I was standing outside my front door watching the rain fall...bored to death. I looked out across the lot at these two and just laughed to myself. What a F'ed up pair of cars i have.
On one side, you've got a car that lives and dies by torque and wants to break the tires loose at 2k RPM, and on the other you've got a car that doesn't even show up to the party until 4000k RPM. The Mustang is a sort of steer with the throttle kind of handler, whereas the Merkur probably has the least amount of under steer of any car i've ever driven (doesn't say a WHOLE lot, but it does corner exceptionally well for having pizza cutter tires and the stock '88 suspension).
Stock vs. stock, i honestly think it would be a driver's race. The Mustang obviously is going to RAPE the Merkur from a stop, but once the T3 spools up, it pulls damn near as hard as a stock Mustang...ultimately the Mustang is definitely faster, but if you put the more experienced driver in the Merkur and the rookie in the Mustang, chances are the Mustang is going to fall about a fender short of the win.
Of these two cars in particular, the Merkur would walk away from my Mustang after about 120mph where the 4.10s and stock heads/cam run out of breath. In the quarter, the Mustang would have to do all the damage before half track (which it likely would). From that point on the Merkur would probably be closing in fast but wouldn't have enough to catch up by the finish line.
Turbo is really almost cheating when it boils down to it. My coupe is honestly not very fast (i don't think low 14s/high 13s is very fast these days) and it really wouldn't take much to get the Merkur into that ET range. I'm starting to become obsessed with turbo and i'd be lying out my ass if i said i haven't already been thinking of doing a DIY turbo setup on the coupe.
What's crazier is, can you believe these cars are only 3 years apart??? (well, yeah i guess i do have a '79 nose on the 'stang so that does change things a bit)
On one side, you've got a car that lives and dies by torque and wants to break the tires loose at 2k RPM, and on the other you've got a car that doesn't even show up to the party until 4000k RPM. The Mustang is a sort of steer with the throttle kind of handler, whereas the Merkur probably has the least amount of under steer of any car i've ever driven (doesn't say a WHOLE lot, but it does corner exceptionally well for having pizza cutter tires and the stock '88 suspension).
Stock vs. stock, i honestly think it would be a driver's race. The Mustang obviously is going to RAPE the Merkur from a stop, but once the T3 spools up, it pulls damn near as hard as a stock Mustang...ultimately the Mustang is definitely faster, but if you put the more experienced driver in the Merkur and the rookie in the Mustang, chances are the Mustang is going to fall about a fender short of the win.
Of these two cars in particular, the Merkur would walk away from my Mustang after about 120mph where the 4.10s and stock heads/cam run out of breath. In the quarter, the Mustang would have to do all the damage before half track (which it likely would). From that point on the Merkur would probably be closing in fast but wouldn't have enough to catch up by the finish line.
Turbo is really almost cheating when it boils down to it. My coupe is honestly not very fast (i don't think low 14s/high 13s is very fast these days) and it really wouldn't take much to get the Merkur into that ET range. I'm starting to become obsessed with turbo and i'd be lying out my ass if i said i haven't already been thinking of doing a DIY turbo setup on the coupe.
What's crazier is, can you believe these cars are only 3 years apart??? (well, yeah i guess i do have a '79 nose on the 'stang so that does change things a bit)