2020 C8 Corvette Z51 vs Mustang Shelby GT500 // DRAG RACE, ROLL RACE & LAP TIMES

you're watching throttle has and this is a track test [Music] welcome to the throttle house test track our very own corner of the earth where we can drag race and set lap times I'm Thomas and I'm James and these are two of the hottest new American cars this year and you might not think this makes much sense except this is the Shelby gt500 without the carbon fibre track package so not only do they cost about the same price they're also on the exact same tire the Shelby gt500 or as Carroll Shelby himself stated back when he made the original the first real car he was really proud of and after getting behind the wheel of one in its third and newest generation it's easy to imagine why Ford Performance has thrown everything they've got at it a supercharged 760 horsepower magneride suspension massive 16.5 inch 2-piece rotor brakes and even though this one doesn't have the full carbon fibre track package like the one we drove in California it has the far cheaper handling package which for 1,500 bucks gives you a just above struct top mounts and a gurney flap spoiler added together today's example is a racing striped Fortress of power and control that recognizes few equals this is the new c8 Corvette a completely redesigned reworked hunkered down American sports car with an exotic twist and like the gt500 is slightly upgraded from the base model with a package called the z51 which means it not only has five extra horsepower and upgraded suspension it also gets an electronic differential meaning it does this with little fuss but we'll get to that later the important thing is that both of these cars are on fresh Michelin Pilot Sport flores's and even though the Corvette has a bit less grunt at 495 horsepower all other variables today are equal so both the drag race and the lap times should be very interesting let's do it [Music] car reviews and quite a lot of messages out so subscribe hit the bell okay I'm finally in the c8 James kept stealing this car it is my turn to win whoo I think we're gonna find out I guess right I'm actually reasonably confident the only thing that's worrying me is I've got half a tank of fuel and I'm not sure if it's still gonna have any left by the time I get to the end of the quarter mile because no car drinks its fuel like the gt500 it makes it almost unusable okay so [Music] [Music] shuttle come on gt500 okay I'm kidding okay me but not soon enough oh I was close Wow all those brakes while the brakes Oh the largest domestic sports coupe a brakes you can buy I had a tough launch there did you yeah it was all over the place interestingly I was gaining on you so hard I didn't feel like it but you can't feel anything you're numb to the world you have been since 95 why not let's just do another ring okay let's remove the traction advantage for Thomas and do a roll race very roll I'm not that confident that Corvettes got unbelievable Giri the predator has spoken snake has met horse and it is a win stop smiling wipe that grin off your face let's go to the track to the truck last time we were on track in this car Thomas was driving it but now it's my turn and yes the c8 takes this car from a dig on the strip but that launch control has no power here call that Stormcrow and unlike that Italian copycat thing that Thomas is in this thing is all Mustang and in its ultimate form because this isn't just a Mustang GT with a supercharger slapped on top of it it's so much more firstly under the hood is a hand-built 5.2 liter aluminium alloy supercharged and intercooled engine designated predator but perhaps more importantly it has a massively revised to setup which even over the GT 350 gives it a new electronic power steering unit and for suspension it gets lighter coil springs front and rear [Music] that's so easy okay so this thing is a little bit of a working-class man in a knockoff Italian suit says Dolce and banana on the side some of the best things are when Italians and Americans come together Leonardo DiCaprio Al Pacino spaghetti and meatballs but you didn't know that wasn't an all Italian thing now before I really get into this car on the track a lot of you saw our road test of this where we showed off the rather horrible understeer such understeer well this c8 is in a track alignment setting from the factory every Corvette or every car for that matter comes with an alignment spec that is they set the car up in a certain way so that these tires are tilted in tilted out toed in or toed out the thing is though is that the Corvette has two settings it has a street alignment and a track alignment that means these front tires in track alignment spec which it's in right now are at negative three degrees of camber that's a lot but not just the front has changed the front and the back have changed about equally so it should add more grip but does it change the handling now all mid-engine cars push in the corner that means they understeer in the middle of the corner gets the weights over the rear so when you accelerate that front starts to walk a little bit and honestly I had driven one of these on the track before in track alignment and I really really wasn't impressed but for some reason today in this car I am absolutely blown away but before I get to the handling let's talk about the rest of the car as you know this car is mid-engine the weights behind me so when I get on the throttle it just hooks up coming out of a corner and it has a really effective engine just a proper Corvette v8 girl I'm really getting along with this transmission that like the short gearing I like that I have to use the paddles a lot to enjoy it the shifts are really fast and today is about lap times so I'm grateful for that and this one's got the crazy smooth 7-speed trim it gear boss and it's phenomenal you can shift while cornering and it doesn't even upset the balance of the car look how fast these shifts are [Music] it has an electro-hydraulic shift mechanism using energy-efficient lonely solenoids and if anyone can explain to me well that means I'll be here a week I'm pretty sure it means that it shifts real nice here's the thing is that a lot of people have said that on the road alignment anyway the reason that it understeers is for safety that's not a thing because the c7 was an absolute wild card especially when you go up to the zero six levels with oversteer with a breath of throttle and even in Legrand sport form it would oversteer like crazy on corner entry too much so that's not the reason the reason was as I think when they first started developing this car the earlier versions that we drove it just wasn't quite dialed in but for some reason today in this weather on this track with this blue Corvette this is one of the