Duh, you switched to an ultra performance tire and went up in tire width and too a shoter/stiffer sidewall at that.

What tire does the base 2010 GT come with? I think it is still an all season 235.

I think many of us forget that the base, non-Track Pack Mustang, even in 2010, is still a high 13 second car at 102mph or so. It has 235 series tires and decent brakes with basic pads. It just isn't the same type of performance car that a base Camaro is with its wide tires and Brembo brakes. That being said, the 2011 GT will be much faster and I like that Ford keeps things like the Brembo brakes, Track Pack, rear gear, etc. optional so you can truely "build your own" Mustang.

For 2010, the Camaro is undoubtedly the KING of the Lightning Lap. We will see what happens next year.

 

Maybe our aircraft to car analogy has been taken a bit far.

While the JSF's role is air-to-ground first the performance parameters set for the plane and advanced weapon systems will certainly make it a formidable air-to-air platform for any pesky Flanker variants somehow missed by F-22 or F/A-18E/F.

 

F-18E/F better pray for a long range kill on any future Sukhoi variants. Although it's a reliable "bombtruck" it wouldn't stand a chance in a turning knife fight with an Su-27/35.

Too bad the Navy never went forward with the proposed Super Tomcat 21 variant of the F-14. It would have given our carrier battle groups tremendously better air to air capability. Politics...

 

I've been out of the military plane loop for a while, but how the heck were they going to modify the giant tank that was the F-14 to make it keep up with the F-18?

Wasn't the F-18 even more nimble than the F-15 Eagle ( ), but not quite up to the F16's standard?

 

The F-18A/B/C/D is a much different, smaller, more agile aircraft than the newer, larger, F-18E/F Super Hornet. Or as it's more commonly referred to, the "Super slow Hornet". The E/F has reliable and more advanced systems, greater range and payload than the earlier Hornet but falls way short in combat air maneuver. The advanced version of the F-14, which was killed to make way for the supposedly cheaper E/F, would have been faster, had more range, could have maneuvered with even thrust vectoring Flankers, (thanks to it's variable geometry wings and advanced airframe. etc.), had supercruise ability, (supersonic speed w/o the need for afterburners) and just would have been an overall more badass fighter.

It was killed due to an advertised lower cost for the Super Hornet. Guess what? The F-18E/F ended up costing more than the advanced F-14.

 

It was shorter by about a 3/10th's of an inch overall, not a terribly big change and sidewall stiffness between a KDW and KDWS is comparable. The big change came from simply switchthing out from an all-season to a summer tire (as the article indicated with the T/P GT) I could have kept the stock 235/50R18 on there and went with the KDW in that size and still noticed a substantial difference.

Going from a 235 to a 255 might have accounted for some difference in handling, but based on BFG's own specs the 255 offers less than a 1/2" more rubber on the road when using the same 18 x 8.5" wheel.

However even the base 2010 GT recieved some fine tuning to the suspension. Its not simply a carryover from the 05-09 cars. So yes there could be a 12 second difference between an F5 SS and base 2010 GT Mustang, then again maybe not, the additional torque and horspepower in conjunction with the revised suspension might chip away at that a bit, and maybe not.

 

I'm glad we are way off topic here.

While I made that remark about the JSF, I must admit that I dislike the Super Hornets much more. And yes, I would have been a fan of the advanced Tomcat variants... They would have been much more capable than Super Hornet like you said. Hah, and you are right about the cost thing. Don't forget that the Super Hornet pulled a nice trick by claiming it was simply another variant of an existing aircraft, which meant that it didn't require a flyoff against something else.

This about sums it up:
hmmm

But then again I am no expert. If I was in charge we would practically only be operating F22 variants and A10s

 

It's almost like a GM bureaucrat said that. "We're replacing the Corvette with the Traverse. It's superior in every category but three: acceleration, top speed and handling"