Yes the terminator's engine did rape and pillage everything in its path. Until, of course, you put it on a road course where the true sports cars roam. Besides a few impressive moments on straightaways, I would take an RX-8, SRT-6, C6 (Im not even saying Z06), any day. In fact, on a tight enough road course, I'd bet on a Miata over the terminator. I know first hand how bad the new Mustang models handle, and I've read plenty about how much better they handle than the previous mustangs. And just like the current model gt500 vs the GT, the terminator had the same suspension but stiffer, and that extra stiffness does nothing for the road course.

It all brings me back to my main point. Different things float different people's boats. Some don't care about handling and overall driving and want to see all out 1/4 mile speed. In that case, your terminator wins hands-down.

If you offered me an '04 terminator for my srt-6 I would say no way. Doesn't do it for me. But if you offer me a new GT500 for my srt-6, I'd take the deal, because the positive attention it gets outweighs speed and handling combined.

My boat would be floated quite well with that car.

And about your qoute on a breed of people driving automatic sports cars... its because those are faster than manual sports cars. Times have changed. automatics outshift manuals hands-down. And in the current Mustang generation a computer tuned auto tranny and even better a torque converter puts the manual tranny to shame. You're either very old or very stubborn to believe a manual tranny is better for performance. Maybe for fun? Maybe, but doubtful. But definately not for performance.

Then again if you're driving in a straight line I guess things can get boring so the manual tranny might spice things up.