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The decades-old Mustang-versus-Camaro rivalry has found unlikely new life in China, where Ford’s later-arriving pony car has outsold Chevrolet’s by more than 3-to-1 despite a four-year head start for the Camaro. The gap traces back to one detail muscle car fans will recognize instantly: engine choice. Read on to find out why a turbocharged four-cylinder cost Chevrolet the fight.
Ford launched the Mustang in China in 2015 as a niche import with expectations of roughly 3,000 sales, and then watched demand climb. The car that got there was the first Mustang ever engineered for worldwide sale, and the version most Chinese buyers chose was the four-cylinder EcoBoost rather than the V8, for reasons that come down to a displacement tax that hits large engines at 40 percent. Read on for how the global strategy reshaped the car.