@Grive: That had to hurt - not as bad as a couple years before that with V8's making 150-190hp!

@Arfdog: Yeah, this engine sounds great, my friend though had a '99 Mustang GT with the 260hp 4.6. You had to drive it like a small engine, very strange power curve that was difficult to get right. Maybe it was under-square? Wasn't as fast as you'd think it should have been.

Oh, a body building chrome duck on the dash is considered 'in bad taste' now? Jeez Jalopnik, try not to get a nosebleed with your sniffer in the air like that!!!

@Wes Siler: Haha, 'deeply wrong'. I am now imagining an S2000 sitting in a darkened corner, daydreaming of murdering schoolgirls while muttering to itself.

@Alex Carlson: Wow. It's wild, you never ever hear about interesting motor details like this when a car is getting reviewed, but it's so vital, you know? It was later on I heard that the E46 BMW M3's engine did not have self-adjusting valves, and therefor needed re-adjusting every 24k miles. That's a huge thing! …

@Chairman Kaga: Haha, sounds like the spirit of 80's-90's Ford USA was inhabiting your car. After hearing similar stories, I also turned away from buying one of these guys. I think that this car, along with the Neon SRT-4, have an extremely high incidence of being wrung out by previous owners, leading to troubles…

@Møbius: I think the V6 looks better externally than the V8?

@British_Looks_British_Reliabil...: Well said! I still wish, though, that we had more choices in performance - I'd like to have an American car that is more like a WRX, or S2000, or whatever, you know? I don't want to be locked into 'Muscle car or nothing'. Where's our futuristic, high tech performance machines?

@Blitzschnell: I hate that thing! They tried to do the same thing as the C6 Corvette to minimize the massive ass, but failed. I call it a plastic tumor. However, if the car is in black, it looks muuuch better since the silly plastic bits are hidden.

@Tristan Hipps: Something that keeps me out of both cars is the 'heritage' interior. Bleh.

@Bräd Jöhnsön: Yeah I was thinking along the same - the new Stang may be relatively light on it's toes, but the S2000 is legendary for being something of an F1 experience on public streets. Doesn't the 2000 have perfect 50/50 balance?

@Turbineguy - now with reheat!!: It's really crazy to look at power output from Ford V8s over the last 20 years. The modular 4.6 made just 215hp at one point! It's like for a long time they really weren't trying, and when finally pushed they started getting real numbers from it.

@Bräd Jöhnsön: I'm curious, in the S2000 and here, in the Stang - is there any way to fit a different steering system or change it in some manner? I know next to nothing about steering components, and wouldn't be surprised to learn car makers have integrated them in a way that makes them a permanent part of the car.

@79pinto: The back seat is still a penalty box unfit for adults, so it's not a do-it-all as much as a performance BMW or Audi would be, but of course costs far less.

@Motor_Yakuza: That is some good looking car. Yeah, Dodge has a little bit of a design problem, as they are not allowed to field a car that does not look like a tank. So it would have to be a Chrysler in this case. Could it succeed, or would it just be Crossfire 2.0?

@Roberto G.: Good gravy, what was the base car? The wing says Fiat but I'm thinking Daihatsu or some other kei car?

@Motor_Yakuza: Right? Chrysler could use a car that generates a little excitment. Don't get me wrong, an SRT-8 Charger is a lovely beast, but they could do with a car that is unashamedly a sports car.

Interesting, I don't think I've ever seen seatbelts with pattern decoration before. It's kind of neat, I'm surprised the lux brands don't do something similar (but more low key.)

Check out the handle; that's the Hanzo sword from Kill Bill

@bmoreDLJ: Actually, that is the Hattori Hanzo sword the heroine uses in the pic.