View Poll Results: I want > Like the
Chevy Camaro
3
37.50%
Ford Mustang
2
25.00%
Dodge R.T.
3
37.50%
Something else 4 the $'s (I will post it)
0
0%
Voters: 8. You may not vote on this poll
2015 Ford Mustang GT vs. Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE, Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack
#1
12-05-2014, 10:45 AM
2015 Ford Mustang GT vs. Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE, Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack
COMPARISON TESTS2015 Ford Mustang GT vs. Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE, Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack
Three great American turnarounds meet again to settle the score.
From the December 2014 Issue of Car and Driver
If not Detroit, then where do cars like these belong? To test their high-tension suspensions, we set a course four and a half hours southeast to Pittsburgh and the Allegheny foothills. Just as many of Detroit’s assembly lines have slowed and stopped, the fires died one by one in Steel City’s mills, too. But today, Pittsburgh thrives as an Appalachian Silicon Valley, drawing the likes of Apple and Google and consistently ranking among the best cities in America for just about anything—starting a business, raising a family, or drunkenly brawling at football tailgates. And had Henry Ford settled in these hills instead of the flatlands of Detroit, an American car that handles might not be such an anomaly.Continued...PHOTOS (89)
- DECEMBER 2014
- BY JARED GALL
- PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG PAJO
From the December 2014 Issue of Car and DriverIt’s hard to reconcile the 2015 Ford Mustang and its competitors with the city in which muscle cars were born. While decaying Detroit slogs through bankruptcy proceedings, still shrugging off the millstones of its past and working hard to get up and running again, the Ford is fully transformed into something sleek and modern. Meanwhile, its two direct and highly successful foes have recently been freshened with changes of their own.
The new sixth-generation Mustang finally gets an independent rear suspension, a mainstream-Mustang first and the equivalent of Detroit hosting the Olympics. That’s matched by a redesigned front suspension supported by a lighter, stiffer subframe. Nestled in that subframe, the 5.0-liter V-8 straps on a new intake manifold, heads, and valvetrain, raising output from last year’s 420 horsepower and 390 pound-feet to 435 and 400, respectively. The car’s basic profile is familiar, but at anything closer than field-artillery range, the stretched proportions and tauter skin are unmistakable. The rear haunches sit wider than before and are crowned with sharper creases; the view from the front is all fangs and sinew; and the body sides are sucked in, giving the impression of a narrower car though it’s actually 1.5 inches wider.
The new sixth-generation Mustang finally gets an independent rear suspension, a mainstream-Mustang first and the equivalent of Detroit hosting the Olympics. That’s matched by a redesigned front suspension supported by a lighter, stiffer subframe. Nestled in that subframe, the 5.0-liter V-8 straps on a new intake manifold, heads, and valvetrain, raising output from last year’s 420 horsepower and 390 pound-feet to 435 and 400, respectively. The car’s basic profile is familiar, but at anything closer than field-artillery range, the stretched proportions and tauter skin are unmistakable. The rear haunches sit wider than before and are crowned with sharper creases; the view from the front is all fangs and sinew; and the body sides are sucked in, giving the impression of a narrower car though it’s actually 1.5 inches wider.
Pricing for the V-8 GT starts at $32,925, but with a list of options that includes the Performance package’s suspension upgrades and adaptive cruise control, ours climbed to a somewhat Germanic $45,885.
It’s nowhere near as thorough a rework, but the 2015 Dodge Challenger greets the redesigned Mustang with some cosmetic surgery of its own, including a new nose and rear fascia. Dodge continues to vigorously plunder its past with the new R/T Scat Pack, which takes its name from a 1968-71 Dodge marketing program and takes its engine from the modern-day SRT. The 6.4-liter’s output creeps up to 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, embarrassing the outputs of the Mustang and Camaro. The Scat Pack also upgrades the brakes and includes the Challenger’s new Super Track Pak, which lowers the suspension a half-inch and fits Bilstein shocks and larger anti-roll bars. Think of the Scat Pack as an SRT without the badges and for $7500 less. At $39,490, our base Scat Pack was both the cheapest and the most powerful car in this test.
