Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Why is everyone here so obsessed with drag racing?
Unless you can be bothered to go to a drag strip on a regular basis, there's no point in being able to do 0-100 at all. Sure, you can get tremendous power out of a Mustang pretty easily, but god forbid you try to take a tricky corner in one.
Much more fun can be had on a daily basis with a car that handles properly - say, a WRX, a Corvette, or if you want something a little wierd, a Fiero. (Mid-enginedness helps.) All you need is a twisty back road to appreciate your car, and you can always take it autocrossing.
Because most of us are just normal people out there who drive their cars to work, to school, etc, in the USA where 90% of roads are N-S and E-W creating city blocks of straight roads separated by stop signs and lights.
You are far more likely to get into an impromptu penis contest from a stop at a light on a daily commute.
$2-3k in suspension work (tubular K/a-arms, ball joints and spherical cross axis joints, urethane+ bushings, shocks/struts, coil overs, subframes, etc), will have a Mustang handling as good or better than any of the cars you mentioned that use a strut front suspension. A Griggs GR40 or Agent47 front SLA system will make it a world class road race car if you're into that sort of thing enough to justify the cost. And you still have a daily driver with a back seat that won't have to sit and be a garage queen every time you have 2 passengers.
And THAT is the appeal of those cars, that you get in the door cheap, with stock performance where it counts in 99% of daily driving situations (eg: straight line power from a stop) and an unlimited aftermarket to make your car do whatever you want on your own time with your own budget. And at the end of the day it's still a practical 2 door 4 seater coupe.
It works out well for people who want a single car that is both their performance hobby car and their primary commuter at the same time, who can't have or don't want a specialized separate car for every occasion. Some people have a Maxima and a Corvette. For those who simply couldn't drive a Maxima for more than 2 seconds knowing they have a Z06 at home, but who can't practically have a Z06 as their only daily commuter car, you have the Mustang, and that is why cars like the Mustang and Camaro are so popular.
You can have your cake and eat it too. So you have your jack of all trades master of none commuter car that hauls ass, but still not quite as good as the more pure Corvette that you couldn't practically live with, whatever your reason may be... enter the second to none Mustang aftermarket. You can always make your Mustang faster than a Corvette, but you cannot add a bigger trunk or back seat to a Corvette.
