i ran my friend against his 03 z28 w/mods. out the hole i had 2 car lengths on him ( im geared, he's not) but by 4th gear, his top end kicked in.
Having owned these cars in question...
Here's a tip for anyone facing one down:
If you want any chance at all, go for the holeshot and try to stay out ahead.
From a roll, they are lightning fast. From a stop, the LSx is lacking.
Generally speaking of course.
Now the perfectionist in me is going to nit-pick. Nothing personal.
There was no 03 F-body.
The "terminator" Ford, I am assuming is the Cobra with a blower?
The LSx guys take it as a compliment that Ford has to resort to a blower
to beat them!
Also, there seems to be talk about the Stang being cheaper, so it outsold
the F-car into extinction. I really don't see that either. Remember that I
was buying these cars since 93, shopping them against each other on the
showroom floor... The fact is that they were generally always priced the
same. HOWEVER, ONE BIG DIFFERENCE... The F-body came with alot more
for the money. Base engine had at least 44 more cubes, base tranny was
a T56, and big 4 wheel anti-lock discs were standard.
Shopping between them wasn't apples-apples in 93, as the old Fox was still
out against the new F-body... But in 95 they were both new and head to
head, like it or not. I was wanting the Ford, and on paper the prices looked
the same, but when you added options to the Stang that were standard on
the F-car, the Stang price went through the roof, and the Base Z was still a
much stronger car. It was a no brainer back then. Then the LSx came out in
98 and I got a 3rd. One drive and I knew I had to have it. That was the car
that pulled 318 bone stock, save the muffler. That was on a Dynojet at the
Car Craft Nats. I have seen later LS1s pull 330 with NO mods, consistently,
after they started using LS6 intakes on them (without telling anyone).
I sound like an LSx commercial. I don't want to, but I have definate opinions
shaped by the fact that I have owned them and shopped them back when
they were head to head on the showroom floors.
Also, another gripe about Ford... When you looked at an SS Camaro, actually
outsourced from SLP, the dealers rarely took under sticker, but they didn't ofter
pile on a 'dealer added value' price like Ford was notorious for. I don't know
about the past 5 or 6 years, but back then, you couldn't look at an SVO Ford
without the dealer expecting $10-15k added to the sticker. SLP cars rarely
had this except for a few rare issues, and the added price was never nearly
as much. Ford dealers just always seemed far more greedy than others.
This turned even this die hard Ford guy off of buying their product.
Kinda glad though. I am a much more rounded car lover now and opened
myself to the LTx and LSx experience. Had Ford offered the Stang for less,
considering how much less car it was, I would have settled for one back
then, rather than soil my soul with buying a GM just for extra brakes and
a T56. The fact that Ford expected me to accept their car as apples to
apples, I compared them that way and they lost for all the reasons you
folks have mentioned now as 'common sense'.