More Thrills, Fewer Bills

Today's V6 variants offer big value and big performance. Member's, which below V-6 would `You consider/want/buy ? Post & let us know `ok ~> Thanks

By Evan Griffey of MSN Autos


Three hundred horsepower is righteous muscle. Back in the day, bragging rights awaited the owner of any car that could muster such might. And in most cases, that powerful steed was propelled by a thumping V8 engine. Not anymore. Thanks to a variety of modern technologies, many of today's engines can pump out 300 or more ponies on only six cylinders.
That's right: Opting for the 6-cylinder variant of any given model can most likely deliver the same visceral, fun-to-drive feel as its comparable V8 variant. The difference: Six-cylinder engines typically cost less and get better fuel economy.
Here are 10 six-cylinder rides that should provide the savvy buyer with just as many thrills as their V8 counterparts, for fewer bills. While some don't quite register 300 horses on the power meter, they do come close. Mighty close.
Bing: 6-Cylinder Performance
BMW 535i

Click to enlarge picture

BMW 535i





Horsepower: 300
While the sporty 535i just makes it into the 300-pony club, it does so in style. But the 535i costs a cool $10,100 less than the 550i's sticker, and delivers appreciably better fuel mileage: 19 mpg city/28 highway versus 15 mpg city/22 highway for the V8. The 535i's base price checks in at a cool $10,100 less than the 550i's sticker, while delivering appreciably better fuel mileage: 19 mpg city/28 mpg highway for the V6 versus 15/22 for the V8. Both deliver the same stellar handling dynamics you would expect from an "Ultimate Driving Machine."
View Slideshow: Cut-Rate Muscle

Cadillac CTS

Click to enlarge picture

Cadillac CTS





Horsepower: 304
Cadillac has emphasized performance in recent years and the CTS-V is the pinnacle of these efforts. Essentially, the Cadillac CTS-V is a 4-door Corvette, and it puts a premium on power (556 horses) and price ($63,465). Non-"V" CTS sedans that are motivated by 3.6-liter V6 engines generate ample thrust, cost $28,300 less ($35,165) and offer the biggest improvement in fuel efficiency on this list: 18 mpg city/26 highway versus 14 mpg city/19 highway. And in any guise, the CTS faithfully delivers that timeless Cadillac ambience.
Read: 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe — First Drive

Chevy Camaro

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Chevrolet Camaro





Horsepower: 312
With 312 horsepower, the 3.6-liter V6 Camaro is a capable burnout machine in its own right. At $22,680, the base V6 trim represents $8,265 in savings compared with the V8 SS trim. And the car sports the same hunkered stance, the same award-winning interior and the same boost to the ego as the V8 SS. Posting 17 mpg city/28 highway, the base Camaro also outlasts the SS by 4 mpg on the highway. Let the smoldering rubber fly.
Read: Camaro Goes Topless

Dodge Challenger SE

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Dodge Challenger SE





Horsepower: 305
This retro-cool ride delivers the goods with its classic lines, low-slung stance and potent powerplant lineup. The 2011 SE model features a 3.6-liter V6 that produces 55 horsepower more than the 2010 SE. The SE costs $7,615 less than the 376-horsepower V8-driven R/T and $19,685 less than the 470-horsepower SRT8. As for fuel efficiency, the SE (17 mpg city/26 highway) and the 5.7-liter R/T (16 mpg city/25 highway) are nearly even, while the 6.2-liter SRT8 (14 mpg city/22 highway) has a bigger thirst.
Bing Images: Dodge Challenger

Ford Mustang V6

Click to enlarge picture

Ford Mustang V6





Horsepower: 305
Not to be outdone, the original pony car easily tops the 300-horse mark in V6 guise. The 3.7-liter V6 gets an econobox-like 31 mpg highway, a significant 5-mpg advantage over the 412-horsepower V8 GT. Further, the V6 checks in at $7,500 less than the GT. The freshened 2011 Mustang V6 is an eye-catcher, and the savvy buyer can use the V6 savings for a performance package that adds suspension mods, lowering springs, special brake calipers, an upgraded gear ratio and ultracool 19-inch rolling stock.
Watch Video: 2010 Ford Mustang



Continued: Hyundai Genesis Sedan

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Mustang please.

