2001 Corvette ZO6 vs Mustang Cobra R vs Viper Comparison Test Drive

We as automotive performance enthusiast have had it good for quite some time now. With automakers engaged in a heady speed and power race, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the 1960s.

As evidence, take these three shrinking violets, the Chevrolet Corvette ZO6, the Ford SVT Mustang Cobra R, and Dodge Viper. All do us the pleasure of providing large capacity engines, the Vette and Stang with 385 horsepower and 385 pound feet of torque. The Dodge with 460. Mighty fine numbers indeed. Those figures may have paled beside the SAE readings from the 1960s but remember those were gross figures and were so exaggerated that one wonders if the dynos in those days read 100 horsepower before the engine started turning.

These however were genuine, not the result of lax SAE test procedures and creative marketing. Of course, the Corvette and the Mustang didn’t give out as much horsepower as the Dodge Viper GTS, but they do cost less, about $50K for the Vette, and $54k for the Stang versus $69,725 for the Viper. Its fair to say that the Chevrolet and Ford provide more performance per dollar than pretty much anything else on the market.