Chevrolet and Ford fans are always comparing numbers and considering how similar the Camaro and Mustang programs have been over the years, it’s easy to see why.
We’re happy to report that General Motors fans now have a new tidbit of information to drop on their Ford-loving friends: the Camaro ZL1 is much faster than the new 2020 Shelby Mustang GT500.
Ford, for unknown reasons, has slapped a top speed limited on the 2020 Shelby Mustang GT500, limiting it to a maximum velocity of 180 mph. The Camaro ZL1, meanwhile, won’t stop accelerating until it hits a supercar-baiting 202 mph.
The Mustang is slower than the ZL1 despite the fact that it is packing a 700+ hp 5.2-liter supercharged V8, which is quite a bit more powerful than the ZL1’s 650 hp 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 engine. Ford hasn’t dropped all the details on this new forced induction V8, however, so it’s unclear how much torque it is making.
Ford is probably more interested in how fast its 2020 Shelby Mustang GT500 will lap a race track than how fast it will go in a straight line. With available equipment like a rear spoiler wicker extension, GT4-style front splitter and carbon fiber wheels, it’s clear this Shelby has been engineered with the race track in mind.
That means it will have to dethrone the current pony car king of the road course – the Camaro ZL1 1LE. To do that, Ford will have to ship the Shelby over to Germany and beat the Camaro’s Nurburgring lap record time of 7:16.04.
The 2020 Shelby GT500, which is slower than a 5,300 lb Bentley SUV, goes on sale this summer. Pricing has yet to be announced.
Source: Ford Authority
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Comments
Why is this a story? I prefer Camaros too, but top speed is by far the least important number for comparing these two vehicles.
Who cares if the Mustang is limited to 180 mph? Was anyone actually planning on driving it faster than that?
Oh c’mon. We all know how this game works.
1. Bragging rights is half the battle.
2. Some people will buy it solely on the fact that it CAN go 200 MPH, although they will never even get over 120.
Nothing to brag about when you only win because your competition is holding back
Remove the governor and we’ll see which car is fastest. Perhaps the Mustang gets airborne and then you can brag that the better engineered Camaro is more “competent at speed”, but even in that scenario the Ford guys would counter they’re only holding it back because their car really flies!
Continual one-upmanship and the occasional tall tale have kept these cars in the limelight for the better part of 50 years. That’s a good thing. Meanwhile, Bentley is still irrelevant.
Camaro came in 3rd in sales in 2018, behind the Mustang and Challenger
so at this point GM is looking for anything they can hang their hat on
How fast do they get going on the ‘Ring’s straight?
I’d be willing to bet that the Camaro ZL1 1LE is faster around a track in general.
all that means is, you’re not a very good Bench Racer
I feel certain both are plenty fast.
Chevy beat Ford….
So….what else is new????
the 2020 GT500 is going to $#!+ all over the Camaro ZL1 1LE
The real question is why anyone would buy a Ford at this point given that the 2020 Mustang Shelby has been essentially castrated.
name even one time that you have taken a camaro over 180 mph????
why are the discontinuing the Camaro in 2024 again? because no one buys them? oh yeah that’s right.
Good article but hey guys… you can always CHANGE THE F’ING TUNE IN THE SHELBY!!!!! In case you haven’t noticed or owned a Mustang, Ford is always a few HP behind Chevy to spur aftermarket mods. Geeez…Pully, Intake, TUNE, BOOM!!! GT 5Hundo pushing 900 horses – EASY. A good tune removes the speed and rev limiters, increases boost, etc. etc. on Stangs. ALWAYS Been that way. NO REAL ENTHUSIAST leaves their ride BONE STOCK. Not that I know of anyway. We’re all shopping for mods BEFORE we get the ride. Once we get it, it’s Christmas in July and we’re all over aftermarket parts. I’ve owned 3 Z28’s, Formula 350 and now a Mustang GT Convt, ALL modded. They’re all fast. Now w this new Cobra, you gotta love the quad cam, Ti VCT, Plasma Transfer Wire Arc, DI, 5.2L Supercharged Predator engine…YESSS!! Fellas, it’s feeding time!!!
