(car wheels squealing)
- What happens when you take two of the same car
and modify them with completely different aftermarket parts?
- One with top-of-the-line parts
and one with cheap budget parts.
- Do more expensive parts make a better car?
- Yes.
- Hold on.
We don't wanna jump into conclusions in the intro.
- But they do.
This is a way better car.
- I'm not so sure.
(upbeat music)
This is the battle of the budgets baby.
It's time to go turbos to taillights,
- [Both] Bumper 2 Bumper.
- On these Nissan 350Zs.
- That are our very own.
- We built them.
- We did it.
- He's the new guy.
- Hi.
(upbeat music)
- Big thanks to Curiosity Stream
for sponsoring this episode.
Check out Curiosity Stream for 1000s of cool documentaries,
exclusive originals and non-fiction titles.
A subscription is only $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year
for unlimited access,
which means I can watch space probes on my own time.
Plus, it's available on basically every platform.
Something so cool for that cheap
would make a great present.
Just saying.
But the best part is for our loyal donut subscribers
if you sign up right now for Curiosity Stream,
you can get the first 30 days for free.
Just head over to curiositystream.com/bumper2bumper
and use the promo code bumper 2 bumper.
Go watch your documentary and support
the companies that support donut.
Bite those bumpers.
(upbeat music)
- We have a new family member here at donut
my friend Zach Jobe is here with us.
He's really good with cars, amazing at skateboarding
and handsome man as well.
And he's gonna be hosting this episode of bumper 2 bumper
along with me today.
Welcome Zach don't (beep) up.
- Thank You Nolan.
No promises.
Hey everybody, I'm Zach nice to meet you.
(upbeat music)
- A few months ago we shot a special series called HiLow.
We bought two nearly identical Nissan 350Zs.
We modified one of them with budget parts
and one of them with high end parts.
(upbeat music)
We wanted to find out which mods
are worth spending your hard-earned money on
and where you could save a few bucks
and just to be clear, none of this was sponsored
by any other parts companies.
We here at Donut did this out of the kindness
of our hearts for you our loyalty D-Hole.
- The point of it all was to make
the best daily driver that you could also take to the track.
We learned a lot, not just about working on cars
but also about just how far
you can push a man before he snaps.
(chuckles)
(upbeat music)
- You might have already heard of this show by now
but starting tomorrow, it's dropping on YouTube.
So, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it
coz it's the most fun I've ever had working at Donut.
- So, much fun.
- But right now we're going to give you an exclusive look
at the culmination of all that hard work.
The builds took two weeks to complete,
which is an absolutely insane turnaround.
- And they're certainly not perfect
but we couldn't have got it done
without the help of some of our best friends.
(hand drill screeching)
(laughs)
- This (beep) don't fit right.
- James made me take the car
that was gonna go all the cheap parts
because ,you know, he's the boss
but I got to pick my teammate,
slash veteran mechanic Aaron Parker.
You might have seen him on
that Netflix show, Hyperdrive racing his wolf RX-7
or on a previous episode of Bumper 2 Bumper,
where you got to check out the RX-7
in this very shop actually.
(soft music)
- And team-high was me
and the sauce boss himself, James Humphrey.
Very similar starting points between the two teams
but that's sorta where the similarities end.
(upbeat music)
We started these little builds
where many people start their builds with some coil overs.
We chose a set of KW V3 coil overs
which are some of the most wicked,
yet gentlemanly coil overs you can get your hands on.
You get to keep a pretty comfortable ride
while turning your cornering ability up many notches.
They're great but they do kind of cost a lot.
(upbeat music)
- On low car we spent literally like a tenth
of what they spent on high car.
We bought and managed to install
a set of $200 coil overs made
by a company called maxpeedingrods.
They were listed as coilovers
struts fit Nissan Fairlady Z 350 Z, Z33 2003
to 2008 shock absorbers green.
And to be honest I was very concerned.
I thought we're gonna die.
(both laughing)
As you can see the highest setting
was still super slim.
I can't even fit freaking finger in here.
(upbeat music)
- After suspension was all figured out,
it was time to get Zs some new shoes and socks.
Over here, we went with a set of wheels
that I've wanted since I knew what it was to want wheels.
Advan RGIII baby.
These are 18 by 10 all the way around
and each wheel only weighs about 20 pounds.
And since money is no object to team high,
we wrapped our Advans in a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R
for about as much streetable grip as money could buy.
(car engine roars)
- Over here on team low where the object is no money,
we went with a set of XXR 527 wheels
in 18 by 9 and 3/4 all around.
They weigh a little more than the Advans,
about 24 pounds per wheel but they look great
and they were like a 1/4 of the price.
We also went with a set of Federal RS-RR tires
for some of the best bang
for your buck budget grip available.
The car is so low and I think
these wheels fit the mood perfectly
and it's crazy how much grippy these tires were
than the ones that came on the car.
