The Camaro was faster and had more HP than the Mustang from 1967 to 1970. The 67 SS 350 Camaro out ran any small block Mustang built to that year. Ford attempted a response with the 390, and the 396/375 stomped it without mercy, then did the same for the various 428 versions. The 67 302 Chevy in the Z-28 trounced Ford's 302 powered Mustangs from 1967 thru 1969, including Dave and Ben Wentzel's win in Stock Eliminator at the U.S. Nationals in their 67 Z-28, which won again over 40 years later, while still owned and driven by the Wentzel's. Ford eventually stepped up with the "Boss" 302, which made something of a decent race engine, provided it lived a while. In 1969, Chevrolet introduced two 427 Camaros, COPO 9560 and COPO 9561, the legendary 427-425HP iron block, and the awe inspiring 427-430HP ZL-1. Those two cars soundly thrashed anything Ford ever put in a Mustang, up to and including the Boss 429.
Finally, 40 years later, in order to break the stranglehold of the Camaro in the muscle car world, Ford paid NHRA a large fee, and gave them a fleet of support vehicles, in exchange for which, NHRA fundamentally changed the rules of Stock Eliminator. In the past, it was a requirement that 50 cars be built on the production line, and sold to the general public for street use with Federal certification allowing them to be sold, licensed, registered, and insured for street use. That rule was changed in 2008 in order to allow Ford to race the Cobra Jet series of Mustangs. These are not factory built cars, they are not legal for street use.
So, Ford now had "factory race cars" which were actually assembled off site. Some are even "paper cars", cars and engines which have never actually been produced or built by Ford or any company that contracts for Ford.
Interesting that all the talk about "no replacement for displacement" is bandied about. Especially since NHRA has allowed Ford to enter both 352 and 428 Windsor based stoker engines which Ford does not now and never has produced at all in Stock Eliminator. These are engines which never existed at all, never mind actually being installed in a Ford Mustang produced by Ford or a Ford sub contractor. You cannot even open the "Ford Motorsports" catalog and find such an engine, it does not even exist on paper in the catalog. Ford has not produced a Windsor engine in a Mustang in a long time.
It took Ford 40 years to "catch" the Camaro in the muscle car wars, they have never eclipsed the 302 Z-28, the 350 LT-1, the 396-375, the L-72 427-425, nor the ZL-1 427-430 with any sort of comparable factory produced Mustang and engine. Never. To this day, the 67-72 Camaro holds more records, and has more wins in class eliminations, more LODRS event wins, more National Event wins, and more championships in Stock and Super Stock than all Mustangs from 64-1/2 to date. All of this was done with production Camaros, built right on the factory assembly line, with parts anyone could buy, Camaros sold to the general public and certified legal for street use in both safety and emissions. No custom built paper race cars were required in order for the Camaro to completely dominated the muscle car wars. Ford cannot say the same.
It is also interesting to note that Ford steadfastly refuses to forward NHRA any specifications for ANY production Mustang. No street legal 2008 or newer Mustang is certified for NHRA Stock or Super Stock competition by Ford, as they fear it will not be competitive. Any 2008 or newer Mustang that is raced in NHRA Stock or Super Stock must be a "paper race car" that was never actually produced by Ford and sold to the general public for street use.
Yes, one company and their "pony car" has been playing "catch up" for around 44 years. But it ain't Chevrolet and it ain't the Camaro.
