Now u see why Honda isn't releasing nothing. It's a straight POWER war out here!!!

Imagine if Ford came out with a dedicated 2 seater??? I would use the Mustang name just to get more sales!!

 

I'm trying to see where the 17 inches were in length... It still looks like the seating position is down in a hole, which is one of the things I most dislike about the pony cars.

 

Any Honda will not be a sports car. Sporty hybrid at best - that's Honda.

I think Toyota is stung by the FRS and reliability, and it is an unexploited platform. I'd be surprised to see any new car when it can create many versions of the FRS.

Nissan's new Z and the rumored SX are more likely, but Nissan has gotten stale with its engine tech and the new Q sounds terrible, which is troubling.

Ford has some great IP with names like the Galaxy, Comet, etc. You'd think Ford would do something to pair a two-seater with a Mustang, but it just doesn't do it. Since the Mustang starts in the low $20s, the only real option would be a Corvette competitor imo, but Ford seems content to push square Mustangs into round Corvette competitor holes.

I don't think it would do much as the only people who seem to buy the high-end Mustangs are die-hard Ford fans that wouldn't buy any Chevy.

 

It's good to see a return to the pony car rather than the muscle car that it's been for the past 10 years. A diet has been long overdue since they went to the retro theme.

 

Consider this: the current stang gt with track pack kept pace with its contemporary M3, with a solid axle. Now consider a mustang with an IRS, a bit smaller, and less weight. Is it an s2000/boxster/etc competitor? No, but I know alot of folks here who looooove the M3, and that car isn't competing with those cars as well. Yes, the car lacked and will lack refinement, but it will also cost waaaaaaay less than an M3, heck, we can even start the conversation on how it will stack up against a C7.
At its price point, for what it offers, it is a compelling package, people can't say oh well it can't handle, or the interior is low rent, relatively speaking those items are now on par with the competition.
Personally, I like the looks, good evolution of the style, I just hope it's smaller in person, like a genesis coupe or 3 series for instance.
I believe the 5.0 upgrade will be the addition of direct injection, good for a handful of ponies and mpg, but I'm not sold if I want it though because of the carbon build up virtually all DI engines experience (correct me if I'm wrong here), and the engine already makes good power and turns reasonably good mpgs too, so unless the DI adds like 50hp and throws the highway mpgs well into the 30s, I can hold off on it.

As mentioned earlier, I am really curious about the new Z, rumors are that it's supposed to be going back to basics, cheaper, smaller, lighter, simpler, all of which sounds good to me. Considering the 370 is all that minus the cheaper (and maybe the simpler), I can see this happening.

 

I like that we're trending away from muscle car wars to pony car wars and towards affordable sports cars. Considering many people buy a sports car as a second car, it makes sense to keep the pricing affordable for the weekend toy.

 

I'm assuming those are renderings, not the actual car from Ford. Regardless, what's not to like? Even 420 hp with 3300 lbs is very, very good (better than a 991S), though obviously the car itself won't be nearly as sophisticated or capable. There's no way they jump to 500 hp with the 5.0L V8 - just not happening (20% jump in one iteration, on a motor that's virtually brand new in the big scheme of things?).

I'd definitely give it a test drive, though a C7 Vette seems more likely a choice for me (albeit at a much higher cost - probably $15K-$20K more).

 

Here is where you lost me. The "retro" interiors are totally boring and cheap feeling to me.

Why is being retro to an interior from the 60's supposed to appeal when those cars were boxy and boring inside. This car is modern enough looking on the outside to ditch the whole retro interior anything and just do a nice job, but from what little you can see, it is still the retro theme. The Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro interiors are all terrible. If you mean it is on par with that competition, sure, because those interiors suck too.

The rest of what you said, I can pretty much agree with.

 

Regarding 500hp, the Boss 302 was a lot closer to that than it was rated. 5.0 GT did only ~112mph in the 1/4, the Boss was good for 117 right out of the box (we ran my RX-7 next to a brand new bone stock one a few runs a couple of years ago at San Antonio Dragway, he was doing over 117). That's not the difference between 412hp and 444hp. Boss 302 was really closer to 480hp at the flywheel. With a few more revs and reduced losses, 500 is not outside the realm of possibility...

 

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/t...no-tested.html

Not according to Edmunds. They saw a whp gain of 36 hp, which is slightly more than the crank hp difference between the GT and 302. Nowhere near 480 crank hp, though!

You're missing the difference in area under the curve, I think, and instead extrapolating it as extra peak hp.