Camaro ZL1 goes head-to-head with Shelby GT500 in 1,242-horsepower comparo

Autoblog: Camaro ZL1 goes head-to-head with Shelby GT500 in 1,242-horsepower comparo

Click to watch videoNumbers don't lie. But they don't always tell the whole story, either. That's one reason why we've been so interested in the rivalry between the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro over the last several decades. The two cars have been swapping performance and sales-floor bragging rights since Chevy slapped its Bowtie on its Pony-fighter in 1967, and the faster model hasn't always been the better seller.

That said, when it comes to the stoplight-to-stoplight drag race of the internet, nothing but good hard facts are going to earn you any respect. This being the case, the latest Ford Shelby GT500 has been King of the Road ever since it was unveiled as a 2013 model. With 82 more horsepower (rated) and a couple hundred pounds less weight to move, the 'Stang out to outrun the range-topping 2012 Camaro ZL1 in straight-line performance testing.

Of course, the world doesn't always operate in straight lines, meaning there's a whole lot more to this story left to unfold. The boys from Inside Line decided to round up the latest GT500 and Camaro ZL1 models to see which would come out on top in a series of head-to-head contests.