Every Camaro and Mustang lap time from our annual Lightning Lap track test ranked.
The 300-hp Ford Mustang GT was 0.3 second slower than the Chevy Cobalt SS. However, the Mustang was actually a couple of mph quicker than the Cobalt on the straightaways, but the Ford suffered from weak brakes and a floppy chassis. After only two laps, the brakes started to give ground and the soft suspension allowed the car to move around too much to go quickly through the high-speed esses of Sector Two. The Cobalt averaged 4.7 mph faster through that part of the track. On the plus side, cornering grip and balance were decent. With more suspension control, the Mustang would have taken better advantage of these attributes.
Our first suspicion was a tank of 87 octane. At least, we think that’s why the Mustang EcoBoost refused to make any boost. High ambient temps probably didn’t help, either. So we burned off the first tank of fuel and started over with a tank of 93 octane. Lap times improved, but even with the fresh fill, the Mustang still wouldn’t give max boost as the 2.3-liter four revved to its 5500-rpm power peak. Without full boost at the power peak, we’re thinking that a few of the engine’s claimed 310 ponies ended up at the glue factory. After experimenting with our upshift rpm, we determined that the quickest times happened when we shifted just as the boost began to fall. Shifting with the boost gauge instead of the tach is something entirely new to us.
The quickest entry in class LL1 proved once again just how large a role tires play in performance. Our Mustang GT showed up wearing the wrong tires, so while we waited for a set of Pirelli P Zeros (part of the $1530 Track pack) to arrive, we turned a couple of educational practice laps. The Mustang was noncommittal on turn-in and floppy and floaty through the esses. Great, we thought, another flaccid pony car that doesn’t know how to turn.
Taking the LL1 crown this year and tying the class-record time of 3:12.5 was Ford’s 305-hp V-6 Mustang. We have little doubt that it could have unseated the co–class-champ 2006 Nissan 350Z Track if the Ford hadn’t been equipped with a 114-mph governor, which the car banged into for more than 15 seconds per lap. Yet despite the interference of the electric anchor, the new V-6–powered car still managed to beat last year’s 315-hp V-8 Mustang by 0.8 second.
There were no such discussions concerning the Ford Shelby GT500, which returned because bad ignition parts soured its visit to last year’s Lightning Lap. It’s a strange car—it moves around obsessively when driven hard, with so much body roll and pitch that it’s hard to believe it was designed to perform in such a manner. It is, however, a safe car to drive fast because it is exceptionally predictable, is seemingly impossible to spin, and has brakes that hold up well. As long as the ambient temperature was below 70 degrees, the GT500 was fairly quick and posted a 3:05.9 lap. But when the temperature climbed to about 90 degrees, the engine started lying down, and the lap time lengthened by four seconds. None of the other cars was so affected by the heat.
It might feel as wide as Nebraska and offer the outward visibility of a corn maze, but the Camaro SS is actually quite at home on the racetrack. Helping to offset its husky build is a 426-hp V-8 that delivers power in such an effortless manner that we occasionally bumped into the rev limiter. A large shift knob nearly the size of a baseball moves through longish throws that require a firm hand, but tall gearing and abundant torque reduce the number of shifts required per lap.
The Mustang GT gives you the best parts of the V-6–powered car, only with more ponies. Its 412-hp V-8 is 107 horses stronger than the 113-pound-lighter V-6 model, and it’s 138 horses short of the 198-pound-heavier, V-8–powered Shelby GT500. The GT’s additional juice, without a correspondingly significant weight penalty, is a key reason why we singled it out for this year’s 10Best Cars award and why it performs so well on a track. It is worth noting, though, that a mandatory option for hot lapping is the $1695 Brembo front brake package, which also brings sticky Pirelli P Zero tires. With that package, the GT turns a 3:08.6 lap, 0.9 second quicker than its longtime pony-car rival, the Camaro SS, managed in last year’s Lightning Lap, and third in class despite being the second-least-expensive LL2 car, at $36,280.
