[detamble13]

I vote Boss 302.

[CHerna]

Give me any 1LE variant Camaro over a Boss.

[gpskinzhut]

V6 1LE. Get bored, throw some boost at it. I'd like to get hold of one eventually myself (V6 or T4) and drop it in the garage next to the SS for shits & giggles.

Only caveat is the compromises of the 6th gen, namely visibility and practicality.

[Malbjey]

Originally Posted by mungodrums

I am trying to decide between these two cars. I keep going back and forth. What I don't like about the Boss 302 and the supposedly crappy T-82 Getrag manual trans. What I don't like about the Camaro V6 1LE is the somewhat not so great visibility and not as "special" as the the Boss. My understanding is that all things being equal that the alpha chassis in the 6th. gen Camaros is superior to the one used in the Mustang. What would you guys choose? I find these two to be rougly around $31,000. Mostly street with maybe some beginner hpde. ger.

Do you still have the Corvette listed in your profile? If so, do you need another V8 car?


If you still got the Corvette then I vote V6 1LE for sure. It'll be cheaper to own. It takes 87 gas. It has a better interior IMHO (with exception of visibility). It'll have more modern technology, which will be awesome if you plan on daily driving the car.



As someone else mentioned, yea the Boss may be more 'special' because its rare. But who cares about special cars unless you're collecting garage queens. Buying a car for an investment doesn't make sense to me anyway. Throw your money in the damn stock market and get some real returns.

[plus1zero]

As much as I love the camaro, I'd take a boss 302 any day over a V6

I'd still say get a 16-18 SS, or a newer LT1 if the market ever decides to die down (not anytime soon though).

[Bosse'sBoss]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

It really comes down to how you use the car and your tolerance for compromise.

If it’s an everyday driver, there are points in favor of the Boss. Better visibility, better and more useable trunk space. There are points that work against the Boss. Most prominent (in my opinion) is the MT82. Every Mustang I’ve driven with MT82 has disappointed me. Last was a 2019 Bullitt. Keep in mind that the shifter is the thing that you come in contact with most in an MT equipped car, and if you hate it, it ruins the driving experience. Love the cue ball knob in the Bullitt, but absolutely hated the clutch feel and the shift feel. In contrast, the Tremec in the 1LE is how MTs are s’posed to feel.

If it’s a weekend warrior, the things that work in favor of the Boss are the exhaust note and the engine feel and power. The things that work against it are the MT82 (did I mention that I hate it?) and the live axle suspension. Stay away from Cars and Coffee .

If it’s a track car, I’d probably change out the transmission and call it a day. I’m not sure how the live axle impacts it on the track and I hear that Boss does kick ass on the track out of the box. If I were to find that the live axle is an issue, Steeda has a long history of upfitting Mustang suspensions for better performance.

Just my 2 cents based on my preferences.

I know that there are many comments about the MT82 shifter, but I never had a single issue neither on the track or street with my previous '11 Mustang GT 5.0 6MT, and it handled great even with the live axle, it could easily go H2H against the '11 BMW M3 (V8)

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

BOSS 302 no doubt. 444 hp Coyote engine vs. 335 hp V6? No competition in my mind.

[Hops]

Is this Boss the Laguna Secca Edition? I thought those were cool, that's the one listed the in Lightning Lap.

I would weigh a lot of the decision on the difference of condition/mileage between the two. The Mustang is almost 10 years old. But if Camaro is a 2017, that's not exactly new either.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by N Camarolina

Maybe I'm too practical a person to a fault, but I have to challenge this idea of "special" as a decision factor, if just for the sake of promoting some debate here.

If you are contemplating buying a car, and you have some options (like the OP does here), you have a list of pros and cons for each car (as have been brought up). But how does "special" become one of the defining pros, and what does "special" really mean?

[B]"They didn't make many of that particular model configuration"/B] So what? Unless you are a collector, shouldn't you be buying it based instead on the attributes that actually impact your day to day experience of driving the car (Performance, comfort, maybe looks, etc). You only get to drive this one car. Why should you care how many more of them are out there? By that measure, what if you are one of the first to buy a "standard model" car and it turns out the car has all kinds of problems and very few are ever sold before it's discontinued. Are you now the owner of a "special" car?

That one is a good bit better than than the usual version of that model car So what? The "special one" in this case still has a list of absolute pros and cons that you'll use to compare it to other vehicles. The fact that it's better than some lesser version of the same car is irrelevant at that point. If the standard Mustang is a dog and the "special" version is a dog with lipstick, or even a greyhound, does that mean it will compare more favorably to a tiger or a cheetah?

No one can objectively ever challenge what you are saying. For a lot of us when we say a car feels “special” we don’t 100% only mean it because it’s a limited production car. We are talking about it’s presence when we see one on the street. The way it feels when we drive it. I have turned the ignition on on a boss 302. Hearing it roar to life was a “special” event. You don’t hear them very often thus it feels very special to me. It also is a very nice driving vehicle. The roadrunner engine sounds different versus a coyote. Just an FYI I am someone who cross shopped a boss 302 versus a 16-18 SS. Obviously you can tell I went with the SS. Objectively it is better in every performance metric. However I do sometimes wish I had picked up the boss because of the feeling I get the 1 or 2 times I see them in the wild. I know my car is better but I respect the boss for what it was when it came out and for the fact that it’s still a pretty capable car. Not to mention it still feels like a muscle car which I do miss because 6th gens (aside from the push rod power) feel like sports cars (which is mostly a good thing) not muscle cars.