You’re not gonna be able to just pop a tune and make 900hp without blowing the transmission. DCTs are super fast but are severely handicapped in handling crazy amounts of power compared to manuals and traditional torque converter automatics. This isn’t something as simply swapping out a clutch system. DCTs are expensive to design and build. You can just beef one up, that’s why most exotic car companies build their own DCT from the ground up knowing what power level it’s going to handle. A DCT that handles 800lbs/tq is going to need to be a lot bigger, which means a lot heavier, to handle all that power compared to it handling 650lbs/tq. If their was a manual version I could see some simple upgrades.
You no you still Chang all of that so your reply is stupid you don’t now a thing about cars
amaar, where do you get that a higher torque rating of a tranny ‘means that hit has to be bigger’??? REALLY??? Don’t you think that Tremec KNOWS that most of the owners of the 2020 GT500 are going to FLOG the heck out of them and tweak and add smaller pulleys and larger injectors and larger exhaust and larger flow meters…etc and ALL for MORE power??? Do you really think that Tremec would allow their trannies to ‘explode’ upon the sudden surge in power being transmitted through them??? BIGGER does NOT mean ability to handle a higher load!!! ARE Steel cranks BIGGER than cast cranks??? Are Steel cranks heavier than cast cranks??? EVERYONE that deals with torque ratings knows for a fact that it is a safe rating and that it is for WARRANTY purposes- PERIOD!!! You gotta luv you bench racers!!! LOL!!!
Heat soak!
https://jalopnik.com/ford-mustang-gt-bursts-into-flames-at-car-meet-1833344946
Don’t remember seeing any Z06’s melting like this ⍥
YOU CAN ALSO TUNE THE CAMARO ZL1 1LE LT4 ENGINE.
BUT YOUR WARRANTEE WILL BE GONE.
LET’S SEE BOTH TESTED WITH OUT ANY MODS. ON THE SAME TRACK AND SAME DAY.
ZL1 1LE WITH 10 SPEED VS GT500.
I HOPE GM BRINGS OUT A NEW Z28 WITH THE LT5 ENGINE.
You know full well that with an 800hp DOHC 5.5L V8 C8 vette coming along with a hybrid C8 with an extra 200hp powering the front wheels. That the next ZL1 will be equipped with a 755hp LT5 and probably be lighter than the current 6th Gen Camaro. The race for muscle car supremacy never ends. Lucky for us! HaHa!
Hey everybody wins. Fans of all the pony makes. Competition improves the breed. Just ask Roge Penske or Colin Chapman, (if he were still alive). Have we ever seen this kind of fierce competition in rival brands? Answer yes! Ford against Ferrari, Chevrolet at Indy, Chrysler at the drags. And when the passion grows so does the performance. Rejoice in it all. Cherish the write ups and reviews and take out one of these fire breathing beasts of your preferred make. They are all great. Camaro, Mustang, Challenger. Happy that they exist. None are perfect but all are great. Somewhere deep down in the hearts of each manufacturer there still exists a reason to engineer a better drivers car. And we get to argue over which one is best lol. Never had it so good. When I read these articles and supporters bash each other’s brands I smile with the thought that we still have that thread of competition that started in the 60’s and lives today. Go Challenger! Go Mustang! Go Camaro!
I think at the moment right now dodge demon beat them both in quarter mile. But Gt500 is really fast on straight road. I have a simple 2017 Camaro and I tested it and it went up all the way to 160 mph but after 120 mph it went up so slow. But I saw a video of the older gt500 even after 120 mph it still pretty fast.
Considering no one outside Ford has tested a 2020 GT500, your article is laughable at best.
classic chevy guys opening their mouth pre-mature
I was about to buy a 2019 Camaro ZL1 to have next to my 1969 Camaro 427. But I heard the 2020 Camaro ZL1 was going to get the ZR1 engine with the power increasing to 755 HP, so I decided to wait one year for 100 more horse power. Since I haven’t heard any more news about the new engine, I was thinking maybe 650 HP is enough anyway.
dropped a few iq points after reading this article….
