You have no idea Txmom. I said "started the HP come back". This car lit the fuse that started the hp wars up again. It was (by most of the mags at the time) almost 1 sec faster through the 1/4 mile than its GM counterparts. It woke GM up and they started building quicker f-bodies.
yes, they did. it took them till the mid/late 90's till they built a camaro or firebird that was comparable price and could outrun the stang.
from 79 till 95 or so, sotck to stock, mustang was only readily beat by 2 american cars. the grand national, and the corvette.
the corvette is a different class, and is/was crazy stupid expensive.
the GN was easy to beat, IF you could get them to race ya without any cooldown time. theyran their best when you let the turbo cool down. the GNX didn't have this problem to the best of my knowledge though.
handling wise, the Fbodies, corvette, and i think even the GN could outturn a mustang...on paper. but the numbers were close enough, that it came down to who was a better driver.
soooo.....just like in the 60's, gm and chrysler are once again copying off of them.
