The Mustang/Camaro rivalry is more of a holy war than one based on reality or mechanical prowess. Party members are devout and uncompromising in their love of both of these great cars. And, the same passion that fuels a decades-old brand feud, also contributes to some spectacular wheel-to-wheel racing.

NASA honed in on this fact many racing seasons ago and created the Camaro-Mustang Challenge (CMC) to let the pony-car-devout hash out their differences on race tracks around the country.

The video above is a great CMC season highlight video showing tidbits from a year of exciting racing action. This truly looks like an incredibly fun racing series and we’d be lying if we didn’t admit to a tinge of jealousy for not being able to participate.

With so many great avenues for drivers to get out and race, it’s easy for a series/class/event to slip under the radar. Here is a brief summary of CMC, a class designed by NASA to be both affordable and fun.

To keep costs down, modifications to the cars are considerably limited and each vehicle must have a dyno performed to verify power output. The dyno results correspond to a minimum weight chart which all cars have to meet. This keeps all members of the field operating on a similar power to weight ratio. This class is meant to be a drivers game, favoring those adept behind the wheel over raw horsepower.

Suspension modifications are limited to replacement springs that fit into the stock location and any non-remote-resevoir shocks that retail to the public for less than $1000 a pair. Bushing materials and Panhard rods are unrestricted and sway bars can grow/shrink in diameter so long as the match the factory contour.

Permitted vehicles for the series are shown below:

Ford Motor Company:

• 1979-95 Ford Mustang with 5.0 V8 including 1993-1995 Cobra (1993 and 1995 Cobra R models excluded)
• 1979-86 Mercury Capri with 5.0 V8
• 1996-2004 Ford Mustang with 4.6 2valve V8
• 1996-04 Ford Mustang with 4.6 DOHC N/A V8* (2000 Cobra R and 2003-2004 Cobra models excluded) * IRS cars must replace the IRS with standard Mustang live axle

General Motors

• 1982-92 Chevrolet Camaro (all submodels with V8 motors eg – RS, Z28 etc)
• 1982-92 Pontiac Firebird (all submodels with V8 motors eg Formula, Trans-Am, WS6 etc.)
• Eligible Late GM makes and models with 5.7L V8 motors
• 1993-02 Chevrolet Camaro (all F-Body models with LT-1 or LS-1) 1993-02 Pontiac (all F-Body models with LT-1 or LS-1)

For anyone with a die-hard creed for either the blue-oval or bowtie pony-car offerings – or even someone who is just looking for an affordable means to get out and go racing – the Camaro-Mustang Challenge looks like an excellent outlet to kick start your sportsman racing career.

The full rules for the class are available here and the 2015 schedule for the series can be found at NASA’s website as races are dependent on region. Make sure to watch the video and check out these ponies but heads on the racetrack.