Mustang GT500 will lap a race track than how fast it will go in a straight line.
I have to disagree with you there because Ford has specifically come out and said that the GT350 and 350R are made for the track and the GT500 for more straight line. Why would you say that about the GT500 when that has been specifically addressed?!?
I specifically remember a Ford GT500 engineer saying on record that tuning the new GT500 to make more power will destroy the car. So either the motor internals aren’t strong enough or the new DCT isn’t strong enough to handle much more power. I’m betting on the trans since Ford has been using weak transmissions in any Ford Mustang except the last gen GT500 which is what they should have used. Tried and true Tremec TR6060 and the 10 speed auto beefed up like the ZL1 trans.
Maybe Ford will surprise me and put forth great R&D in the new DCT trans for plenty of power handling headway. But with such a low volume seller, even lower than the GT350, I’d be surprised.
The ZL1 1LE will reign in the twisty tracks. And GM has the drag pack rear brakes, 16″ drag wheels, and 17″ skinnies for the front available along with subframe lock out kit. So can the GT500 match a standard ZL1 at the strip if both prepped the same? We will have to see.
Well, it’s now after the debut of the GT500 and not only is it faster than the ZL1 on both the drag strip and road courses (by a lot), but it’s also faster than the Corvette Z51. In fact, it’s only a few hundreds of a second off of a Porsche GT3. Oops, right? Guess that Ford engineer was trying to let you down easy.
Of course a GM website would say this. The ZL1 is most definitely not faster than the new GT500. It barely equals the 2013/2014. The 2020 GT500 is 180 with the limiter. Without it’s likely going to be around 210+
The 2020 GT-500 is out and you can eat your words.
Dear Matthew,
You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t say the transmission couldn’t handle it. I stated it won’t be able to handle the power stock. With a host of upgrades and tunes it most likely can. We don’t really know its full capabilities yet because its a first from tremec. Coming directly from Ford engineers, they were limited to how far they could push the Shelby GT 500’d power output due to the DCT’s capabilities. Otherwise the engine is far more capable than the current setup. And on the chance you don’t blow the DCT, you’re definitely gonna wear out parts sooner. Most tuners do not keep their transmission stock, and DCTs are expensive to work. Any tech will tell you this because of the complicated systems they are. There is a reason ford and gm had tremec specifically design their units rather than just slap on a standard unit like the tr6060 on a bunch of different platforms. Also I happen to have engineering from the University of Washington which probably gives me a much better insight than some keyboard warrior.
HEY, DUM bass!!! This is your VERY first sentence of your post -“You’re not gonna be able to just pop a tune and make 900hp without blowing the transmission”!!! So, blowing the tranny is NOT handling the power??? BOI, I see where you get your stupidity- supposedly being an engineer!!! I have dealt with you idiots ALL of my life!!! EVERY modification to ANY equipment coming from you ‘sittin on your butts at a computer screen giving orders because you have a degree’ does NOT cut it in the REAL world, BOI!!! That engineering degree means SQUAT if you can’t transfer it to the STREET or to the TRACK!!! There is ONLY one degreed engineer that I have had success interacting with and he actually was a TECHNICIAN before he collected his degree!!! Sir, you are a puter putter…I OWN my own business and have to deal with Ford, and GM and Fiat hunchers EVERY friggin day!!! YES, they ALL put out crappy vehicles- some just not as many as others- but MOSTLY because some bean counter and some engineer had to duke it out to deem what did or didn’t go ‘into production’. I HAVE kept up with EVERY step of the formation of the new GT500 ESPECIALLY from the inside. I have a couple of friends that actually assisted with the R&D on it!!! It was tedious and long and drawn out- especially for a platform that has been around for over 5 years!!! The drivetrain was argued about ENORMOUSLY, BUT, performance AND longevity won out over the bean counters- the reason this damn thing is sooooooo expensive- the reason that the engines are HAND Assembled- the reason that the short block can handle 1500hp without mods- the reason that the tranny IS a DCT- the reason that the cooling of the engine and transmission were NUMBER ONE priority- the reason that the hood is butt ugly BUT functional- etc……etc!!! See, sir, you REALLY don’t know squat and I can TELL from your pathetic reasoning that a transmission needs to be ‘bigger and heavier’ to be stronger!!! S T U P I D friggin reasoning!!! I PROVIDED a few examples of this in my original post and I see that you blew right over it with your ‘smarter than I am because I have engineering experience’- REALLY!!! How many Mustangs, P/U’s, Camaros, Challengers, etc…. have you modified, stripped to barebones and BUILT from the ground up, or even DRIVEN on a road course, 1/4 mile track and ACTUALLY came home with a trophy, PUNK!!! I am through with your pathetic drivel!!! You don’t know jack crap and your pathetic excuses PROVE it!!! The very FIRST sentence in your 1st post PROVES you are PATHETIC!!! bye bye, boi!!!
