[Auto] 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra vs. Chevrolet Camaro Z28 SS, Pontiac Firebird Formula WS6

[Wolf.17]

 

From the December 1995 issue of Car and Driver.

Seriously fast cars are a staple of life around here, but when we have 915 horsepower on hand divided among just three cars, a comparison test begs us to come out and play. No one has to ask us twice.

The faces are probably somewhat familiar to you. We tested an early Firebird Formula WS6 in August, the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 SS in October, and the Ford Mustang Cobra in September. All three cars compete for the same enthusiast dollars and, not surprisingly, with the same horsepower.

 

The Cobra, fitted with a DOHC all-aluminum 4.6-liter V-8, kicks out 305 ponies through a five-speed stick. Both General Motors products have been massaged by aftermarket powerhouse SLP, which now does work as a factory supplier. The results are the ram-air Formula WS6 and Z28 SS also boasting 305 hp apiece, channeled through six-speed manual transmissions.

Rather than reinvent the road-test wheel, we thought we'd compare these guys in a triathlon where we let the wild horses roam. Owners of these limited-edition steeds, we reasoned, would likely seek driving challenges of greater import than mere stoplight races. We wondered: How would these high-energy lightning bolts fare on a real drag strip? Which one can get through a serpentine SCCA SOLO II course the fastest? Whose lap times would be the quickest on a real road-racing circuit?

We asked a few of our friends to help us find out. Local hero Scott Kalitta (yes, that Kalitta—his father is drag-racing pioneer Connie) joined us for the drag strip component. The 33-year-old NHRA champion has 42 quarter-mile runs above 300 mph (the best being 308.96 mph in 4.726 seconds), and he's the current points leader in the NHRA Top Fuel category.

Diminutive fireball Al Chan is a GE plastics engineer who last year won the SCCA Central Division SOLO II Super Stock championship in a Corvette. He showed us the finer points of the cone course.

Finally, SCCA veteran Neil Hannemann brought his 14 years of experience and two driver's championships to the two-mile road-racing circuit of Grattan Raceway in central Michigan.

Our goal: to see which of these triathletes has the muscle to be the best all-around choice for street or combat.

Go Fast or Go Home

The original pony cars, of which these three are the current and lineal descendants, offered a lot of horsepressure for very little money. They were meant to go fast in a straight line. It's true that today's pony cars can corner without scraping their door handles on the curb from excessive body roll, and are probably better road-racers than drag cars. But for straight-line, tire-smoking accelerative thrills, the big-cube, high-horsepower V-8s still rule the street and the strip. The strip we chose was Milan Dragway, not far from our Hogback Road command center.

Properly launching a car down a drag strip is a lot more difficult than doing it in the street. Rpm, clutch engagement, shift technique, and timing all play crucial roles, though waiting on a stoplight is not unlike waiting on the Chrondek "Christmas tree" lights. In pro drags, there is no girlfriend or boy-Friday riding shotgun. Come to think of it, neither of those passengers showed up for our testing, either.

Who did show up was Scott Kalitta, the reigning points leader in NHRA Top Fuel dragster competition. Kalitta lined up at the starting lights against our technical director, Frank Markus. Frank has performance-tested roughly 250 cars over the last four years, which has given him plenty of practice in the standing-start drag.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a15142463/1996-ford-mustang-cobra-vs-chevrolet-camaro-z28-ss-pontiac-firebird-formula-ws6-comparison-test/