Monday - May 10, 2010

Auto Musing, again

Want to feel young again? Take a gander at this options list for the new 2011 Ford Mustang:

How long has it been since you’ve seen something like that? I’m amazed. You haven’t been able to pick rear axle gears in ... 30 years? 35 years? Maybe, just maybe, if you were truck shopping, you had a choice of either the plain vanilla boring standard “mpg” gears or the barely warmed up “towing” gears. For cars? Forget about it. And now Ford, the non-government owned car company, is actually offering you choices, at least on their new and improved pony car. The 3.73 set (sigh, 3.73s!!!) is a limited slip hoozimabob. Damn, it’s been so long I can’t even remember what Ford’s version of Posi-traction rear axles were called. Traction-Lok?

I was intrigued by their new TV add promising 305/31 - the base Mustang comes with a 305 horsepower V6, a 6 speed manual transmission (sigh) and pulls 31mpg on the highway. Which is pretty much what I was talking about on my last auto musing post. The bad news is, and you knew there would be some, that you’ve got to wind the engine up a bit to get that power. You don’t have to wind it up as much as you need to spin an Acura to get to the good part, but still you’ve got to go past 4000rpm.

Of course, for the purists, the more hard core drivers, Ford finally got around to putting the (minimum) proper sized V8 back under the hood in the GT version. Gone is the egg sucking 4.6L, and a decent 302 is back in place. Granted, they call it a “Coyote” 5.0L, but we know better. It’s a 302. One with 11:1 pistons that wants to be fed 91 octane gas or better. And Ford built it better than ever: FINALLY, and only about 25 years too late, they managed to build a 4 valve head on the thing. Independent valve timing is said to create 412hp and 390 lb/ft of torque. Is it an aluminum block?  Why yes it is. As are the heads and the pistons. Alas, it needs to be spun up to rice-rocket revs to make those big ponies, and I haven’t been able to locate a dyno chart yet. But maybe it’s got some low end power too, where most of us drive most of the time. The 6 speed manual is a 5+1 single overdrive transmission, and 3.31 rear gears are standard.

So, V8, manual, optional hot gears, and supposedly a lighter, stiffer chassis with much better brakes and handling, plus an interior said to rival an Audi? [ yeah, right ] Lighter? This Mustang tips the scales at 3600lbs, a full half ton heavier than the stripped down 1983 GT I once owned.

Gee, what’s it like to drive the new GT?

Watch the speedo if you can, because the needle sweeps by 60 in less than 5 seconds. After my first initial acceleration run, I found myself jabbing the throttle at any possible moment, giggling like a lunatic each time.
...
The optional Brembo breaks on the V8 provide retina dethatching levels of halting power, keeping the go in check with woa. The whole experience was so unlike any muscle car I’ve driven that I was doing double takes at the pony on the steering wheel with each curve.

Yeah, that sounds about how it ought to be. Get out on the road and offend and terrorize a leftist greenie Pius driver. Then righteously annoy the one M3 driver you can find who actually drives his bit of German engineering, instead of putt-putting around in his bone jarring status symbol.

I hope this works out for Ford. Heck, I know it will. I test drove the 4.6L GT a couple years back. The one with “300 horsepower!!!!!!!!!” It. Was. Lame. Fat, flat, and flatulent. I am utterly certain that the ‘83 and ‘84 GTs I owned once upon a time performed much better. And that was before the old 5.0 engine got all the neato internals.

Set to officially debut at the Detroit Auto Show in just over a weeks time, the 2011 Mustang GT brings back the 5.0-liter V8 with 412-hp at 6500 rpm and 390 ft-lbs of torque at 4250 rpm, a far cry from the 175-hp 302 cubic inch motor found in the 1983 model.

Ok, I’ll give you that. But driving is more than just a numbers game. The ‘83-84 engine was tuned like a diesel semi. All the torque was just over idle, and the power was all gone by 4000rpm. It was a tank motor, but a tank motor made regular driving a real grin inducing experience. All torque, no waiting.

1983-84 5.0GT
2700lb
100” wheelbase
175 hp @ 4200 RPM
245 lb/ft @ 2400 RPM
3.08 gears standard

2011 5.0GT
3600 lbs
107” wheelbase
419hp @ 6500rpm
390 lb/ft @ 4250rpm
3.31 gears standard

1971 Boss 351 (5.7) - the biggest fattest Mustang ever. But not the fastest. Until now.
3300lbs
109” wheelbase
330hp@5400fpm
370 lb/ft @ 4000rpm
3.91 gears standard

The 1983-84 GT carried 11 lbs of body weight for each ft/lb of torque, which peaked just off idle at 2400rpm. To match that low end grunt, the new ‘stang V8 needs to churn 327 lb/ft at the same engine speed. Does it? I hope so. The 4.6 didn’t, or it sure didn’t feel that way. The 2011 still looks mighty pudgy to me, but at least it’s got a good engine in it for a change.

UPDATE: No, it does not. I found a dyno test online. Several actually. And while at least one of those tests shows that Ford is being conservative with their numbers, the testing reported at Inside Line was really well presented. So I borrowed their graph and modified it a little.

Well, what does all this mean? It means that when just putting around town, the 2011 GT will not feel as potent as the 1983 GT. Simply because the new car weighs so much. It won’t feel wimpy, but it won’t have that same level of “holy cow” sensation. HOWEVER, if you stick your foot in it just a bit then the entire game changes. Whereas the old school ‘83 gave you a pitiful 2000rpm powerband, and a not really amazing one by today’s standards but a true joy back in 1983, the new one will take off like a shot and just keep getting stronger. Which is awesome. So it’s got a strong stealth sleeper aspect to it. Getting the shortest optional rear axle gears will make it go much faster at the cost of gas mileage and top end. Who cares? But I would consider the optional high performance brakes as an absolute necessity. With the 3.73 gears and some really sticky tires we’re looking at a 13.00 - 13.25 second car here on the drag strip. Open up the intake airflow just a bit and you might get shave a quarter second off of that. Find some 93 octane premium and shave another tenth. And that puts the new GT within touching distance of the biggest baddest rarest rides from the late 60s. All for about $30,000. And it gets you a car that can stop and go around corners too, two nice features that most of the old machines didn’t do very well. Nice job Ford!

Compared to the 1984 GT, the 2011 has a 7” longer wheelbase, is 8” longer overall, weighs 1000 pounds more, has double the horsepower and has a much higher crash worthiness rating. Interior room and volume are quite similar. Yet the 2011 gets the same 17/26 mileage as the 1984, and I’m certain that it does that with much lower tailpipe emissions too. And it has to ride better; the early 80s ‘stangs only had suspensions in theory. They rode like rocks.

And it almost goes without saying that today’s GT a) makes more power and torque than the biggest Cobra Jet engines Ford offered back in the day, and b) will out drive pretty much any stock Mustang ever made, whether the road is straight or twisty.

Technology sure sucks, don’t it?

But I still wish Ford could trim some weight on this thing. 500 pounds would make all the performance difference in the world.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/10/2010 at 08:19 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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