1998 Ford Mustang Cobra vs. Chevy Camaro SS
MotorWeek ‘Retro Review’ foretells this to be one of the final pony car battles before Camaro’s 2002 discontinuation.
If you were to collect every Mustang vs. Camaro comparo that’s been made since the inception of the pony car, you would have a volume that would put War and Peace to shame.
This timeless rivalry has all the stuff of a Michael Bay nine-part saga in which everything explodes. It’s that American. If you’re a car person in the USA, it’s impossible to avoid at least some form of exposure to this pony car clash of the titans, which is why revisiting this uniquely American rivalry is good, clean fun.
MotorWeek, Because of Course
In the ’90s, before Western audiences had been exposed to Top Gear, the bar for car shows was set, well, low. The show responsible was MotorWeek, created, produced and famously narrated by John H. Davis, the man who gave every episode of MotorWeek just a hint of “Motel 6 commercial.”
MotorWeek was flawed just like ’90s cars were flawed. This unapologetically ’90s review of the SN-95 Mustang Cobra and F-body Camaro Z28 SS is better for it, complete with praise for the Camaro’s cookie-cutter GM gauge cluster and upgraded 17-inch wheels.
’90s Icons
It’s worth pointing out that both of these cars were top performers in their day, and have managed to remain relevant because of their impressive power outputs. These cars laid the pavement for the current generation, with Ford’s modular 4.6-liter V8 and Chevy’s ubiquitous 5.7-liter small block both producing 300-plus horsepower.
True to the era, Davis comments on the intrusive traction control cars came with at the time, which functioned pretty much like an on/off switch. While the less-powerful Mustang took top honors at the drag strip, the Camaro was, in fact, the faster car on a road course. Too bad it couldn’t earn in the dealership grand prix, because after the F-body, the Camaro took an eight-year hiatus.
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