Looks like just another flavor of mustang. Heavy, front engine, 4 seater. Don't see nothing intriguing there. And I hate them loosing their identity by trying different headlights every year. Can't they learn from 911?
BTW, I purchased a 1966 Mustang V8 4-barrel with AUTO and Lear Stereo, white with black vinyl roof.
Sharp car, slow (10 sec to 60mph). Hi-performance V8 only warrented for 3000 miles or 3 months.
My wife says it's the car she liked to drive the most over the years.
So I do have some emotional attachment to the Mustang but it's just not the car for me.-Richard
Well I finally got to see the new S550 mustang in person last night (in a parking lot) and the car is absolutely huge. I couldn't believe its size, it made a 4 series look small in comparison and I think those things are huge. It's a nice looking car, but I just don't think I can live with its dimensions. The compactness of my 981 is something I really appreciate about it.
Another one (the GT350) bites the dust in the search for a successor to the 981.
Well I finally got to see the new S550 mustang in person last night (in a parking lot) and the car is absolutely huge. I couldn't believe its size, it made a 4 series look small in comparison and I think those things are huge. It's a nice looking car, but I just don't think I can live with its dimensions. The compactness of my 981 is something I really appreciate about it.
Another one (the GT350) bites the dust in the search for a successor to the 981.
That is the problem with most American sports cars, it's too big and heavy. I remember wanting a Mustang many years ago when I saw the commercial but when I saw it in person. It's not as attractive due to it's size.
That is the problem with most American sports cars, it's too big and heavy. I remember wanting a Mustang many years ago when I saw the commercial but when I saw it in person. It's not as attractive due to it's size.
I would hardly call a Mustang a "sports car". doesn't come close to the traditional definition. A pony car, yes. Sports car no. In fact, even having Mustang and Cayman or Boxster in the same sentence is ridiculous.
Jeez--I'd think if you guys need to change cars every few years and had clearly taken a liking to a 981 in the recent past, you'd be thinking something more like an Alfa C4 or maybe Evora or used Elise. But a big fat front-engined American four-seater???? But each to his own, I guess, and if you like it, more power to you.
When I decided to shop for a new car last year, I began with the GT350 Mustang and the Corvette because I have owned Mustangs and Corvettes in the past. The GT350 was priced $10,000 over MSRP, so that did not take long to X-off my list. I admit that I like the 2016 Corvette, but I felt like I owed it to myself to investigate the Cayman. It was no contest for me after sitting in a Cayman for 5 minutes. I expect delivery of my red Cayman in less than 10 days.
I've been a big fan of the higher-end Mustangs since the recent Boss 302s. I didn't ultimately go with one (because markups pushed me into a different price tier), but I still like them, as I do many other cars.
Out of the box they will not be exactly what you want, but with Mustangs *that's kind of the point*. The Mustang is a platform to build on. There is a tremendous aftermarket for them, including a lot of high-quality stuff done right. You can do a lot with them. There's usually tremendous interchangeability of components across multiple generations. You can have a simple cruiser that just looks and sounds great and is comfortable, a proper muscle car, a drag car, something stripped down for road courses, etc. It's better at some roles than other, but if you put in the $ and effort, you can still get satisfying results even where it's at a bit of a disadvantage. A track day to VIR proves the point where there's usually a ton of Mustangs out there with all the Corvettes and 911s.
Granted, the same applies to GM cars that use a CSB, and to Porsches. I always look at them as different bins of building blocks. I approach cars from a powertrain I like, and try to back it into a package I want. In my case, I figured in 2010 that the Boxster Spyder (987.2 then) would be it since it was EXACTLY what I wanted some manufacturer to build (hardcore roadster), and after trying to compromise with the Cayman GTS, I seem to be right with the 981.1 Spyder. Though I still like Corvettes and road-course prepped Mustangs. If I had the cash and the room, I'd in all likelihood have something with a CSB (preferring the LS7 the most) or a new Coyote-based Mustang joining it. Though I can only have so many cars (probably just 2), so the goal is to get an M120 R129, because V12.
