"If you can't beat em' join em'." Or maybe it's, "an enemy of an enemy is a friend." At least that's what seems to be the new set of philosophical rules over at GM and Ford, two companies that are natural born rivals and have proved it by slinging competing cars at each other for decades. Two of our favorites, the Mustang and the oddly named Camaro, are still in the heat of battle today, but it seems like each one has taken a time out in order to work together on a project for an even larger enemy: the EPA.

Out of this marriage of enemies will come a new Hydra-Matic 10-speed transmission, which is making its debut on GM SUVs and trucks before it makes its way to the ZL1 Camaro. Things are similar on the blue oval side of things, with the F-150 Raptor getting the first taste of 10-speed. We'd heard rumors about the two companies working together on a transmission, but now GM has gone ahead and released the details. The automatic will increase fuel efficiency by featuring a wide gear ratio spread with short jumps between gears, helping the engine to multiply torque sitting at low revs. Even more impressive is the fact that GM claims the transmission will shift through its first four gears faster than a Porsche double clutch PDK transmission.

Now, we can see why the ZL1 will get the crazy gearbox, and if it allows the Camaro to keep a large engine for a bit longer, we're all for it. It hasn't been confirmed yet if the Mustang will see a dizzying array of gears to chose from, but given the fact that the muscle car is now becoming as sophisticated as a European sports car, we could easily see future GT350s with as many gears as its flat-plane crank has RPMs. Ford has had Porsche in it's sights from day one, so we don't see why it wouldn't add the transmission to the Mustang and give it the bragging rights of quicker gearshifts. We love the manual purity of the GT350, but for this automatic we can make an exception. Don't expect to see this wonderbox too much earlier than 2017.