Even with the added horsepower of the nitrous system, the Mustang can’t beat the LS1 Firebird.
This week’s “Kill Story” was originally posted to the LS1 Tech forum by “Big Hammer” from the YouTube account of Jay P, and it features a quarter-mile battle between a 4th generation Pontiac Firebird and an S197 Ford Mustang GT. Even though the Mustang has more stock power and a nitrous setup, LS1 power prevails.
The Competitors
Unfortunately, we don’t have a detailed mod list for these two cars, but we know that both the LS1-powered 4g Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and the S197 Ford Mustang GT both have “full bolt-ons”. Both cars seem to have a manual transmission and sticky tires, so for the most part, this is a relatively fair fight. Of course, the Mustang is much newer and the 5.0-liter Ford V8 offered quite a bit more stock horsepower, but the modifications seem to even that out.
However, the Mustang is also running a 100-shot of nitrous, so you might expect the Ford to have the advantage – but you would be wrong.
The Battle
After quick burnouts by both cars, the Firebird and Mustang pull into the staging beams. When the green lights drop, the Pontiac hops out to an early lead and the driver never has to look back. The bottled, bolt-on Mustang stayed fairly close through the top end, but the naturally aspirated Firebird gets to the finish line first.
We don’t get to see the numbers, but in looking through the other videos on this YouTube account, it looks as though the Firebird typically runs in the 10.70 range. With that in mind, the LS1-powered Pontiac likely ran in the high 10s while the Mustang would have run a slightly slower 10-second run or something in the 11s.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
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