C8 Corvette Drags Mustang Shelby GT500, There's Loads of Wheelspin and a Surprise Win

Currently, the battle for America's sports and muscle car heart is quite divisive – on the one hand, it's really sad to see the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger go the way of the dodo. On the other hand, the field is going to be spicier than ever, with the S650 seventh-generation Ford Mustang duking it out with the C8 Chevrolet Corvette and the upcoming eighth-generation Dodge Charger.

While the S650 Mustang is arguably the most traditional of all – it's not giving up on the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 engine until authorities forcibly kill it, each model series has something wacky going on for it. For example, the latest entry into the field, the 2024 and 2025 Dodge Charger, will have all-electric Daytona models or Sixpack ICE-powered variants featuring the 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six twin-turbo mill with up to 550 hp on tap.

The Mustang is more inclined towards morphing into a veritable sports car than ever before, especially if we count the Mustang GTD as a true supercar with 800 hp and racing-derived technology. As for the C8 Chevrolet Corvette, it's the oldest of the bunch but not necessarily the wisest. Instead, it has continuously gone berserk, starting with the 495-hp Stingray Z1 and going through the 670-hp FPC V8 Z06 and 655-hp all-wheel drive and electrified E-Ray phases.

They will soon have an answer for the Mustang GTD in the form of the C8 ZR1, which is rumored to have a twin-turbo FPC V8 and over 800 horsepower. But while we're waiting for the clash of the titans, let's not forget about the 'little ones.' For example, this videographer loves his new 2023 C8 Chevy Corvette Stingray Z51 and takes it to the tracks as often as possible. The latest visit also facilitated a classic encounter with a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.

The GT500 was identified as a 2012-model year Shelby Mustang and the C8 driver was prepared for the fight of a lifetime. Luckily for him, the rivaling driver probably didn't know the track and his ride as well as this Youtuber because the Ford stuttered and shuddered after some wheelslip before regaining its composure and going out in pursuit of the C8. If this were a quarter-mile dragstrip, he probably would have caught it, but in this case, it lost the race even though the electronic scoreboard showed a 7.64s pass for the Shelby and a 7.87s skirmish from its opponent. Obviously, reaction times matter exactly for this kind of situation.