Having the lesser Mustang GT on hand was not a good thing for the Shelby GT500. Although substantially more buttoned down, with far less pitch and roll after its 2010 overhaul, the GT500 still feels rather obstinate about working out on a track.
Down 60 horsepower but also 71 pounds lighter, the four-cylinder Camaro keeps close pace with the 335-hp V-6–powered Camaro 1LE—up to a point. Because the turbo four loses so much steam at the top end, we needed fifth gear three times around the Grand Course: in the Climbing Esses and on both straights. These extra shifts into a higher gear kill the 2.0T’s forward progress and are the largest source of its 1.6-second deficit.
From the numbers, and if you don’t count the new independent rear suspension, the reborn Mustang GT doesn’t appear to be much different than its predecessor. Twenty-three horsepower separates the two, and while both ride on 19-inch Pirelli P Zero tires, the new Stang has a 255/275 stagger to the old car’s square 255 fitment. Despite the new car’s 196-pound weight gain, the two Mustangs are separated by just 1.1 mph on the front straight. So, where did the new car lop off 3.4 seconds?
Some people will always stereotype four-cylinder Mustangs, even if said four-pot is more powerful than V-8s of old. After all, the 330-hp 2.3-liter turbo-four in the EcoBoost High Performance model is mightier than Mustang GTs from the aughts. However, it wasn’t horsepower that helped the four-cylinder ‘Stang post a 3:04.4 lap time at Lightning Lap ’21, most of the credit goes to its grippy Pirelli P Zero Corsa PZC4 track tires. That rubber is included with the car’s optional Handling package along with adaptive dampers, hardier brake pads, and stiffer rear anti-roll bars. The result is a four-cylinder Mustang that lapped VIR’s Grand Course quicker than a 2015 Mustang GT. So much for stereotypes.
Shelby GT500s have never fared well in this test. The old iron-block engine repeatedly suffered from heat soak—sapping power—and the car’s tires wouldn’t last more than one lap. The 2011 updates—including a retuned suspension, new tires, an aluminum engine block, and a more efficient intercooler—have paid major dividends here, lopping nearly two seconds from the GT500’s 2007 record of 3:05.9. At 3824 pounds, the 2011 car is also lighter than that one by 84. It’s still a portly beast, but it handles like a coupe that is closer to the 3500-pound mark. There is some body roll but not a lot. And despite its solid rear axle, the GT500 brews confidence by the gallon. It excels in sectors three and five, where it keeps pace with pricier LL4 participants. If the seats did a better job of keeping the upper and lower body in place, times in sectors two and four would shrink drastically. A certain amount of steering-wheel control is sacrificed when your arms have to work harder to keep you in place than the seat does.
The 2006 Nissan 350Z Track lasted nine Lightning Laps and withstood 38 challengers before its LL1 class-record 3:12.5 lap fell. A Ford Mustang V-6 matched the Nissan’s time in 2011, but it’s the Chevy pony car that finally dethrones them both. The Camaro V-6 1LE does not merely claim the fastest LL1 time in the 10-year existence of Lightning Lap, it blasts the old record with eight sticks of dynamite.
Forget the numbers for a moment. The Boss 302 Laguna Seca (the raciest of racy factory Mustangs) fires so many of the right neurons that it could be the one car we’d drive forever. Ford excelled by focusing on the full high-performance experience, not just this 444-hp Mustang’s acceleration or lap times. Sometimes the feel, the sounds, and, yes, the smells can overshadow what a car achieves on the track.
Without a complete redesign, Chevrolet couldn’t change the fact that the Camaro is huge, heavy, and struck blind by its poor outward visibility. But Chevy could change the chassis, and—fortunately—it did. Some serious suspension magic (option code 1LE) has transformed the Camaro SS into a track delight.
With 662 horsepower, the 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 was at the time the most powerful car we’d ever tested at VIR. So why couldn’t it put down a sub-three-minute lap? Why didn’t it beat the heavier and less potent Camaro ZL1? It comes down to two related reasons: balance and traction.
