Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: Garak
If not that, perhaps something a 1985 535i was actually competing against in the 1984/5 market in the first place.
The best handling American car back in '85 outside of the Corvette was the Camaro. It pulled about .85-.88 G on the skip pad, had 215 HP, 0-60 mph ~7 seconds, 1/4 mile 15.2@90 mph, top speed 140 mph, and was $11k-15. Not too bad at all and it compared well to other sports car like the Porsche 944 and BMWs close in price range. But the Camaro wasn't light at 3400 lbs and didn't get great gas milage 15-20 mpg or so, and had limited back seat room.
Unfortunately, '85 was the only year for the 215 hp 305 Camaro. The TPI 305 dropped to 190 after that.
The Mustang SVO eventually made 205hp and was better balanced than the nose heavy Z/28-IROC-Z. It had a faster steering rack and pinion than it's GT/LX5.0 brethren and Koni shocks and struts, rear disc brakes and bigger tires. It matched a Ferrari Testarossa on the skidpad. The downside? turbo lag was present but mostly it was the price. It was quite a bit more expensive than an LX 5.0. More than the Mustang GT IIRC.
Well not exactly. I think the base 305 TPI wasn't downrated to 190 hp until '87 when they switched it to a roller cam that was less agressive than the flat cam (strange). But it didn't matter because by then they had the TPI 350 available (automatic only though). And by '89 or so the 305 TPI was available with 225-230 HP with a manual. The Camaro was not really very nose heavy and had its handling, suspension and brakes pretty sorted out by '85 with the IROC models that was a readily available option package. The reciculating ball steering was fast and felt about as good as they were going to get it but a rack&pinion would've been better.
The F-body of the time was indeed a decent handling car. It shared the T-5 transmission with the Mustang, which is a fun gearbox IMHO. The MPH you quoted really does show the weight difference between the Camaro and the Mustang. My '87 would routinely trap 99Mph stock, and that is about par for the course for most of the 5.0L cars. They were however, less balanced in my opinion, and much lighter in the rear-end than the F-body, making them a lot less predictable and a lot less forgiving.