Archived Comparison
From the August 1982 Issue of Car and Driver
TESTED
Five men, good and true, set out on what seemed like a mission from God: to live with three of the fastest (and reddest) American GTs for two weeks, then sit down to haggle over the findings. A Porsche 928 was anointed to serve as the group’s spiritual inspiration and silver-plated yardstick. Our data-processing machine would systematically sort the raw test results; every annotation of a squeak, rattle, or death-defying maneuver would be culled from the drivers’ logs and fed into the judgment hopper; finally, each editor, armed with half a month’s worth of fact and fancy, would sequester himself to fill out his own Grand Tally Sheet of Subjectivity. The good-better-best final verdicts would spring forth from the voting much as the Ten Commandments fell out of the sky into Moses’ lap. The all-American-GT champion would emerge, and peace would transcend all evil.
At least that was the script. Reality, however, has a habit of going its own dastardly way. We did have a ball hammering these four thunderbuggies up California’s Mount Palomar and down the Ortega Highway. Along the way, we found a lot to love about the Camaro, Mustang, and Trans Am. But we also found a surprising number of traits even a mother would abhor. Toward the end, the Trans Am eked out a one-point victory over the Mustang (plus five points over the Camaro) in the subjective ratings, but that same Pontiac marched smartly to a last-place finish in our fun-to-drive ranking. What’s more, none of the three contenders could drum up a majority when each of the five editors was pressed for a simple “Best GT” nomination.
Sad to say, we have for you no clear winner. Our findings tell us the silver-bullet solution to your GT needs is yet to be made in Detroit. This is not to suggest that the test was a bust; before we sign off, we’ll be happy to confide our most intimate experiences with the four racy-red V-8 GTs. Who knows? This comparo test might tip your balance toward the two-plus-two of your dreams. Then again, it could be the last straw before you rush out and order a four-cylinder station wagon.
