It was really, really over. The horrid 1970s had ended for car makers, the engineers had figured out how to make horsepower while meeting EPA emissions standards, and the kids born in the 1960s had become adults in their 20s and wanted to recapture some of the magic that they saw on the streets as kids. Yes, by 1985 the options for owning a high performance car were getting better and better and both GM and Ford knew that their hot ones would be big sellers, assuming that their performances backed up their looks.
MotorWeek made this three way comparison video more than 30 years ago now and while parts of it are campy as hell, we love the head to head comparisons on the drag strip and at Pocono on the road course. We really dig the fact that they got the test cars configured how they did.
The Mustang was a 5.0L, 5-speed car that had the upgraded handling package was well. The Pontiac was a 305, 5-speed car that also benefitted from the upgraded handling package, and the IROC was a TPI 305, automatic car, loaded with the seemingly more options than the other two.
The one thing that made us really smile about these cars is how fun they look and feel in this video. Chances are most BangShifters have owned at least some variant of a Mustang, Firebird, or Camaro in their lives so many of us had a connection to these cars, if even in just a passing way.
You’ll grit your way through the campy part at the beginning and then smile your way through the thrashing that all three of these cars get at the digs and at the road course. We’re wondering if Ford may have slipped a little bit of a wringer in on these guys. The quarter mile time is a little more stout than we remember stockers running, but who knows.
Funny stuff! Yeah, I don’t believe any of the cars could run the 1/4 mile times shown in this test bone stock. All of them appeared to have been pretty heavily “breathed on” by their respective manufacturers. Tests like this were common back in the day. The manufacturers all had reps present (rarely shown) who would tune the car within an inch of its life. Headers were often added and sometimes even slicks. The average consumer would buy one of the cars, take it to the track and be really disappointed when the car couldn’t come close to the supposed stock times. It actually still happens today (see Dodge Hellcat). I owned a 1970 Mach 1 with 351 W automatic back in the 1970’s. It had headers, free flowing dual exhaust, aluminum dual plane, 600 cfm Holley 4bbl, re curved distributor and 3.91 gears. It had about 280 hp and ran 14.4 – 14.5 on its best days. There is no way in hell any of these “stock” cars stock could have beaten it. I would have run any of these cars bone stock for pink slips!
I agree Danno.
I had the exact same Mustang in 1985 – purchased new. Dark Canyon red, 5 speed, only options were the 3.08 axle, tinted glass, and the good radio. Owned it for a week and took it to Detroit Dragway. Ran a few 15.0 1/4 mile times with under a thousand miles on it. Quite a few other guys had similar cars running in the middle to high 14s that same day that had a few more miles and a bit more practice..