I was out cruisin' with my buddy the other day in my '76 Camaro "Motion" Clone, and he in his '85 5.0 'stang. Needeless to say he wanted to race, and I concurred, so it happened. First a little about the cars: Mine: '76 Camaro, 350 (300 HP, 375 lb/ft), stock turbo 350, 2.73 gears, air shocks, and front air dam. His: '85 Mustang, 302 5.0 (350 Hp, ? lb/ft), 5 speed, 3.55's or ford equivalent. Anyway, he was having problems with the car (carb, timing, etc.), and we decided it would probably be somewhat of a fair race. After 3 runs, I beat him twice by a good measure, and lost once by a hair. How can this be? My car, weighing in at 3700 lbs, and his I'd imagine considerably less, mine with less HP, and worse gears. He kinda hyped his car up a bunch, and I was really curious as to how I would run against him. My second gear pulls super hard, and that's where I start to take a lead, but as soon as he gets his gears up, he starts to tiptoe up to me considerably. I've run my car with a G'tech, and It only says 17.1 as a quarter time, could this be wrong? I woulda figured that the stang woulda run at least 15's, being as built as it is, but who knows? Future plans for the Camaro before I sell at the end of summer is a built turbo 350 which I already have, and a set of rear gears. The car oughta pull extremely hard in second then!!! Not a Buick kill, but any killed Ford is worth hearin' about! By the way, the next car of my choice is a 70 GS, which I already have a good lead on.
Cool. I'm an old Camaro fan, had a 74 Type LT when I was in high school. Typically, a 76 Camaro should beat an 85 Mustang. Quarter-mile 17s sound about right for you car, perhaps a little quicker than reality. The 300 HP/ 375 torque for a 76 sounds very high - unless you've done some engine mods. Also, I'd say your Camaro weighs less than 3,700 lbs. I doubt the 85 Mustang is anywhere near 300 hp either unless it was modified. Just because someone says it is, doesn't mean its true. Now, if it was built-up, but running poorly, that would make a difference.
Both cars have been modified quite a bit. Stock weight for my Camaro is 3600 and some change, so I'll believe it. I would never think my camaro should beat a 5.0 'stang, especially if his is modified that much, which it is for sure.
I would give more, but honestly I don't know much about my car, or his to tell the truth. I bought my motor through a friend, and all I can tell is that it has some head work, and a cam, aluminum intake, 600 cfm edelbrock carb, headers, dual exhaust w/flowmasters. His car has some sort of special cam actually produced by ford, mild head work, headers, aluminum intake, holley carb, maybe a roller-rocker setup? Remember, this is just projected HP; I'm guessing based on what I know.
From the results of your race, though, I'd say both cars sound about as they should be. If not stock, both have had about the same amount of power increase. By '76 the poor Camaros were pretty slow, and '85 Mustangs weren't that hot to begin with - I've smoked enough of them in my stock '73 350 Skylark with undersized carb. But hey, you killed a Mustang - and that's what matters.
