Ok guys, I just found the Motor Trend article from the April issue. Chevrolet SS vs Chrysler 300 SRT. We did the Charger already. Rides like crap, doesn't handle as well. Maybe the 300 will work better. Let's begin. But first, the link:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sed ... omparison/
Let's start off with how they tested:
This is one of the more in-depth performance comparisons I've done, putting more than 1000 miles on each car over two weeks. We commuted, did family weekend duty as well as bring them to our drag strip, figure-eight, a road course and even using our Car Of The Year road loop. We drove in everything from sunny 70 degree Huntington Beach sunshine, to near freezing and even pouring rain. We got everything but a blizzard or zombie apocalypse.
The weight disparity is even worse now. The 300 SRT is a full 474 lbs heavier than the SS, and it's no bigger inside. The Hemi 6.4L is putting out 470hp and 470lb-ft these days, for reference. Same old Mercedes-based A580 trans (5-speed).
The prices were pretty different. The SRT came in at $61,570. As a reminder, the SS comes fully loaded at $45,770, though the SRT had a handful of extra bells and whistles (mainly an interior package, radar cruise and adaptive suspension), but would still be more expensive.
Due to the weight difference, they're almost identical in performance.
At the drag strip, the SRT's extra ponies get a little more work done than the SS, even if just by a nose. The SRT beats the SS's 4.6 second run from 0-60mph by 0.2 seconds and continues to be faster until just after 80 mph were the SS starts to catch back up. The SRT barely holds on in the quarter-mile, running a 12.9 to the Chevy's 13.0
So that's acceleration. They both trap around 110, with the SRT trapping 1.4 mph faster. Braking?
On the way back down from 60, the SS shocks the SRT, stopping in a sports-car-like 105 feet, 8 shorter than the Chrysler.
Wow, that's pretty significant. Remember the SS doesn't even have rear Brembos. Just front. When Ford tried that on the Mustang, the brakes sucked. So we have to give GM credit here.
Motor Trend also has a figure 8 test which is basically a dynamic test where the vehicle is constantly accelerating, decelerating or taking a corner. Not as good of a handling test as a pure slalom run, the figure 8 is a good overall performance envelope evaluator.
The figure eight also favored the SS by a considerable margin, 24.8 seconds compared to 25.2 despite the extra Hemi-thrust.
Given the better braking and lighter weight, this result makes sense. But let's cut to the chase, as MT explains what I've been trying to explain for this entire thread:
More notable, was Kim Reynold's assertion that "this was barely a comparison, the SS is in a different league dynamically." During my figure-eight laps, I was less concerned with times and more with the enjoyment factor. The big SRT fully lives up to its muscle car persona with giant smoky power slides. Apparently SRT stands for Shreds Rear Tires. It isn't precise and it isn't refined, but man is it fun. The 300 SRT should be standard issue for every Hollywood car chase. The SS will roast tires as well, but it so much more controlled and graceful. The biggest difference is choice. The SS can be driven like a sports sedan, neat, tidy and fast; pick a line and use it. You can feed in power with a watchmaker's precision or hammer it like carving a sundial out of stone. Either way is just as enjoyable in the Chevy, while trying to be smooth and tight in the Chrysler is an exercise in frustration.
And if that isn't damning enough, Randy Pobst took the cars out on The Streets of Willow to give both cars a through shakedown. We can predict the outcome at this point, but let's read the copy just for fun:
We took both cars out to The Streets of Willow racetrack to let our own Randy Pobst see how they compared. Associate Online Editor Benson Kong and I also put in a fair number of laps and the three of us came to the same conclusion at the track as Mr. Reynolds: the SS is in a completely different league. While I enjoy driving the SRT, it feels more like an old police cruiser than a sports sedan. Everything feels so detached and far away from the driver. All four corners act like they're hanging out on flexible rods with the driver suspended in the middle. The car flexes and twists and the movements don't feel nearly as controlled. Undulations cause the car to float in the air and it never feels planted. The steering has a dead spot on center and then a quick build up in effort and reaction.
Onto the SS:
The SS, while appearing to have the technological handicap, shines on the track. Randy's comments were a series of "greats" followed by whatever component he was showering praise upon. "The brakes are so solid, exactly the same in the last corner of the last lap as the first corner of the first lap. I feel so comfortable and it gives me so much confidence.
More:
I felt as though I could put the SS anywhere I wanted and keep it there. The SS carves a tight, controlled line. In the SRT I needed a lot of space as the car was flung around and rotated. Even sliding the back-end around didn't tighten up the line, it just rotated as the whole car slurred towards the outside curb. The natural track ability of the SS was backed up by lap times, the SRT turning a decent 1:27.74 compared to the SS's 1:25.71, those 2.0 seconds are huge on Streets.
I think the SRT handling description sounds a lot like an F-body. And the SS would be like an M3 or M5.
But as I said before, the SS is so superior in design (it did all of the above so far with regular shocks, not the MR shocks), that the advantage even translates to street driving:
Lessons learned on the track sometimes don't translate to the road. In this case, many of them do. On the highway, the same dead spot we found in the Chrysler's steering made it feel ponderous on the highway. It floated around and required constant correction. The size is also constantly apparent. The nose swings way out in front of you and the trunk feels like a trailer forced to follow. Driving spiritedly on the road finds you aiming the nose in the direction you want to go and waiting to get on the gas until the car finds the right heading. The road manners made Kong wonder if 300 SRT customers even care about handling. "If I could guess the factors that led to a 300 SRT purchase, I'd go with (a) the 300's exterior attitude, (b) the 6.4-liter Hemi's pull and sense of urgency, (c) the Hemi's sound, (d) did I already go with attitude?" In contrast, the SS shrink-wraps itself around the driver. Every motion feels like it's happening to the driver, not at a distance as in the SRT. Turn-in involves the entire car. The front and rear of the car respond together and the car's first response is a rotation around the center. In short, the SS feels like a proper sports sedan.
We expected the Chrysler to run away with the highway cruising crown, but it didn't work out that way. The SS is slightly quieter with less wind- and road-noise. The Chrysler seems to wander around more, requiring more attention just to keep it going straight down the road. Even with the adjustable suspension, the 300 never out-comforts or out-sports the SS.
They conclude:
The SS is a good car in every situation, whether on the racetrack, your favorite driving road, or just cruising down the highway. I want a car that I can enjoy driving anywhere, not one I wish I could enjoy driving somewhere.
On the styling, they liked the SS but said the shiny wheels and plastic chrome are tacky, yet:
Even with that said, I think I still like it more than the modern suburban-gangster-look of the SRT.
Of course, styling is a personal preference. But I don't like the 300 SRT the way I did the first generation. Frankly on both the 300 and Charger I think the styling has gotten out of hand.
Anyway, I don't know who I'm really trying to convince here. Maybe I am trying to convince Ed just how unbelievably good the SS really is. Sure neither us have driven it, and we can't fully appreciate it where we live, but it's pretty unanimous from all the reviews I've found so far that the SS is, well, in another league.