It’s nowhere near as thorough a rework, but the 2015 Dodge Challenger greets the redesigned Mustang with some cosmetic surgery of its own, including a new nose and rear fascia. Dodge continues to vigorously plunder its past with the new R/T Scat Pack, which takes its name from a 1968-71 Dodge marketing program and takes its engine from the modern-day SRT. The 6.4-liter’s output creeps up to 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, embarrassing the outputs of the Mustang and Camaro. The Scat Pack also upgrades the brakes and includes the Challenger’s new Super Track Pak, which lowers the suspension a half-inch and fits Bilstein shocks and larger anti-roll bars. Think of the Scat Pack as an SRT without the badges and for $7500 less. At $39,490, our base Scat Pack was both the cheapest and the most powerful car in this test.
A whole year has passed since the Chevrolet Camaro got its new head- and taillights, but it’s not yet wearing grooves in the porch with its rocking chair. The 426-hp SS 1LE is more or less a ZL1 without the supercharger. It pilfers a bunch of suspension parts, a strut-tower brace, close-ratio transmission with a cooler, and a high-pressure fuel system from the ZL1. With Recaros lifted from theZ/28, a boisterous dual-mode exhaust, and a few other extras, the Camaro tallies at $41,880.
If not Detroit, then where do cars like these belong? To test their high-tension suspensions, we set a course four and a half hours southeast to Pittsburgh and the Allegheny foothills. Just as many of Detroit’s assembly lines have slowed and stopped, the fires died one by one in Steel City’s mills, too. But today, Pittsburgh thrives as an Appalachian Silicon Valley, drawing the likes of Apple and Google and consistently ranking among the best cities in America for just about anything—starting a business, raising a family, or drunkenly brawling at football tailgates. And had Henry Ford settled in these hills instead of the flatlands of Detroit, an American car that handles might not be such an anomaly.Continued...PHOTOS (89)
Last edited by Space; 12-05-2014 at 11:13 AM.
Voting 
#4
12-07-2014, 10:52 AM
2015 Dodge Challenger SXT Plus First Test
By Karla Sanchez | December 02, 2014 |
See All 52 Photos
Chevrolet trucks - See the full lineup
Select Year 20162015201420132012Select Year
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Select Model Select Model
4
When you have something like the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat spewing out a mind-boggling 707 hp, you wonder who's going to care about the mild-mannered 2015 Challenger SXT Plus. The answer is lots of people, actually. While the Hellcat will most definitely coax people into the showroom, the SXT Plus will be the Challenger most drive away with. As much as they'll want the 6.4-liter supercharged Hemi V-8, they won't want everything else that comes with it, including the higher price tag, higher maintenance costs, and, of course, the higher insurance costs. So for those who want the go-fast looks without all that other stuff, the Challenger SXT Plus is the next-best thing.More on Motortrend.com:
MT Hosts Race Challenger Hellcat, Tracked Jeep FC Against Blasphemi
For starters, it doesn't look soft compared to its more muscular siblings. Even with the weaker engine, the SXT Plus doesn't let its guard down with the aggressive-looking 1971-style split grille and furrowed eyebrows. While bright surrounds in the front grille hint there's a V-6 hiding underneath the hood (V-8 Challengers get black surrounds), other styling elements such as the front splitter and fully functional hood vents suggest there's something beefier under there. Even the hood bulge is more prominent compared to its predecessor. While 20-inch wheels come standard at the SXT Plus level, opting for the $695 Super Track Pak paints them black, in addition to adding "performance-oriented" tires, suspension, brakes, and paddle shifters. All in all, for a V-6-powered car, this thing looks pretty tough from the outside, but inside, the Challenger SXT Plus is a big softie.
Step in to find a nicely updated cabin with high-quality materials the old Challenger lacked. There are more soft-touch points than you'd expect to find in a muscle car, with premium Nappa leather sport seats that you just melt into. A new steering wheel and the usual Chrysler switchgear further transform the cabin, and the center stack has been made even more driver-centric with an 8.1-inch touchscreen and Uconnect infotainment system that even a child could navigate. You'd be hard-pressed to believe you're driving a muscle car from behind the wheel, especially when you're taking advantage of amenities like the standard heated and ventilated front seats.More on Automobilemag.com:
A 20-Second Burnout in a 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
The only thing that really makes you feel like you're driving a ponycar rather than a luxury car is the Challenger's updated instrument panel, which harkens back to the 1971 car's gauges. While the rear section isn't ever the most comfortable place to be in a coupe, the back seats in the Challenger offer more legroom (37.1 inches) and headroom (33.1 inches) than the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, making this muscle car more practical for everyday use. Heck, it would even make a great road-trip car, seeing as you can probably fit a ton of stuff into the gigantic trunk, which can swallow 16.2 cubic feet of stuff. Although the liftover height was a bit higher than I would've liked, the extra-wide opening made up for that. Blind spots are awful, so opting for the $795 Driver Convenience package would be a wise choice. It throws in blind-spot and rear cross-path detection systems along with the remote start system and HID headlights.
