When you think about cars built in America, an image of a dragstrip with cans and banners of bud light comes to mind. For a long period, that was true. American cars were always built to do incredible speeds in straight lines; they were built with the drag enthusiast in mind.
Now, what if we told you a Mustang can take on the likes of Porsches and Lotuses on a track? Ridiculous right? Well, no.
Ford is changing the game. We already spoke about their hot-hatch, the RS in our third installment. We even spoke about their new GT500. What we did not mention till now was their trackstar – the GT350.
It features a 5.2L V8 with a flat-plane crank which has 526 ponies. It has a six-speed manual transmission. It has magnetorheological dampers. It’s chassis is set up to take on Porsches and BMWs. Ford has also focused on shedding weight in the Mustang to make it more nimble.
Ford has built a proper machine for the track. In our books, this is the most exciting Ford Mustang to come out of the factory – ever.
That flat-plane crank also makes this machine rev to 8000 rpm and it sounds fantastic.
Ford isn’t the only American to attempt to best Europe.
The eighth generation of the Corvette has been released and it has gone MID-ENGINE!
They are still powered by a 6.2L V8 that now sits behind the driver. All of the 495hp goes through a dual-clutch transmission. It is also reported that it’ll run to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds.
While the purist still believe this is blasphemy, this is an exciting new direction for the Corvette. Sounds like they, like Ford, want to take on Europeans too.
We wonder what other American car will follow suit. Stay tuned.
12 Days of Carsmas
So, point America? Or point Europe?
Check in daily as we post a new car for every day of carsmas.
You can see the entire list here: https://mikaniki.com/news/2019/12/the-12-days-of-carsmas/