best handling cars I've ever driven in addition carries of a tendency to bite you if you get past a certain point is what isn't doing that I want to rotate it I just turn a little more and use the weight of the engine and the differential doing its thing up back second gear come through here so what people accused of being a Boomer Cruiser in truck alignment it's just not second gear chuck it in so this is sliding I pull event around like he's just discovered that he can do it in that which maybe is true but this is a Mustang after all yeah she drifts and she makes a better sound than that cool that I just watched James do it big slide in the gt500 when I met it was a little guy that's me out of it around look at that we just drifted a 760 horsepower American pony car little bit of understand there's such huge power that you can just throw it into oversteer the moment you touch the throttle so this looks like a muscle car but put on the track amigos fall sports car steering feels progressive and the car passes around like a muscle car which is true to its nature but it grips prodigiously and you can just plant it out of a corner now the cup two's in the carbon-fiber package give this thing crazy grip but these ps4s is unbelievable the steering for me is a downside because while the weight is nice and it's really accurate there's not much feedback so it's kind of hard to know exactly where wheels are pointing but like I'm figuring it out no problem come through here lift up over stairs it's super easy and the suspension is so compliant I think this is going to be one of the fastest cars I've ever driven around this track now the one big issue that I have with it still no matter what you say yes right now in track alignment it over steers smoothly predictably it's lovely the front-end grip is exactly where I want it to be but the thing is is that we have three degrees of negative camber in the front that's like a really aggressive setup so something else needs to be changed so that you can have a reasonable amount of negative camber in the front so you can drive the car everyday and then go to the track I might be getting alignment every single time because you're gonna wear the inside of your tires out real fast on the road I can't wait to see what happens in the Hall knobs because yes the Corvette is more sports car than this but it has power it has grip it has unbelievable turning I really think it's going to be a close one and I'm not joking and the time I've been talking to you I've lost 60 kilometers okay it's time for the hot laps now Thomas is going to do this in true time-attack fashion which means he's only gonna have five laps and the first is a warm-up lap followed by three hot laps and then one cool down lap and that is all he's got okay let's look at the Corvette first if you watch on corner entry you can hear that slight shudder of mid-engined understeer which is then followed by a progressive motion to oversteer which makes the Corvette really easy to carry speed through the corners and adjust slipping if you couple that with the fact that the power oversteer and exit is smooth and progressive and the suspension really allows the power to get to the pavement you end up with a car that is very quick on a tight bun P track like ours also if you're wondering why I'm so active on the steering wheel it's because there isn't much feel from the front end so I'm constantly trying to suss out the front tire crypt levels let's watch the lap [Music] now if you know our leaderboard which we will put up in a second you will already know that the ca laid down a very fast time but let's watch the gt500 now this car is a different beast it puts down monstrous power on the straights but it's less delicate in the corners this car was also set up by the dealer for track driving the gt500 turns in incredibly well but without cup to is on the front and sometimes had trouble finding fun grip at the limit as you can hear me expressing here come on [Music] try to get some front end out of it come on it's also a full-on workhead around the tight track like this it's like hanging onto the back of an angry grizzly it's fantastic let's watch the rest of them [Music] as fast a straight line oh my god [Music] come on put it down put it down yes good exit okay we've come to that part of the day where it's time to find out how the lap times went I've been burdened with this information all day and I've been and I've been apprehensive because I there's not a result that wouldn't surprise me I have no idea what's gonna happen all I can promise you that's true this feels like a crazy sports car that's basically borderline supercar and then this is just a 760 horsepower sledge hammer that's exactly what is incredibly well no it does it's bouncy it's a bounce or track yeah this is a rough bit the ride on this is nuts do you remember me in the zl1 anyway yeah guys are dying sorry first of all misery okay here we go okay okay I'm going to put from last season remember last season a bit different than this season the track is different it's green this year whatever then times can't match up that perfectly but I'm gonna put last season's leaderboard up here the fastest car we ever had was the Camaro zl1 1le and that wasn't a super call 300 supercar 3r this basically cup to come yeah and this is not on the cup - okay okay and that was what was that that was it like a low 111 okay 111 12 I believe it's up there the people that are watching know better than I do right now here we go gt500 one 1182 oh okay that's still unbelievably unbelievabl ps4s is yeah one cup twos I'm very calm with this okay fine the Corvette did a 111 fifty-three oh okay all right how crazy is that at respect to the club crazy it's incredible what a transformation from our street review Oh completely on the track alignment I mean I have to say it again that this camber setting would not be good for everyday driving you're gonna run at a tire real fast but out here on our track it's just it's like a ballerina it just dances through the corners congratulations you just made a col that feminine I did look how pretty it is that's a good mid-engine car and now the Front's pretty and let me guess this is blue as well anyway brilliant day unbeliev Michael I can't believe how close these cars are when we when we came over this with no idea they were gonna be this close and I'm so happy that they are the win goes to the core babe which one would you drive home by the way you know what if this one can't make it home without filling up three times that is an issue so for that reason I didn't call that so it out but there's just oh you would okay yeah yeah right fair enough yeah call that it's so easy to everyone don'ts on this guess what bloody brilliant [Music]