For people who don't necessarily want the Challenger for performance reasons and more so for the visual, the SXT Plus fits the bill. But that doesn't mean it lacks in the performance department. Equipped with the tried and true 3.6-liter V-6 Pentastar, the Challenger SXT Plus packs 305 hp and 268 lb-ft of torque. Although that might not sound like much next to the Hellcat, the numbers are comparable to the V-6-powered Camaro (323 hp) and the Mustang (305 hp). But the big news is that the archaic five-speed has been replaced by the eight-speed automatic. The switch-out bumps fuel economy up from 18/27 mpg city/highway to 19/30 mpg, but that's not even the best part. The new gearbox's smooth and seamless shifting makes the Challenger slightly faster.More on Automotive.com:
Dodge Offering Hellcat Engine Roar as Free Mobile Ringtone
Our tester went from 0-60 mph in 6 seconds flat, an improvement over the 2011 Challenger Rallye's 6.4-second run. In the quarter-mile, the Challenger whizzed through in 14.5 seconds with a trap speed of 96.9 mph; the Rallye did it in a slightly slower fashion in 14.8 seconds going 94.8 mph. It also performed much better in the figure-eight course with a 27.9-second run and 0.73g average versus the Rallye's 27.0 seconds and 0.62 g’s. It was during the figure-eight course that one editor pointed out that the Challenger SXT Plus seemed way too quiet, and it's true. When you see something like the Challenger hustle around a figure-eight, you'd expect to hear the V-8 roar. Alas, the SXT Plus completed the course much quieter than we anticipated. Off the track, the Challenger proved to be a smooth grand tourer, though its muscle-car roots really came out in corners. Although its performance suspension allowed it to remain rather stable, you can really feel the car's 3,900 pounds.When viewing the entire Challenger lineup's performance numbers, the V-6-powered models might look like chopped liver. But when you consider all other things the SXT Plus has to offer — smoothness, comfort, sufficient fuel economy, and capability — it proves to be much tastier treat.
2015 Dodge Challenger SXT PlusBASE PRICE$30,990PRICE AS TESTED$33,675VEHICLE LAYOUTFront-engine, RWD, 5-pass, 2-door coupeENGINE3.6L/305-hp/268-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6TRANSMISSION8-speed automaticCURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)3,900 lb (53/47%)WHEELBASE116.2 inLENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT197.9 x 75.7 x 57.5 in0-60 MPH6.0 secQUARTER MILE14.5 sec @ 96.9 mphBRAKING, 60-0 MPH105 ftLATERAL ACCELERATION0.91 g (avg)MT FIGURE EIGHT25.9 sec @ 0.73 g (avg)EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON19/30/23 mpgENERGY CONS., CITY/HWY177/112 kW-hrs/100 milesCO2 EMISSIONS, COMB0.85 lb/mile
Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz3LEQDJRTt
By Karla Sanchez | December 02, 2014 |
169
See All 52 PhotosChevrolet trucks - See the full lineup
Select Year 20162015201420132012Select Year
Select Make Select Make
Select Model Select Model
4
When you have something like the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat spewing out a mind-boggling 707 hp, you wonder who's going to care about the mild-mannered 2015 Challenger SXT Plus. The answer is lots of people, actually. While the Hellcat will most definitely coax people into the showroom, the SXT Plus will be the Challenger most drive away with. As much as they'll want the 6.4-liter supercharged Hemi V-8, they won't want everything else that comes with it, including the higher price tag, higher maintenance costs, and, of course, the higher insurance costs. So for those who want the go-fast looks without all that other stuff, the Challenger SXT Plus is the next-best thing.More on Motortrend.com:
MT Hosts Race Challenger Hellcat, Tracked Jeep FC Against Blasphemi
For starters, it doesn't look soft compared to its more muscular siblings. Even with the weaker engine, the SXT Plus doesn't let its guard down with the aggressive-looking 1971-style split grille and furrowed eyebrows. While bright surrounds in the front grille hint there's a V-6 hiding underneath the hood (V-8 Challengers get black surrounds), other styling elements such as the front splitter and fully functional hood vents suggest there's something beefier under there. Even the hood bulge is more prominent compared to its predecessor. While 20-inch wheels come standard at the SXT Plus level, opting for the $695 Super Track Pak paints them black, in addition to adding "performance-oriented" tires, suspension, brakes, and paddle shifters. All in all, for a V-6-powered car, this thing looks pretty tough from the outside, but inside, the Challenger SXT Plus is a big softie.
