Like Micheal Corleone, today we handle all this Ford vs GM & Chrysler crap!

I'm sorry that some Ford enthusiasts don't want to admit the truth.  But here's some irrefutable facts-gleaned from old Car Life, Motor Trend, and Hot Rod road tests, and as far as my research goes-none of these cars were "ringers" like we discussed previously and I think the 1/4 mile times will bear this out.  A 1968 390, 4-speed Mustang GT ran a 15.6 second 1/4. A 1968 4-speed SS396 Chevelle ran a 14.60, a 1968 Firebird 400 ran a 15.1 with an automatic.  A 1968 383 / 4-speed Road Runner ran a 14.58.  The Mustang was put on the trailer every time, by at least 1/2 second-which equates to about 5 car lengths. That's an ass-whippin' in anybodys book. Also-In doing research for an article for Musclecar Review on movie chases featuring musclecars I found both written interviews and video interviews with Steve McQueen, and Stunt Coordinator Carey Loftin, and stuntman Bill Hickman-who drove the Charger in "Bullitt." Ford supplied five 390 / 4-speed Mustangs for the movie. McQueen and Loftin bought the Charger off the showroom floor from a San Francisco Dodge dealer with their own money because McQueen didn't want two Fords in the chase. ( Ford offered a Fairlane, and Chrysler said-Ford has the contract with Warner Brothers-have a nice day.) The Charger was a 440 / 4-speed, and would leave the Mustang so badly that they couldn't even film it.  Loftin and mechanic Max Balchowsky pumped up one of the Mustangs with headers, an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb and a Mallory distributor. The headers and glasspack mufflers is why the car sounds so badass on the soundtrack. Now, the Charger would still beat it in a close drag race, but at least now McQueen and Loftin ( who shared stunt-driving duties in the Mustang ) could stay close enough to Hickman and the flying Charger to film it. The Charger's Torsion bar front / leaf spring rear suspension was ( pun intended ) bulletproof, and it's only problem bashing over the hills of S.F. at high speed was it kept throwing the hubcaps off. The Mustangs meanwhile, were ripping the shock towers out, and breaking things every day. Loftin, and Balchowski worked day and night taking parts off the other Mustangs to keep the camera car running. That's why 3 of the 5 were crushed after filiming and only one of the two remaining ones is still known to exist.  As for the later 351C Mustangs competing against the GM and Mopar offerings in the early '70's-things didn't get much better for the Blue Oval boys. Motor Trend's 1972 351CJ Mach 1 ran a 15.07. Cars magazine's 1972 340 'Cuda test car ran a 14.35, and Hot Rod's 1972 340 Duster ran an almost identical 14.34. Motor Trend's 1972 350 LT1 Z/28 ran a 14.69.  As for the "Big Dog's"-A 1972 Gran Torino Sport with a 429 couldn't even break out of the 16's-a 16.10 was it's time. And oddly-the 429 was only rated at 205 hp, while the 351CJ was rated at 266 hp. A 351CJ / 4-speed Torino was quicker than it's 429 / automatic brother-but it still only ran a 15.62. By contrast- a 455HO powered 1972 GTO ran a 14.58, a 455 powered 1973 Olds 442 ran a 14.90, while a 1972 400 / Torqueflite  Road Runner ran a 15.35, and a 1973 440 Charger ran a 15.0.  The fastest Ford in this era was Hot Rod's 1973 Pantera test car that ran a 14.53. A Pantera is definitely a "niche" car, not very common. You want to use the one-year-only, Boss 351 of which only 1,806 were built-I only saw two road tests of these-one ran a 14.05 and the other a 13.81.  You want to bring out 428 Mustangs and 429 SCJ Torinos from 1969-71-then you have to include LS6 Chevelles, Hemi 'Cudas, RAIV GTO's, and W30 442s-all of which are quicker than the Ford offerings in road tests of the day. Ford made some very cool cars in the musclecar era, but the bottom line is the GM and Mopar offerings were generally quicker, and you could swap GM and Chrysler engines from model to model without changing all the brackets, accessories, the bellhousing, the transmission, etc-not true with the Fords. Now, if this FACT offends anyone, then they'll just have to live with it and shut up. Mastermind