The creation of the GT 350 Mustang was to be Fords answer to the Corvette. The R model was suppose to be the winner on the track but what about in real life? Were there any real road test of these two cars. I remember the few GT 350s I saw as a teen-ager they were not cheap. I lived near then only Authorized Shelby dealer in L.I New York and I remember the two I saw without all the stripes and mag wheels as most are show today were around 4 grand. That was about what a 300HP Stingray cost in 65.
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
Like the FIA Cobras starting in 1964, the GT350s regularly beat Corvettes when they appeared in the competition series. Autoweek wrote this:
"In February, at Green Valley Raceway in east Texas, Ken Miles put the GT350 in a winner's circle for the first time. Miles, who did most of the engineering and development work on the GT350, won three separate races before a crowd of 18,000 fans. Notice was served that GT350s would have XKE and Corvette racers jumping from office windows.
GT350s won five of six SCCA division championships in 1965 and Jerry Titus and Walt Hane finished 1-2 at the American Road Race of Champions. Only a tire failure on then-unknown Mark Donohue's GT350 prevented a 1-2-3 sweep. Hane won the B Production title at the 1966 ARRC, and Freddy Van Bueren won in 1967, the last year a GT350 won a national championship. Beginning with the 1967 models, GT350s made inferior competitors, though original R models remained competitive into the 1970s."
Remember that most of Duntov's 1963 drivers had jumped ship and signed with Shelby and Ford after 1963.
Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New Mexico -
Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
Blasphemy!Comment
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
Walter, does anyone really care? I can tell you that if the 350 GTs that you see at Monterey would have been allowed to run what those "vintage" racers are running, Ford wouldn't have needed the GT40.Comment
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
But didn't all that change when Mark Donohue sat in the #6 Pensky Camaro? Or is Trans Am all together different from SCCA?Comment
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
Yes, that is true, and TransAm is the same competitive space as FIA and SCCA, etc. But by then Shelby has left Ford racing, and it wasn't until Parnell Jones and the Shinoda Boss cars appeared in 1969 that Ford regained the lead in TransAm.Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
And don't forget that the GT 350s were running against the small block Corvettes. Most of the best racers of Corvettes had moved to the A Production big blocks.Comment
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Re: Gt 350 VS Stingray
I'm always amazed at the higher pricing mid to late 60s mustangs receive at auctions vs the corvettes.Comment
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