I got to track test the Shelby GT350 at Laguna Seca when Ford did their US tour. They invited every car club in the Monterey area and the parking lot was filled with every kind of exotic sports and touring cars one can imagine. Each participant was helmeted and strapped in with a "pro" driver and had to agree to not go over 100 mph. The first thing I asked the "pro" in the passenger seat was how fast I could go because I was very familiar with the track having raced my Boxster there. He shrugged and told me to punch it so I laid rubber out on the track and did not hold back. The GT350 is an atypical American muscle car with lots of hp (520 as I recall) with lots and lots of torque. As big and heavy as it was it handled very well due to a new independent rear suspension and "body refinements" that stiffened the car. For pure straight line speed it is a gas to drive especially coming out of turn 11 into the strait away past turn 1 and into turn 2. Braking is very precise even at higher speeds but it cannot be late braked as well as a Porsche. My gripes were with the pedal distance when I got the seat where I wanted it I couldn't heel and toe to rev match and with all that hp the rear end kicked out when down shifting but the car was easy to control even with that. If you had the money to buy a car off the lot and drive it to the track and compete it is a decent bargain. On the way home my Boxster felt like it was stuck in first gear after driving all that hp, but I would not want to own one just for street use, it is too much car for every day driving IMHO.
I got to track test the Shelby GT350 at Laguna Seca when Ford did their US tour. They invited every car club in the Monterey area and the parking lot was filled with every kind of exotic sports and touring cars one can imagine. Each participant was helmeted and strapped in with a "pro" driver and had to agree to not go over 100 mph. The first thing I asked the "pro" in the passenger seat was how fast I could go because I was very familiar with the track having raced my Boxster there. He shrugged and told me to punch it so I laid rubber out on the track and did not hold back. The GT350 is an atypical American muscle car with lots of hp (520 as I recall) with lots and lots of torque. As big and heavy as it was it handled very well due to a new independent rear suspension and "body refinements" that stiffened the car. For pure straight line speed it is a gas to drive especially coming out of turn 11 into the strait away past turn 1 and into turn 2. Braking is very precise even at higher speeds but it cannot be late braked as well as a Porsche. My gripes were with the pedal distance when I got the seat where I wanted it I couldn't heel and toe to rev match and with all that hp the rear end kicked out when down shifting but the car was easy to control even with that. If you had the money to buy a car off the lot and drive it to the track and compete it is a decent bargain. On the way home my Boxster felt like it was stuck in first gear after driving all that hp, but I would not want to own one just for street use, it is too much car for every day driving IMHO.
How did you feel about the car's size, especially as a road car? I don't track cars and am thinking about this puppy as a replacement road car.
interesting that you found it torquey...lots of reviews find it relatively torqueless under 3000 rpm...
First off let me say that I had a blast driving the car on the track. I hadn't driven a car with that much power in a long time and for pure neck snapping speed it was a blast. For an everyday car IMHO it is a car that tries to be both a street and track car but is leveraged heavily towards track. As I stated earlier you could buy one and drive it straight to the track and race it without any other mods and be competitive based on your skills. I'm used to my nimble '99 Boxster for street driving, and when I can afford it, track days, so having a car as big, heavy and as powerful as the Shelby would be too much of a transition for me to drive on the street. I came away with the opinion that it would be a good road car for long trips on highways and as a track car but to drive it around a city would not be fun. That's just my opinion you'd need to drive one yourself to see if you like it.
As for torque I'm surprised that those comments were made as the car has enough torque to drive Laguna Seca in second gear. I got into third on a couple of strait aways and was still breaking the tires loose when accelerating. I wasn't paying too much attention to the tack or speedo because, although we got four laps in, I was concentrating on how to handle the difference in size of the car to my Boxster, breaking and compensating for the weight difference at high speed. At first the "pro" in the car with me was telling me to brake into turns much sooner than I would have in the Boxster but then again I was carrying more speed and weight and it took a couple of laps to get used to it. Although the Shelby is a relative bargain for a track ready car I could see renting one for a road trip but I wouldn't own one for everyday use as you'd have too few occasions to get out of first or second gear around town.
How did you feel about the car's size, especially as a road car? I don't track cars and am thinking about this puppy as a replacement road car.
interesting that you found it torquey...lots of reviews find it relatively torqueless under 3000 rpm...
I love the new look of the Gt-350 saw a black one yesterday on the street and it looked smoking hot !!The fact is the new GT-350 would smoke the 987 on the track and the streets right out of the box for 25 k less money -I like it
I have the 997 and 981 parked in the garage and the 981 actually looks bigger and wider. I had to google the dimensions, the 981 is 172.2 inches (70.9" width) and the 997 is a bit longer at 174" (71" width). The 997 has 2 extra seats so yes, the 981 is too big.