bob

Hardly, especially with the introduction of the C7 and frankly, the car doesn't need to operate at that bandwidth.

The Corvette is a narrowly focused vehicle, a specialist. The Mustang is and was designed to cover a very broad spectrum from a sporty and economical RWD coupe to a fairly competent performance car with the inherent compromises such duty entails.

I understand the desire for Mustang to be a Ferrari/Porsche/Lamborghini/BRZ-FR-S/Corvette/GT-R/STI/F-22/SR-71/MIG-35/Death Star fighter but that's a betrayal of what the car truly is.

m05fastbackGT

I believe what's he's referring to is the GT500 as being the Vette fighter Bob

bob

Still not in the same league I think, to me a GT500 is the modern embodiment of the old school muscle car. It trades handling for power and raw speed.

I wish Ford would do a proper vette fighter (a true sports car in the same cost segement) but I don't think there is enough of a market to go for it as Viper and Corvette have it covered and for whatever reason more mundane mid-engine sports cars (something Ford really has some serious heritage with) don't do well.

m05fastbackGT

Actually Ford had one in the Ford GT, and would had loved to see it stick around, but of course it was considered too costly and didn't sell very well as a direct result

bob

The Ford GT was a special case more of a technology demonstrator, I'm talking a regular production vehicle, something designed to be mass produced and somewhat affordable.

CCTking

Well it would spark another battle between the big three. Have the mustang/camaro/challenger rivalry goin and then the Ford/Corvette/Viper battle to really bring more attention to the brands. They could all benefit from healthy competition

Darth Lascivious

Anything that will make me want to trade in my 14 for it.

CCTking

Why didnt you wait?? You fool!!

Darth Lascivious

That would imply that I had a plan and what is that saying about a fool and his plans??? LOL

bob

That's true but I suppose the question would be is it worth investing billions of dollars just to get a meager portion of that pie. If Ford were flush with cash like say VAG maybe it could happen but as it stands I couldn't see them committing that sort of money for such a small market.

RandyW

I'd love to see Ford make a fairly light weight mid-engined sports car, but they would sell a lot more by making it a $38-48K car, rather than a direct competitor to the Corvette, which is about a $50-60K car (not counting the ZR1, 427, etc.). Give it 90% of the Corvette's performance for 80% of the Corvette's price. Leave enough room in the engine bay so that a more powerful engine can be added later if they want to make a faster special edition. Maybe brand it as a Lincoln?

CCTking

Very bad plans lol

bob

That would be cool, but would it bite into Mustang sales? Also I don't know about Lincoln (especially at a sub 50k price point, seems counter intuitive), I think branding such a car as a Lincoln would put one foot in the grave. When I think Lincoln, I think tarted up Fords geared for the stodgy old people.

m05fastbackGT

Perhaps you may consider the Viper and Corvette as affordable, however myself along with many others do not find 80k and up as very affordable at all..

Therefore if you expect Ford to come out with a production model that would compete with either the Vette or Viper in which you consider as somewhat affordable ?

Then the only option I can come up with is this.. If there's going to be a continuation of the GT500 Super Snake ? We already know the upcoming 15MY is going to be a far more improved handling car with the addition of an IRS over the current SRA..


So either use the next GT500KR, Super Snake or whatever SVT variant Ford decides to come out with as your Viper/Corvette alternative fighter

RandyW

It wouldn't bite into the sub-GT Mustang sales because we're talking about very different price points. A loaded Mustang GT would have some price overlap with the base model Whisker (a dumb name I just made up) so it would cut into Mustang sales a little. But the Whisker would also cut into sales of the Nissan 370Z and Audi TT, as well as snagging some folks for whom the base-grade Corvette and Boxster are just a little too expensive.

m05fastbackGT

Ford wouldn't have to invest billions of dollars to compete, as I mentioned earlier the upcoming 15MY will be a much better handling car with the addition of an IRS..

If there's going to be a next GT500/KR or Super Snake ? Either one could compete with the Viper/Corvette within the same price segment or which ever SVT variant Ford decides to come out with for the 15MY and up..

What's interesting here is how GM and Chrysler are able to continue offering the Corvette and Viper being as they aren't exactly flushed with cash either, especially after the Govt bailout money they took just in order to survive bankruptcy

eric n

What don't I want to see in the next mustang???

Idiots playing rap music really really loud with the windows open. This morning as I pulled up to my bank, I saw a guy in an ugly cheap suit driving a 6 cylinder mustang doing just this. And it wasn't even "good" rap.

You never hear people blasting Bach, Paverati, Johnny Cash, The Stones, Hendricks, Van Halen, AD/DC... at max volume. Why do people feel the need to blast over produced weak **** voices, with the admittedly poor falsetto, electronically tuned to the Nth degree so loud that eveyone can ENJOY it???

It is certainly everyone's right to pick the type of music they want to enjoy. My question is why is the need to blair music so loudly rests primarily with those who like the most offensive of musics. Even if you could make a case for enjoying this type of music, the odds that the grandmother walking buy needs to hear that kind of language are very slim indeed.

That's what I don't want to see in the next mustang. That and really really fat women. But, that's just my opinion.

Fenderaddict2

I would love for the top dog performance Ford standalone sports car to be named simply "Ford". Talk about a halo car.

SONICBOOST

Not sure if its been said but I really don't want the ridiculous dealer markup on the 15s..

CCTking

Unfortunately its gonna happen because they know people are gonna buy em regardless just because of the models significance. I just hope i dont see 75k stickers on the SVT model with an ADM bringin it to 100k+. The Ford dealer here in town sold 6 at 100-125k total. I felt sorry for the poor saps that paid that much