Having the most torque isn't the end of the story pulling off line. There's 2 other issues in play.

First of course, is weight.

Very simply, the heavier something is the more energy (or torque) it's going to take to get it moving. There's still at a minimum, a 250 pound difference between a Mustang GT and a Camaro SS. The Camaro SS is going to need more torque than the Mustang GT to simply match the Mustang GT's acceleration.

The second issue is gearing.

Gearing multiplies the amount of force going through the rear wheels. Higher the ratio, the greater the force. To put it mildly, Mustang GT's manual in every gear is more aggresive than that in the Camaro SS. Then topping it off, you have that 3.73 rear end against Camaro's 3.45.

Motor Trend magazine did all the calculations based on the torque and the gearing of not just the Camaro SS and Mustang GT, but also the Challenger SRT8 as well (page 54, bottom, July 2010: "Leveraged Burnouts"). In every gear, the Mustang puts down more force through the rear tires by a substantial margin (in case anyone was wondering, the SRT8 even puts down more force than the SS... in the 1st 3 gears... while in 5th and 6th, the SS puts down more.).

Also, the numbers to date seem to universally suggest that the feeling of no off the line grunt is either an illusion or the way the pedal is wired to the throttle body. The numbers suggest that the GT is at the very least as quick, and perhaps quicker in acceleration at low end acceleration than the SS as low as 0-30.

Ford automatics seem to sap a lot of energy from their engine's performance against the manual versions. It was true with the old Fox 5.0s, the Thunderbird SCs, the last edition Mach 1s, and even today while the new V6 Mustang feels extremely quick with the manual, the automatic version feels notably more lesurely. GM seems to have had automatics cars that performed on par with manuals for some time.

On another point,
The Mustang GT's maximum torque is made at a lower rpm than the LS3.
The LS3 torque peaks at 4600.... the 5.0 peaks at 4250.

Sure if you want to rev the tar out of your engine, the GT will rev to 6900 (and the LS3 is right behind it at 6600) but with top horsepower at 6500 rpm in the Mustang (and 5900 in the Camaro) you aren't getting any additional power out of it.



Unrelated side note on gearing for anyone considering taking their new Camaro SS racing against a new 5.0.

You may have noticed that while Camaro SS tends to run very consistent times and numbers in acceleration tests, Mustang 5.0 GTs tend to have slightly larger range in their times and numbers

One likely reason.

With the SS's gearing you only have to shift once in a race to 60mph and just barely 3 times to get through the quarter.

The Mustang GT driver is shifting his 2nd time at 60 and is shifting his 4th time at the quarter.

In short, how the Mustang fare's against a Camaro SS all falls on how good the GT driver is at shifting.

The GT's gearing and lighter weight clearly has the potential to hammer the SS despite less engine torque and horsepower. It's significantly lighter and it's simply putting superior amounts of torque through the rear tires.

But the Mustang driver has to do an extra shift against the Camaro driver who simply needs to focus on keeping the right pedal mashed.

 

the mustang and camaro are neck and neck. both cars are impressive. the camaro is even despite having a severe gearing disadvantage and a severe weight disadvantage. the mustang is even despite having a severe displacement disadvantage. ford guys are gonna look at it one way, GM guys are gonna look at it another.

and then theres some of us that think LS1 f-bodies are better cars for us (like myself). can't please 'em all.

 

Man I swear you come in every thread looking for an argument any more.

If you look at the dyno chart posted, the 5.0L is down about 50 ft/lb of TQ and 10-20 rwhp across the powerband till about 5500 RPM. Again, those numbers are at the wheels. 50 ftlb of TQ is huge. People spend $2000+ every day trying to get that kind of power with mods.

The simple fact is, though the 5.0L and LS3 have similar published numbers, they are very different engines. One is high reving VVT new tech engine. Basically a Ford Mod motor with a Honda playbook thrown at it. The LS3 is old school truck based, pushrod, small block grunt. Sure it can run up to 6600 RPM, but for the most part, it is done at 5500 rpm in stock form. The 5.0L is still making power at 6600 rpm.

The car I drove was a convertible, so I am gonna say in terms of weight it is similar to a Camaro.

Now I am not gonna beat my chest or talk down to any body, but I have owned a lot of performance cars..especially through my business. I have operated a dynojet, and spent a lot of time at the race track racing my cars. When I say one car has more down low TQ than another...I think I have at least a ball part idea what I am talking about.



The car I drove was a convertible, so I think it is very close in weight to a Camaro.

 

He did make a good point though, the engine's torque will be multiplied by the gear ratio of the transmission and the rear end (and actually by a ratio of tire height) to get the force applied to the road. guionM's point is that if you crunch the numbers, due to more aggressive gearing the Mustang actually puts more to the ground in the lower gears. The weight bit is important too. The point about the peak torque being a little lower on the 5.0 than on the LS3 is not too important, since it is lower anyway.

I don't see how an LS3 is done at 5500 RPM. Peak power is at 5900 RPM, and if you aren't reving past peak power before you shift then you aren't driving correctly (at least if your goal is to accelerate as quickly as possible). Otherwise you will not be maximizing average power.

Along those lines, it is interesting to note where the stock 5.0L has its peak power, perhaps slightly too close to redline. Also, although Ford offers an abundance of gear ratios for the 5.0L, the 3.73s are probably overkill and just waste torque multiplication by forcing you to upshift too many times and too rapidly.

 

Very frustrating on a GT500 Peak power is at 6000 rpm, and the rev limiter is set at 6250 rpm.

 

I would disagree. I think the mustang shifter is MUCH better in feel to the Camaro. Its also easier to shift fast.

 

I agree strongly.

 

Thanks. I don't believe you'd see that kind of gains, but it is certainly there in black-n-white from Ford, so I sit corrected!

 

Camaros have USB ports too, it is in the center console.

 

Sync is much more than usb ports. Its voice control over your media. Its also Voice dialing, turn by turn directions, etc.

Once yoiu use Sync its hard to drive a car without it. Its like driving Kitt

 

I have been waiting to see if someone posted the results of that tune alone. I would be very interesting seeing the gains though. Like you I am a little skeptical.

 

93 octane....I wish.

I wonder how much you get with 91 octane....

 

I agree and that pains me to say as well.

 

OMG! A Troll!