 

Hi Ted, U can have one `if U really want one 4-$ure..Which Mustang model do you want ? What options/color's etc ?
Please post & I will send your wish 2 `Santa : ) Good Luck & thanks for your post(s: )
================================================== ===
Bonus below, for Member's that want a V-8 ~> WoW...
I love this one : )
2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Official Photos and Info - Auto Shows

Chevy reclaims the historic ZL1 nameplate and screws it to a 550-plus-hp GT500 hunter.

BY JON YANCA, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS DOANE FOR BRENDA PRIDDY & CO., PATRICK M. HOEY, AND THE MANUFACTURER
February 2011

Pages: 1 Photos

• Photos (53)
• Videos

Chevrolet Camaro

• › Overview
• › Specifications
• › Price with Options
• › Photos & 360° View
• › Get a Free Quote

News & Reviews

• 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 - Video
• 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible - Short Take Road Test
• Supercharged 2012 Chevrolet Camaro May Not Be Called Z28 - Future Cars
• 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible - Video
• 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible - Auto Shows
• 2012 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Spy Photos - Future Cars
• 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible - Feature
• 2011 Chevrolet Camaro V6 Gets Fake Power Bump - Car News
• 2010 Hennessey HPE700 Chevrolet Camaro - First Drive Review

Top Competitors

• Chevrolet Corvette Z06
• Dodge Challenger SRT8 392
• Nissan GT-R
• Porsche Cayman

It’s an epic, decades-long battle waged in showrooms, at the race track, at stoplights, and in internet forums. Chevrolet versus Ford, Camaro versus Mustang. Commencing in the mid-’60s, the clash has been marked by tit-for-tat product introductions, as each brand seeks to match its competitor in every conceivable pony-car niche. Currently, the cars face off in the V-6, V-8, and droptop arenas, but the latest Camaro has ceded the high-performance crown to the Mustang and the brutal, 550-horse Shelby GT500. That ends now.
Welcome the reborn Camaro ZL1.
Open Secrets are Hard to Keep
It’s been a bit of an open secret that GM was working on a high-po Camaro to slot above the 426-hp SS model. Spy photos revealed the car’s 6.2-liter supercharged V-8, and most assumed that car would wear the storied Z28 badge. But Chevy’s product planners had something different in mind, and we now know the car will wear the reclaimed ZL1 moniker. (SLP Performance previously held the rights to the historic alphanumerics.)




A quick look back is in order. The 1969 Camaro ZL-1 was one of the ***-kickingest machines to ever roll out of Detroit. Dressed up in nothing fancier than base Camaro trim—including dog-dish hubcaps—that original ZL-1 looked like a measly six-cylinder wimp. Without even an engine-designation badge, its only real giveaway was the factory-installed cowl-induction hood. (Well, until you started it up and brought the aluminum big-block 427 to life.) The car was only available via Central Office Production Order (COPO), which installed the 427 option in the Camaro shell. Just 69 copies were built, and the ZL-1’s official 430-horse output figure was grossly underrated, mainly for insurance purposes. It was a quarter-mile king, and is among the quickest factory-built and street-legal beasts ever created.
Back in the present, the 2012 ZL1 aims to grow the legend, and it comes well prepared with a supercharged LSA V-8, borrowed from the Cadillac CTS-V. Producing an estimated 550 hp—a figure on par with the actual output of the original—and 550 lb-ft of torque from its force-fed 6.2 liters, this burly Camaro is seemingly built to terrorize drag strips rather than road courses, so perhaps ZL1 is more appropriate than Z28. (The Z28 was a racer, after all, competing and winning in Trans-Am.) A short-throw, six-speed Tremec manual is the only transmission.




