Brings back memories. My 91 Z28 LB9 auto would most always outrun auto Mustangs but the stick shift cars especially the LXs would give me fits. Taurus SHOs, Thunderbird SCs, and Dodge Daytonas were no trouble.
I also raced a white Mustang 5.0 with a 5 speed, he had sticky nitto 55'R's and i was on his rear quarter the whole way untill i started to reel him in we were door handle to door handle on top end. literally a few tenths of a second away of each other. Good races though! I just wanted to prove a point to a friend whom said that the 5.0 can be beaten with a G92 powered 5.0 5 speed camaro.
The best i could run was a 9.403 @ 72 mph. I had traction problems the whole night, and the 5.0's all had sticky nitto's that night. The best time i have ran was 9.202
Honestly I was a Mustang/Ford guy before I was an F-body guy. For a while I raced a '85 Cougar XR-7 (2.3turbo/T5) that with only a little work would beat up most third gens.
As far as near stock in the '80's, it really came down to how it was optioned and the driver. Going from an average driver to a great driver in either of these cars could make over a second difference in the 1/4, and a 5.0 mustang could go from an automatic pig to a super light weight T5 and go over 1s faster in the 1/4. Take that auto, put no options in it, a good torque converter and sticky tires and run 12's.
F-bodies are the same. From the factory, they made more power, they had better suspensions, but a much broader range of options, and similar cars where a couple of hundred lbs heavier then the mustangs. In the end it could go either way, but assuming they were decently optioned it would more often then not come down to the driver (I would argue that you won that pass in the video because the mustang didn't get off the line, not because you were faster, but I couldn't read the times either)
Your 1/8 times work out to be roughly mid 14's in the 1/4. I don't know what if anything is done to your car, but I've gotten my LB9/T5 TA to run a 13.622 with very little done to it (open this video in youtube and the description has all the details including the full timeslip):
Thats a damn good time! I don't have much done to it besides suspension work and a stock rebuilt of the bottom end with a near stock camshaft. My 9 bolt suffered a pinion bearing failure about a year ago and chewed up my stock gears, the only gears i was able to find were 3.27 and 2.77. The car runs healthy but i agree with your opinion because there are to many variables. The guy in this video had a modified automatic with a 2500 stall converter and with a B303 camshaft. some head work but in overall i believe he did not know how to run his car right. I have another video where i raced a bone stock 93 GT 5 speed with a good consistent driver and he was slower then this black GT.
The only time mine ever hit a track was after I owned it when it was 11 years old & with 88k miles on it, an SR Block/heads & after driving 1 hr to the track it clocked a best of 14.579 @ 91.71 MPH bone stock & on street tires.
I NEVER lost a race to a mustang back when it was new and started to get avoided by a 5.0 that literally had RACE ME as his license plate back in the Boston area I had beaten him so many times. I would occasionally loose to a Grand National or the Turbo Buicks at the time too but all of them were PO'ed that it was so close.
I should also add that I never lost to a GTA, TA, Formula or other IROC back then either - even with a passenger or against a 5.7 car.
14.57 is very quick for a stock 305 car. Best I turned was a 14.76 with an auto car. It did have cat-delete 3in exhaust and an aftermarket chip but otherwise bone stock.
Loved the IROC back when they were new just too pricy for me
Bought a 1 yr old 5,0 stang. From a dig the TPI cars would walk away as the little 5.0 was hard to keep from spinning
Lots of fun back then those 2 were THE cars to have either or.
Remember hearing the first 5.0 with a test pipe and 40 flows 2 weeks later had em onmine. Thought it was cool..looking back what a poser lol.
Beat the hell out of that thing HARD for 90k mi never broke.