Step in to find a nicely updated cabin with high-quality materials the old Challenger lacked. There are more soft-touch points than you'd expect to find in a muscle car, with premium Nappa leather sport seats that you just melt into. A new steering wheel and the usual Chrysler switchgear further transform the cabin, and the center stack has been made even more driver-centric with an 8.1-inch touchscreen and Uconnect infotainment system that even a child could navigate. You'd be hard-pressed to believe you're driving a muscle car from behind the wheel, especially when you're taking advantage of amenities like the standard heated and ventilated front seats.More on Automobilemag.com:A 20-Second Burnout in a 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
The only thing that really makes you feel like you're driving a ponycar rather than a luxury car is the Challenger's updated instrument panel, which harkens back to the 1971 car's gauges. While the rear section isn't ever the most comfortable place to be in a coupe, the back seats in the Challenger offer more legroom (37.1 inches) and headroom (33.1 inches) than the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, making this muscle car more practical for everyday use. Heck, it would even make a great road-trip car, seeing as you can probably fit a ton of stuff into the gigantic trunk, which can swallow 16.2 cubic feet of stuff. Although the liftover height was a bit higher than I would've liked, the extra-wide opening made up for that. Blind spots are awful, so opting for the $795 Driver Convenience package would be a wise choice. It throws in blind-spot and rear cross-path detection systems along with the remote start system and HID headlights.
For people who don't necessarily want the Challenger for performance reasons and more so for the visual, the SXT Plus fits the bill. But that doesn't mean it lacks in the performance department. Equipped with the tried and true 3.6-liter V-6 Pentastar, the Challenger SXT Plus packs 305 hp and 268 lb-ft of torque. Although that might not sound like much next to the Hellcat, the numbers are comparable to the V-6-powered Camaro (323 hp) and the Mustang (305 hp). But the big news is that the archaic five-speed has been replaced by the eight-speed automatic. The switch-out bumps fuel economy up from 18/27 mpg city/highway to 19/30 mpg, but that's not even the best part. The new gearbox's smooth and seamless shifting makes the Challenger slightly faster.More on Automotive.com:Dodge Offering Hellcat Engine Roar as Free Mobile Ringtone
Our tester went from 0-60 mph in 6 seconds flat, an improvement over the 2011 Challenger Rallye's 6.4-second run. In the quarter-mile, the Challenger whizzed through in 14.5 seconds with a trap speed of 96.9 mph; the Rallye did it in a slightly slower fashion in 14.8 seconds going 94.8 mph. It also performed much better in the figure-eight course with a 27.9-second run and 0.73g average versus the Rallye's 27.0 seconds and 0.62 g’s. It was during the figure-eight course that one editor pointed out that the Challenger SXT Plus seemed way too quiet, and it's true. When you see something like the Challenger hustle around a figure-eight, you'd expect to hear the V-8 roar. Alas, the SXT Plus completed the course much quieter than we anticipated. Off the track, the Challenger proved to be a smooth grand tourer, though its muscle-car roots really came out in corners. Although its performance suspension allowed it to remain rather stable, you can really feel the car's 3,900 pounds.When viewing the entire Challenger lineup's performance numbers, the V-6-powered models might look like chopped liver. But when you consider all other things the SXT Plus has to offer — smoothness, comfort, sufficient fuel economy, and capability — it proves to be much tastier treat.
2015 Dodge Challenger SXT PlusBASE PRICE$30,990PRICE AS TESTED$33,675VEHICLE LAYOUTFront-engine, RWD, 5-pass, 2-door coupeENGINE3.6L/305-hp/268-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6TRANSMISSION8-speed automaticCURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)3,900 lb (53/47%)WHEELBASE116.2 inLENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT197.9 x 75.7 x 57.5 in0-60 MPH6.0 secQUARTER MILE14.5 sec @ 96.9 mphBRAKING, 60-0 MPH105 ftLATERAL ACCELERATION0.91 g (avg)MT FIGURE EIGHT25.9 sec @ 0.73 g (avg)EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON19/30/23 mpgENERGY CONS., CITY/HWY177/112 kW-hrs/100 milesCO2 EMISSIONS, COMB0.85 lb/mile
Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz3LEQDJRTt
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