I’ll give you another example of a special car. The e46 and e92 m3’s have absolutely shot up in value. Objectively they are garbage compared to today’s performance. But right now a sub 60k mile e92 m3 is around 40 grand. Feature wise and performance wise it is way below any 6th gen SS but costs more than 16-18’s. People like the way they feel when they drive. It’s not necessarily that they are rare because they really aren’t.

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Bosse'sBoss

I know that there are many comments about the MT82 shifter, but I never had a single issue neither on the track or street with my previous '11 Mustang GT 5.0 6MT, and it handled great even with the live axle, it could easily go H2H against the '11 BMW M3 (V8)

I never had an “issue”. It just felt bad. To me. Others may feel differently. As part of my job in GM Competitor Intelligence before I retired, I had the opportunity to drive many many cars for the purpose of evaluating powertrain hardware and technology. Whenever I drove MT82 back to back with anyone else’s MTs in the same class vehicles, the MT82 came up lacking. Long throws, clunky movement, no sense of positive engagement to complete the shift. By comparison, Tremec MTs in the Camaro and in Shelby Mustangs had a much better feel. Shorter throws. Click-click engagement with every shift.

I imagine if I started out driving a car with an MT82 I’d be fine with it, but when I drive a Tremec or even several of the Asian branded MTs and THEN drive an MT82, it was always like “womp womp”.

[N Camarolina]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

No one can objectively ever challenge what you are saying. For a lot of us when we say a car feels “special” we don’t 100% only mean it because it’s a limited production car. We are talking about it’s presence when we see one on the street. The way it feels when we drive it. I have turned the ignition on on a boss 302. Hearing it roar to life was a “special” event. You don’t hear them very often thus it feels very special to me. It also is a very nice driving vehicle. The roadrunner engine sounds different versus a coyote. Just an FYI I am someone who cross shopped a boss 302 versus a 16-18 SS. Obviously you can tell I went with the SS. Objectively it is better in every performance metric. However I do sometimes wish I had picked up the boss because of the feeling I get the 1 or 2 times I see them in the wild. I know my car is better but I respect the boss for what it was when it came out and for the fact that it’s still a pretty capable car. Not to mention it still feels like a muscle car which I do miss because 6th gens (aside from the push rod power) feel like sports cars (which is mostly a good thing) not muscle cars.

I’ll give you another example of a special car. The e46 and e92 m3’s have absolutely shot up in value. Objectively they are garbage compared to today’s performance. But right now a sub 60k mile e92 m3 is around 40 grand. Feature wise and performance wise it is way below any 6th gen SS but costs more than 16-18’s. People like the way they feel when they drive. It’s not necessarily that they are rare because they really aren’t.

You make a good point. Sometimes it's the emotional response that a specific car can invoke that add to the driving experience. I think that's a legitimate pro to be considered. I just might choose another word to describe that rather than "special."

On the e46 and e92 m3’s, I've never owned one, but I've heard that the it's cherished because there's a pureness to the handling, especially on the track. It may not be as fast as current alternatives, but it's low weight and feedback provided through the steering wheel (perhaps similar to the idea of a Miata) are perhaps unmatched in today's cars. I guess that makes it "special," especially if you consider it was groundbreaking at the at the time. But I'd still choose to focus on the attributes as I've described them (pureness, lightweight, awesome handling and feedback) as it would help me decide between choosing it and something more modern that would offer other benefits that grew out of the move to digital age.

[JKSully]

Originally Posted by N Camarolina

You make a good point. Sometimes it's the emotional response that a specific car can invoke that add to the driving experience. I think that's a legitimate pro to be considered. I just might choose another word to describe that rather than "special."

Top Gear's James May calls it "the fizz".

[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by gpskinzhut

V6 1LE. Get bored, throw some boost at it. I'd like to get hold of one eventually myself (V6 or T4) and drop it in the garage next to the SS for shits & giggles.

Only caveat is the compromises of the 6th gen, namely visibility and practicality.

That V6 is not really able to handle boost, it's not the same situation as with an LT1. Plus, even if you managed to address the biggest issue, low-end torque, the weight you add will be detrimental to carrying the speed in corners with the current setup.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

I never had an “issue”. It just felt bad. To me. Others may feel differently. As part of my job in GM Competitor Intelligence before I retired, I had the opportunity to drive many many cars for the purpose of evaluating powertrain hardware and technology. Whenever I drove MT82 back to back with anyone else’s MTs in the same class vehicles, the MT82 came up lacking. Long throws, clunky movement, no sense of positive engagement to complete the shift.

Much of the blame here probably belongs with Ford's decision to remote-mount the shifter - mostly off of the body but with one or more links between the shifter and the transmission. Engine roll-over under certain conditions can misalign the actual shifter rod (and consequently the transmissions shifter rail) enough to balk a hard upshift. Not much different from the 3650's shifter configuration in the earlier 4.6L S197 GTs, and should not have been carried over.

FWIW, I put a Tremec 3550 in a '79 Malibu, so I realize how much nicer it is to have everything but the shift lever itself contained in the transmission or its tailshaft.

On shifter throws in general . . . the shorter you make them, the notchier the shifting tends to become, and that can be really unpleasant. Drag racing where milliseconds actually matter aside, those milliseconds "saved" aren't worth the aggravation.


Norm