Listen man, you can rewrite a 10 page article of whatever you want write going on whatever tirade you want to go on. You claiming to have knowledge based on other people’s experience means you don’t know shit. Let’s talk facts. The new tremec 7-speed dual-clutch transmission in the Shelby mustang is rated to handle a maximum 664lb ft of torque. The GT500 maximum torque is 625lb ft. No we are not talking about the engine, we are not talking about HP limitations, we are talking about torque. The way DCTs are designed in itself, makes them more torque limited than other common high performance transmissions. They are usually the most limiting factor when tuning a car.
Every tuner who has worked with a DCT knows this for a fact. Every super car owner who has a DCT trans and has doubled the power, has known this as fact. Every car manufacturer who has implemented a DCT in their vehicles know this as an fact as well. Why do you think exotic DCT cars usually have much lower torque rating than their non DCT counterparts? Or why tuners modding for mass HP gains attempt to limit torque gains, unless they were going upgrade internals. Now the trade up of owning a DCT is that it has significantly less parasitic loss and is much faster than most common performance transmissions. So you would not need as much power compared to the traditional automatic or manual would need.
Now pay attention very close to what I’m going to say next dumbass. If you tune your transmission, it’s not stock, if you change any parts in your transmission, it’s not stock. As I said, you can’t just add significant power to the car and not do any work to the transmission, which is the weakest point in the car due to its torque limitations. Now I am not saying the transmission is going to simply break just by cranking it up to 1000hp. But if you plan on driving the Shelby like most of us intend, you will most like wear out the trans quicker and/or get slipping clutches. And that’s best case scenario.
Now you can simply tune out the transmission to delay shifting time in order for the engine to wind down the torque in between shifts, which is a common and cheap way of tuning a DCT, but that increases the shifting time between the gears, and defeats the purpose of owning a DCT. You can limit the torque as well, but you would be limiting the acceleration capabilities of what you can do.
Now if you plan on doing something crazy like going modding the car to 900hp, and significantly increase torque passed safety limits. The only other option is to increase the internals which is what most high-end tuners will do. And which you’ll have to do anyways because you will eventually run out of gear in your aims to go faster anyways. This is the main reason why the Shelby is speed limited even though it can potentially go faster. Either way, it isn’t stock whether you do a tune or an upgrade of any kind. But my main point stands your not going to run 900hp without upgrading the internals. Because even if you limit the torque, you’ll still need to change the gears in order to get past the 186mph limitation, which means you still need to change the internals, or you will be doing pointless modding. Now f*** off mate.
“slower than a bentayga” nope, and last I checked bentayga and zl1 1le have the same top speed, 190, not like it even matters anyway cause no one is going to do the top speed. Without the limiter i bet the gt500 is faster than a zl1. The GT500 is faster in the quarter mile and on a track so this whole article is so wrong. What does it matter if ford was more interested in how well it will lap a track cause obviously chevy was thinking the same thing with the 1le and like i said the gt500 is faster in a straight line AND on the track. Im gonna get a bunch of dislikes cause all the camaro fans are here cause this is a gm website but idc cause this is the dumbest article i have ever read.
this article was written before we seen any actual performance tests for the gt500. its all wrong, just a bunch of chevy boys talking out of their ass.
wait… so this article was released before the gt500 even fully came out? wow this didnt age well… because its not faster