to get the car to handle and challenge more expensive hardware for half the price.
Anyway, there are strong rumors of an automatic GT500/Cobra and that the new car will NOT be in LA (just the GT). It will show itself in Detroit in January and this car is a monster... Most likely a media piggyback off the ZL1. Everyone watches the ZL1 videos, sees the ZL1's performance numbers then.... Bam!!! Thanks for advertising...
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTAHVIT
...
|
Not really much you can say...