Channel: Throttle House

Views: 2,646,996

Rating: 4.847692 out of 5

Keywords: Drag race, Corvette, 2020 Corvette, 2020 C8 Corvette, GT500, 2020 Stingray Corvette, 2020 corvette z06, 2020 corvette top speed, 2020 corvette 0-60, 2020 corvette, 2020 c8 corvette interior, 2020 3LT corvette, 3LT C8 Corvette, Chevy corvette, 2020 C8 Corvette Drifting, C8 Corvette, C8 Corvette Z51, GT500 vs Corvette, mid engine C8, Shelby GT500 vs C8 Corvette Drag race, 2020 C8 review, 2020 Mustang GT500, Drag strip, C8 Corvette Roll race, 2020 Shelby GT500, C8 track test

Id: -gZLTLmZBGM

Length: 18min 32sec (1112 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/fireinthesky7]

/u/jamesthrottlehouse this one is definitely blue. Surprised it was that close in the end, I actually expected the Corvette to pull more than half a second on the GT500, but they both look like so much fun to drive.

[u/agod2486]

Is there another channel that does track comparisons on the same tires? Such an important concept, and I'm really glad we got to see this done properly.

Also, how nuts is it that a C8 Z51 and GT500 are within milliseconds of each other? I can't wait for the Z06 trim to come out, it will probably be another level of insanity.

[u/The_Exia]

The information I got from this was an SS 1LE on cup 2s is a monster for the money.

[u/Mindfulmanners]

Figured the C8 would lose in a dig, but everything else was a nice surprise. The mid engine change has paid its dividends in full and then some.

The C8 platform is going to cause some more problems for higher tiered cars once it’s in Z06/ZR1 form.

[u/tkuiper]

It's cool these cars are so close.

Too many people are gonna try and compare these 1:1. GT500 will win on a larger sweeping track. Also that 'Clinging to the back of a grizzly bear' vibe is exactly what mustang's are for and what makes them fun.

Seems like the C8 is going to be great for an 'affordable' refined and technical track weapon, especially once they tune the suspension and hopefully make the steering heavier. I'm calling BS that understeer is a safety measure, they just need a year or so to dial everything in (which I'm sure is what the Z06 will be).

[u/DanielG165]

God, it is still insane to think that we're only dealing with the base model C8. Like, it hasn't even gotten serious yet, and it's keeping up with 700+ Mustangs and laying down awesome track times. I know that I've said a million times, as well as everyone else... But it is absolutely no joke when we say that the Z06 is going to be a game changer, and a fucking. Animal. I don't even want to think of the C8 ZR1 at this stage, but the Z06? Yeah, it's about to get scary for the European manufactures when this thing comes knocking on their doors.

[u/digistil]

"Dolce & Banana" looks pretty good on the inside.

[u/AutocrossChick]

Finally, a versus where you can't lose no matter what you pick. <3

[u/blue_bomber697]

Fantastic video guys! Great review and comparisons of both cars.