The Battle Of The Ponies: 2015 Mustang vs. 2014 Camaro

2015 Ford Mustang vs 2014 Chevy Camaro

Out of all the automotive rivalries out there, none are quite as vicious as the long-standing rivalry between Ford and Chevy. The automakers have been at war ever since the early ‘60s when Ford unleashed the first edition of the now-iconic Mustang. After sales of the Mustang skyrocketed, Chevy quickly rebuttaled with the Camaro in 1966. The Camaro soon found similar success, and the rest is history.

Even though it has been almost five decades, the Mustang and Camaro are still two of the biggest competitors on the market, especially since Ford’s announcement of a redesign for the 2015 Mustang, which has proved that the rivalry is as heated as ever.

It has been nearly 50 years since the 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang was first released, and along with the release of a new line of Mustang pinball machines, the redesign is Ford’s way of celebrating the milestone. The all-new 2015 Mustang was unveiled late last year, and while Ford has leaked some information, they have chosen to remain hush-hush about the specifics of what the new model will be capable of.

I have a good feeling that Ford is keeping all the juicy details about the Mustang secret in an effort to keep Chevy from taking the information and using it to make last-minute changes to the design of their all-new Camaro, which is expected to arrive late next year as a 2016 model. Lately Chevy has shown that their originality is depleting, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Ford is just trying to play it safe.

Since the redesigned Camaro won’t arrive until next year, the design of the 2015 Camaro is likely to be a carryover from last year’s model, so I’ve chosen the 2014 Chevy Camaro as the model to take on the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang.

Ford Mustang vs Chevy Camaro

The 2014 Chevy Camaro

As usual, the 2015 Mustang will offer the traditional V8 under the hood, but it will be refined to increase the 420 horsepower that the eight-cylinder was capable of in the past. As I said earlier, Ford has remained tight-lipped about the engine’s specifics, but it’s expected that it will pump out more than 426 horsepower, which is what the V8 of the 2014 Chevy Camaro is rated at.

It may seem pretty ridiculous that Ford is refining the engine just to close a minuscule six-horsepower gap, but it just goes to show how fierce this rivalry really is.

There hasn’t been any word of whether or not the base V6 of the Mustang will be refined for the 2015 model year, but it’s likely that it will deliver the same 305 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque that it has in the past. If that’s the case, the V6 of the Camaro will continue to have an advantage over the Mustang horsepower-wise, as its six-cylinder is rated at just over 320 horsepower.

The Camaro’s slightly higher horsepower definitely does not mean it’s lights out for the Mustang, however. Ford has announced that a turbocharged four-cylinder will be be made available under the hood, and the simple mention of the engine makes the V6 seem pretty irrelevant.

The four-cylinder will be a 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine, and will be the first four-cylinder found in a Mustang since 1993. Once again, official figures haven’t been released yet, but Ford estimates that the all-new engine will produce an output of at least 305 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque. Even if the four-cylinder doesn’t surpass the 320 horsepower of the Camaro’s V6, when you take the increased fuel efficiency of the smaller-displacement engine into account, the slight drop in power isn’t likely to matter much.

Winner of the CarDebate: 2015 Ford Mustang

The redesigned 2015 Ford Mustang

The addition of the four-cylinder EcoBoost is the reason that at this moment in time, I’m giving this one to the 2015 Mustang. If the turbocharged engine is capable of producing what Ford claims, I believe that it has some serious potential to become the most popular of the three engines offered in the redesigned pony car.

Since Chevy still has some time before they release their redesigned Camaro, it’s likely that they will sit back and gauge the success of the turbo four in the Mustang. If the engine takes off you better damn well believe you’ll be hearing about a four-cylinder under the hood of the 2016 Chevy Camaro. Guess we’ll find out next year.