It was a night and day difference.
Look how much sick camber there is.
I'm a closed dog.
(upbeat music)
For our breaks we went with a pretty basic upgrade
which came with more aggressive brake pads,
steel braided brake lines, new rotors
and some high temp brake fluid.
All told, we spent less than $500 on these
but they made a big, big difference.
(upbeat music)
- Yeah, okay.
So, these ones did cost quite a bit more than theirs,
but they're huge.
14 inches up front, 13 inches out back,
six piston calipers up front,
four piston calipers in the back, stainless steel lines
and just look at this.
(upbeat music)
- We torture tested these brakes against each other
to see which really were better
and the results might shock you.
- I don't wanna spoil any results but one of the cars
didn't catch on fire.
(car engine roars)
- Oh!
- Up next was maybe the single cheapest thing
that we did to low car.
We welded the differential.
This car had an open diff from the factory
and that's not really good for doing hood rat things
with your hood rat friends,
but limited slip diff are expensive.
No it isn't expensive?
Having your buddy with a welder over to the house
and weld that sucker up for you.
(car wheels squealing)
- In high car, we had a viscous limited-slip diff
from the factory as part of the Touring package
but we wanted to get rid of that in favor
of a clutch type limited slip.
We ended up buying a Kaaz 2-way LSD.
It does burnouts, skids and slides really frigging well.
So, well in fact that our bodies were flopping
all over the cabin, so it was time
to turn our attention to the interior.
Max.
(upbeat music)
We put a set of Sparco QRT-R seats in high car.
They're super supportive and light
while still being pretty comfortable.
We also installed this sick,
gritty boost brigade steering wheel.
It's suede.
There's some Japanese writing that I can't read
and this cool little demon guy down here.
(upbeat music)
- We didn't have money for extras like a steering wheel
or shift knobs but seats are pretty much a necessary mod
if you want to start hitting the track days
or just wanna feel a little more planted in the twisties.
We bought these Corbeau FX1.
They were cheap compared to the Sparcos
but they weren't the cheapest stuff out there.
When it comes to seats, you gotta save up
and get a seat that will at least,
a, not break in the event of a crash
and b, be comfortable enough that you enjoy being in them.
And that's what we've got right here.
These things are actually really comfortable and supportive.
(car engine roars)
(chuckles)
(laughs)
- Woo!
(car engine roars)
That's good.
(car engine roars)
- I love this car.
(upbeat music)
- We decided to go
with a professional vinyl wrap on high car.
We wanted a nice midnight blue with some metallic flake
and that's exactly what we got.
(upbeat music)
- My experience was a little different.
To change the color of your car on the cheap,
you're gonna pretty much do it yourself
and rather than try wrapping a car or so,
we went the Plasti Dip route.
It did not go well.
(torn music)
- Since the cars have both gotten mods
and improved handling, gripping, stopping
and looking hard as (beep),
it was time for just one thing.
- [Both] More power baby.
(upbeat music)
(shouts)
(upbeat music)
- Power plant in the 350Z is the VQ35DE
which is a 3.5 liter V6 making 287 horsepower at the crank.
It also sings a pretty unique song
that you probably know and probably either love or hate.
(engine car roaring)
High car got the creme dela creme.
A Jim Wolf twin turbo kit
which came with obviously two turbos,
a couple of Garrett GT25s
that are completely hidden down there.
(upbeat music)
An intercooler, a fuel pump, all the piping we needed
and a tune cooked up by our Duda SQC tuning,
out of NM imports in Albuquerque.
They helped us (beep) horsepower out of this thing,
which is pretty good.
We also threw a tomei exprim titanium exhaust
on at the same time and you guys
between the turbo kit and the exhaust this is absolutely
the best sounding VQ I have ever, ever heard.
(car engine roars)
- On low car, we got a Rev9 single turbo kit
on Amazon of all places.
It came with this big honking, turbonetic 60-1 turbo
that gets mounted all the way up here by the headlight.
(upbeat music)
Kit came with pipes to route the turbo up here.
It came with an intercooler and piping and that's about it.
The kit definitely didn't come with any instructions
which caused a lot of headaches.
Not everything fit right but with some elbow grease
and perseverance we got it installed.
We're also running up Rev software and a tune from SQC.
We squeezed out (beep) little buff horsies
and for like a 1/3 of the price of the Jim Wolf kit.
(screams)
- As you can see the cars ended up pretty dang different.
To find out just how different
and to see how much fun we had installing all this stuff,
you got to watch HiLow dropping on YouTube, every Wednesday
for the next eight weeks starting tomorrow.
(car engine roaring)
Are you team-low or team-high?
Pick a side and% join us for the ride baby.
(upbeat music)
- [Eddie] Good now?
- No Eddie not good.
What the (beep) do you think dude!
(crowd laughing)
- Like this isn't a bit, I'm legitimately angry.
I mean, what were we thinking?
What were we thinking?