Speculation

[high_glove_side]

This is probably going to sound odd, but... if I had the opportunity to drive this car prior to purchase, and was blown away by it, I would be unlikely to care nearly as much about what else might be faster for the same money.

If it was a buy before you try scenario (which it is for many), I might be prone to a bit more initial disappointment if this information was available to me prior to getting the keys.

As other folks here have said though, you have to factor in your own use of the car in most scenarios... and that's generally not 10/10ths performance for most people.

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[krt22]

Just calling a spade a spade based on what you have posted.

 

[chief135smitty]

I had a good time a Sebring! I agree more seat time and the full track would of been nice, but you will never leave an event like that without wishing for more track time. I am not a reviewer of cars and have not driven the latest and greatest so I have nothing to compare this car to. That being said when I got out of that GT350 my heart was racing and can not wait for mine to arrive!

 

[_M_]

Just calling a spade a spade based on what you have posted.

Hey I got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. It will meet your full expectations, and if it doesn't, you'll still be happy with it.

Maybe we will get a chance to track our cars together and drive them at 50% capacity. We will have fun doing it.

Now let's get back on topic and talk about bench racing, and pro driver times, and the utter disappointment this wil car will bring everyone. :lol:

 

[krt22]

I prefer the beaches of nebraska myself. But I will surely love to take this beast out for parade laps, even if some track day hero in a z28 or hell cat plows by me :cheers:

 

[nastang87xx]

The car will not/cannot be disappointing to me because I'm not buying it for bench racing. If the Z28 laps a tad faster im not losing any sleep over it. I know I don't have the skill to drive either car near that limit, so it's a useless metric for me.

Yep. When the Camaro 1LE came out, I didn't start panicking over that car and desperately going out to buy one.

Perspective: the Z/28 is a SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR VEHICLE. The GT350 Track Pack is $57,000. The R is $64,000. Say the Z/28 is a second faster than the GT350R around some whatever track. Yes, journalists will have a field day over all the hype that didn't deliver. But what about the driver experience? What if it's worth every penny of that $57K or $64K in emotion, character, and experience? Driver's cars are based off of driver involvement, driver reward and satisfaction, and driver confidence. That Z/28 is a great car but very hairy after 90% because of those tires and suspension and even the brakes! Carbon ceramic brakes are no joke. They're insanely capable but they can be scary. Can the Z/28 be pushed hard as hell? Yep. By me? Nope. And probably not by 99% of the people who are all up in arms over "speculation."

 

[Honus]

Interesting read

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...y-gt350r-review-seems-awesome-really-no-idea/

That guy is an idiot if he thought that a presser test-drive for owners of the cars was going to be a balls out test drive.

Seriously?

How naive can you be? Fords gonna let you go balls-out with a car they have to reuse?

The depth of idiocy there is compelling.

Sure he deserves a car for review at some point but I feel he missed the point of a track test drive.

 

[_M_]

Yes, but he enjoyed every second of it.

 

[Steve68]

His expectations were definitely unreasonable, however, it was kind of a nice change from the carbon-copy articles that all the other press member attendees wrote.

 

[high_glove_side]

That guy is an idiot if he thought that a presser test-drive for owners of the cars was going to be a balls out test drive.

Seriously?

How naive can you be? Fords gonna let you go balls-out with a car they have to reuse?

The depth of idiocy there is compelling.

Sure he deserves a car for review at some point but I feel he missed the point of a track test drive.

I think the point to gather from all that is that if you see other articles fawning over this car, those journalists had the same limited exposure to the car that he did. :shrug:

 

[Hack]

Let's say performance data gets released prior to delivery of your car and it's not close to what people were hoping for...everything else checks out, that great sound, great handling, etc, but the actual performance numbers just don't play out compared to the competition.

Do you keep it, or pass? Curious as to what is the consensus here.

Discuss

Are we buying a great car here or are we spending $60k on bragging rights?

Seems like some people can't distinguish between the two.

It's actually exactly what is being discussed the way the OP is worded.

I agree the original post is worded as "you love the car, but the data isn't good enough". I guess I didn't answer that question in my previous posts, but you are right that the original post is worded as bragging rights being the most important, not the actual driving experience. The driving experience will be the most important thing to me, but I'm planning to buy without having a chance to drive the car first. Not what I prefer to do...

SNIP
The car will not/cannot be disappointing to me because I'm not buying it for bench racing. SNIP

I disagree with this statement, but I suppose it's semantics. I think I could be disappointed by many things that have nothing to do with bench racing, for instance:

• The ride is way too rough on every setting
• The exhaust is so loud my ears ring after every drive
• Acceleration off the line is uninspiring due to the gearing

I'm not buying for bench racing, but I have to admit that owning a car that has good stats and figures does give me pleasure.

 

[_M_]

@ Hack

Reasonable post above. Although I certainly did not meant it to be taken that way, but your second part of the post is a great statement without getting all protective of the car

 

[Trackaholic]

Interesting read

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...y-gt350r-review-seems-awesome-really-no-idea/

Seems like he had some lofty expectations for the event and was not aware of its intent or of the other similar events that have already been run. At least he left wanting more, rather than less.

Regarding the original topic, I think some of the areas of concern are things like understeer (that have been mentioned in some reviews), and the regular GT350 not feeling very special. If I was disappointed in the car I'd definitely have second thoughts about keeping it, but if I were happy with the handling, sound, etc, then for me, most of the performance is already covered. The only other area of unknown is acceleration, but we already know power/weight, so road course acceleration is relatively well known. Drag strip acceleration is less certain, but so much of that is launch dependent that the raw numbers don't matter to me.

So, I'm more nervous about being disappointed in things like steering feel, shifter feel, seating position, heel/toe pedal placement, etc.

-T

 

[krt22]

I agree the original post is worded as "you love the car, but the data isn't good enough". I guess I didn't answer that question in my previous posts, but you are right that the original post is worded as bragging rights being the most important, not the actual driving experience. The driving experience will be the most important thing to me, but I'm planning to buy without having a chance to drive the car first. Not what I prefer to do...

I disagree with this statement, but I suppose it's semantics. I think I could be disappointed by many things that have nothing to do with bench racing, for instance:

• The ride is way too rough on every setting
• The exhaust is so loud my ears ring after every drive
• Acceleration off the line is uninspiring due to the gearing

I'm not buying for bench racing, but I have to admit that owning a car that has good stats and figures does give me pleasure.

These are personal/subjective things about a car, completely different than not liking if the car might not be up to snuff with it comes to published performance. So what may disappoint you, may not disappoint others, so not really up for debate. Others might welcome loud and harsh.

Coming from a 2012 GT with 3.31 gears and oversized tires, im not too worried about off the line acceleration, current GT500 owners might feel differently. :cheers:

 

[stanglife]

This is probably going to sound odd, but... if I had the opportunity to drive this car prior to purchase, and was blown away by it, I would be unlikely to care nearly as much about what else might be faster for the same money.

If it was a buy before you try scenario (which it is for many), I might be prone to a bit more initial disappointment if this information was available to me prior to getting the keys.

As other folks here have said though, you have to factor in your own use of the car in most scenarios... and that's generally not 10/10ths performance for most people.

This is a great point. We don't get to try before we buy so we need/want a solid benchmark and of course, we want it to be faster than whatever the last generation of X brand was at the time.

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