2005 Ford Mustang, 2005 Dodge Viper & 2005 Chevrolet Corvette

The concrete ramp trembles underfoot, even though the Mustang, Viper, and Corvette lined up in front of us are just sitting there, engines switched off. Milliseconds later, the silence explodes as two jet fighters burst from the burning blue sky and scream into a tight left-hand turn. Twin tail fins identify the leading aircraft as an F-18 Hornet, the U.S. Navy's principal strike fighter. The Hornet's pursuer is drab brown and carries the distinctive red star of the Soviet air force on its single fin.

We brace ourselves for the deadly rattle of 20mm cannon, but the Soviet jet breaks right into a wide sweeping turn and begins its landing approach. What looks like a Russian MiG-21 is actually an old Navy F-5 Tiger in Soviet war paint. Have we stumbled into a scene from the 1980s Tom Cruise flick, "Top Gun"? Nope. This is the real thing.

The Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN, is an elite department of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Centre (NSAWC, pronounced "N-sock"), based at the Fallon Naval Air Station in northern Nevada. It's a kind of finishing school where selected U.S. Navy pilots have their skills honed to the highest level. They fly single- and two-seat F-18 Hornets and the single-seat F-16 Viper (though the F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon," most military pilots prefer the sting of "Viper"). TOPGUN's first jet, the F-5, is used as a stand-in for the MiG-21 that's flown by most potential adversaries throughout the world. Instructors and students fly either "Red Air"--the bad guys--or "Blue Air" during each 10-week course.

What does all this have to do with three of America's most iconic performance cars? Well, it seemed like a cool idea to get pilot reports on the Mustang GT, Viper SRT-10, and Corvette C6 from a group of guys who play with more horsepower in a day than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. A car's got to be special to impress a TOPGUN fighter jock, right?

Lt. Terrance "Spot" O'Neill meets us at our hotel after flying the first event of the morning. Spot turns up looking like a TOPGUN instructor should: green flying overalls, Navy-issue leather jacket, and, of course, shades. Forget the Cruise-versus-Val Kilmer bravado, though; Spot describes himself as "just an average guy who likes flying airplanes." Right now, he's excited about trading his Viper seat for ours, even though ours has just 500 horsepower, hits only 190 mph, generates barely 1.0 g in a turn, and costs a mere $85,000. Spot's F-16 Viper, in contrast, produces 29,000 pounds of thrust, can fly at over 1400 mph, turns at 8.5 g, and costs $40 million.