Is the Camaro ZL1 a more powerful SS 1LE? Or is the 1LE a slower ZL1? We pondered that philosophical matter while pounding both Camaros at VIR. We still don’t know the answer, but we do know that the ZL1 provides the same spectacular stability, predictability, and control of the 1LE, it’s just that the experience is sped up.
There’s nothing apparently exotic about a Chevy Camaro SS 1LE. It weighs 3743 pounds. It lacks carbon-ceramic brakes and a dual-clutch transmission. Carbon fiber? Not a strand. Turbos? Nope. A mid-engine V-8 that revs like a dentist drill? Not here. So what is this Camaro doing lapping right behind the Porsche Cayman GT4 and ahead of the Audi R8 V10 Plus?
The Performance Package Level 2 kit builds from the ground up, starting with a set of Michelin’s track-magic Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires—same size at each corner—that stick to the pavement like duct tape. The Mustang hammers through Turn 1 at 1.13 g’s, cornering harder than the McLaren 720S, Porsche 911 GT3, and Ford’s own supercar, the GT.
So close. The Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R is less than a second slower than the Chevy Camaro Z/28 we lapped two years ago. But while the times are nearly identical, the experiences couldn’t be more different.
The Mustang Mach 1 inherits some of the best parts from some of the best Mustangs, including the 480-hp 5.0-liter V-8 from the Bullitt and track-ready hardware from the Shelby GT350. It all culminates in the second-quickest Mustang we’ve ever ran at Lightning Lap—the first being the 760-hp Shelby GT500. With a time of 2:51.4, the Mach 1 beat the 2016 GT350R’s time by just four-tenths.
Please stop writing in to tell us that a $75,000 Camaro is as ridiculous as a solid-gold snowplow. Get this: In Turn One, the Z/28 matched the Porsche 918 by posting 1.16 g’s, the highest grip we’ve ever recorded in that corner. Another unfunny fact, at least to Porschephiles: In the uphill esses, a Camaro topped the 918’s average and exit speeds.
The best laps usually happen in the early morning, when the air is cooler than Miles Davis. Later, the track surface turns to lava and no good can come of that. On our go-for-it lap, with the ZL1 huffing the dense morning air, we arrived at the Climbing Esses with greater speed than ever before and couldn’t get it to turn into the first right. While the car mostly stayed on the tarmac, a curb strike bent a front wheel. By the time we changed it and got back in the ZL1, the track was about as cool as Kenny G.
Lion tamers. That’s what we felt like after working the 3853-pound 650-hp Camaro ZL1 1LE to a 2:45.7 lap. The 1LE is a modified ZL1 designed for track use. It comes with spool-valve dampers in aluminum housings, steamroller Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R rubber, a wider mouth to better feed its 11 heat exchangers, dive planes that intimidate like face tattoos, and a carbon-fiber TV tray mounted to the trunklid. You need those parts. They’re the chair and whip necessary to keep this lion from eating you.
Two years after the manual-equipped Camaro ZL1 1LE posted an impressive 2:45.7 lap time at Lightning Lap 2017, we ran one with the 10-speed automatic, allowing us to keep both hands on the wheel and beat the stick-shift 1LE’s time by 0.7 second. While the car’s DIY gearbox is a joy in daily driving, every tenth matters around VIR’s Grand Course, and it’s the automatic 1LE that’s currently the quickest Camaro we’ve ever driven there.
The quickest Mustang and the quickest Camaro we’ve ever run at Lightning Lap are separated by just four-tenths of a second, but as Vin Diesel’s character, Dominic Toretto, said in The Fast and the Furious, “It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.” That means the Mustang, in this case, the berserk 760-hp Shelby GT500, is the king of the hill when it comes to lap times versus the Camaro. Will the Chevy ever beat the Ford’s best mark of 2:44.6? Only time will tell, and we hope to see it.
Keyword: Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!