Aiding driveline longevity and pavement adhesion are a beefed-up driveshaft and differential with asymmetrical half-shafts; the latter twist fat, 305-width ZL1-specific Goodyear Supercar F1 gumballs. The 20-inch forged wheels are 10 inches wide in the front and 11 in the rear, but the overall wheel-and-tire package is 22 pounds lighter than the Camaro SS's narrower 20-inch setup. We (conservatively) estimate the ZL1 will cover the 0-to-60-mph run in four seconds flat, while 0 to 100 mph should be accomplished in 9.9 seconds and the quarter-mile in 12.5. Monstrous two-piece Brembo rotors—measuring 14.6 inches in the front and 14.4 in the rear, and squeezed by six- and four-piston calipers—are the centerpieces of the braking system. The latest adaptive magnetorheological shocks sit at all four corners, and drivers can choose between Tour and Sport settings. The ZL1 also marks the introduction of a new electric power-steering system. Weight is said to be about the same as the Camaro SS's—the stronger driveline added weight, but some was pulled out with stuff like the wheels and hood, so it's roughly a wash—which puts this top-spec Camaro at 3900 pounds or so.
Many More Pieces of Flair
While the sleeper look of the original was awesome, the new ZL1 will be highly differentiated from its lesser kin. Up front, the lower fascia is dotted with brake-cooling ducts and four fog lights, and has a large splitter and a wide-mouth intake. The domed hood is aluminum with a louvered carbon-fiber center section that Chevy says helps downforce, while the rear end gets a larger integrated decklid spoiler and quad exhaust finishers. The exhaust system houses an actuated flap, as on the Corvette, that opens at higher engine speeds to both reduce back pressure and deliver a blood-boiling growl.

The cabin gets a few modest upgrades, including alloy pedal covers, a head-up display, and emblems for the headrests and door sills. Sueded material is applied to the shifter, the new flat-bottomed steering wheel, and the front-seat inserts. The auxiliary console gauges are standard on the ZL1, and feature a boost readout that we wouldn't recommend actually looking at while behind the wheel—keep your eyes on the road, please.
We're told the ZL1 will start around $47K, although Chevy could revise the pricing upward later, and it's unknown if the model will get hit with a gas-guzzler penalty. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait to get our hands on this brute, as it doesn't go on sale until February of 2012. So the GT500, which costs $49,495, will gallop on unchallenged for a little longer. And what about the more-racetrack-oriented Mustang Boss 302? Maybe the Z28 will find a place in Chevy’s modern lineup after all . . .

 

V6 PREMIUM
Black
6-speed manual
Mustang Club Of America Edition
Charcoal leather
3.31 limited slip dif.
Comfort package




More pics here...
http://forums.themustangsource.com/f...-night-482992/

 

Ill take a camaro or cts coupe or wagon...drool

But must be a stick

 

I think i'd get a Cadillac because any of the others I'd need the V8 power.

 

It is amazing to see how far advanced technology has come that today's V6's can produce 300HP, a feat. that just a few years ago was done By V8's...These cars provide both power and decent fuel mileage which is awesome....

Still I wonder one of my favoritist cars, the Grand National and Buick was exploring V6 and turbo power long before any company, it was sad to see that development get canceled when it was decided Buick should no longer build performance cars of any sort....

I wonder if that technology/development was allowed to continue if GM would have been light years ahead of the comptetition at this point....in someways just like a few other projects (EV1)and developments GM had, I think they shot themselves in the foot by not allowing that to continue at the time.

Joe

 

Camaro or Challenger, hands down. Must be manual. 2011 Camaro SS is my next car

 

Yeah. That V6 Mustang is faster than my SS.

 

WoW `Ted, how much faster ?, but I bet it doesn't have the Super Sounds of your V-8
Your Mustang selection is beautiful 4-Sure...Have you priced one out with your options ? How much ?

With the unknown of future gas prices, I think many will be choosing the V-6 over the Monster V-8, for which I find very `Sad ...By the time I can afford a car like the Camaro ZL`1, I won't be able to afford the fuel 4 `it...& that sucks Big Time
It's great that Dreams are still free, but our government is trying to tax them, so enjoy your dreams 2day LOL
Thanks everyone for your comments/posts & sharing your `Dreams....
I now go back in2 recharge mode & get some more Z's : )
Catch everyone later online...Peace/Out