- Everyone once in a while, when we were young,
we used to make comparisons, like whether a domestic car,
muscle car was better than a Tuner car.
Because guess what? That's just how we do things
when we're old or when we turn 65 years old
because we have nothing better to argue about.
But guess what? This is the internet.
That's exactly what we're gonna do.
I'm Alex, @ALEX.FI on Instagram.
In today's episode of Opposite Lanes,
we're going to be comparing whether you should own
a 26-inch Chevy Camaro 2SS vs a 2013 Nissan 370Z.
Both of which are owned by girl.
(electronic music)
Is there anything I need to know about this car
before I drive it? The last one I drove broke.
- Make sure you rip on it.
- Is there any quirks or features?
Any "check engine" lights on?
- Yes, there's many lights on.
- All of them?
- Not all of them.
- ABS?
- Yes. - Check engine light?
- No.
- Oh. You're already better than that one then.
- (laughs)
- Episode's over.
All right, Claire, come over here.
All right, Claire, is there anything weird
that I need to know about your car before I drive it
because I broke the last one.
- Weird? No. Just turn automatic (mumbles),
check engine light is on because--
- Oh, here we go.
- I have headers on it and - Uh-huh
- I did not tune it yet.
- You didn't tune it yet. So just needs a tune?
You sure you don't own the 370Z?
It's usually what tuners say.
- I'm sure.
- All right. Okay. I mean, fine.
I'll just, I'm gonna go over here before I get hit.
All right, so lets talk about,
God this is like, woo,
big baller chair, came with the fridge and everything.
Oh, gosh. I might have broke it.
So this is Anna's Nissan 370Z ,
and has got long tube headers, 5% tInt,
some holographic wrapped interior pieces.
That's exciting. VIS Carbon Fiber Hood,
VIS Carbon Fiber Diffuser, type 3 daff bill.
It's got some work
Gnosis, GS-2 is 20 by 10, is 20 by 11 powder coat
with continental extreme contact sports
and a Swift Spec-R Lowering Springs.
So the biggest thing with Anna's car
and the 370Z in general is that it does catch a little bit
of flack because it is a longer period of time before
they've ever updated the 370Z.
And Anna has one of the older ones,
but to be fair, this car has seen pretty much anything
and everything it possibly could.
And it has performed extremely well.
And it takes us drag racing, auto-crossing,
track racing pretty much everywhere.
She drives to lacrosse and back in
at a million miles an hour and this car
and they just failed to break down,
which is kind of a bonus point.
When you consider the fact that out of the two cars,
one has a check engine light on and the other one doesn't.
Contrary to popular belief,
the tuner car doesn't have the check engine light.
When you're looking at comparing yourself a tuner
versus a muscle, you might be asking yourself,
this car is half the price of that car
at the moment right now. And while that's inherently true,
you have to remember
that tuner cars generally need 200 modifications
to make them look, you know, good.
And she has spent probably a good chunk
of change on the car to make it look as good as
it does right now.
Now whether you're prying to pick a tuner over a muscle,
you might be wondering yourself,
what do you actually want to do?
The 370Z looks bang and throw it on errands.
A big three piece wheels.
You've been pretty much set to go.
And if you're looking at price points,
This is half the price of the other, the one over there.
So it's also kind of a bargain parallel with the fact that,
again, it's a 2013, but you can't really tell.
And this is Claire's 2016 Chevy Camaro 2SS.
It's got Roto-fab, cold air intake, a bunch of exhaust bits.
It's got a race axle back, aftermarket diffuser,
aftermarket lips, side skirts.
It's got carbon composite things.
Okay. It's got a lot of stuff, right?
I don't want to talk about all of it.
Just kidding. I do.
It's got Anderson Composite Carbon Fiber spoiler,
Rohana RFX ,Eleven's Eibach Pro-kit Springs
(indistinct)
you have the depth of air suspension,
you only need Springs Pro tip for anybody that wants
to spend money on suspension.
And of course, because she has made so in the disclaimer,
it is not tuned yet,
which means it has a check engine light.
Claire's 2016 Chevy Camaro 2SS is a banger of a car.
And when you're looking at value per dollar
and the amount of horsepower you can get out of this car,
it is pretty astounding. These cars are meant to be fast.
They're meant to be loud and obnoxious, but they,
they are a little bit more brutish depending
on which way you swing it.
The Chevy Camaro 2SS has gotten properly good.
And for the price point, you get one hell of a car,
but what about reliability?
What about cost of ownership?
What about capacity and space?
When you're looking at a domestic,
domestic almost always take the cake done to one.
When it comes down to just overall maintenance parts,
because there's a million of them, they cross platform,
almost all of these motors
that go in everything you could possibly imagine.
And there's a lot of them.
So you never really have to worry about pricing being
that severe, contrary to Nissan and having a lot
of their parts still overseas
or a dated platform sometimes can be hard to pick up parts.
And you end up with a more expensive ownership costs,
even though the car is inherently cheaper.
And this car has pretty much every bell
and whistle you could possibly manage.
Has got the air Apple car-play,
which I just learned at that was like a month ago.
It has magnetic ride suspension. It's got active.
This it's got that. It's got literally rev matching.
It's got all of this stuff.
It's got active HUD. It has all the technology
that makes a cool car.
Cool. Especially nowadays. And on top of that,
it's actually not inherently that crazy expensive
for what you're getting. You're getting a well,
you're getting like a $50,000 car at a $30,000 price point.
And if you wait a couple of years,
she'll probably be about 25 to 20.
I mean, that's just how it goes, but which one is better?
Let's go find out.
(electronic music)
All right, so this is, let me get...
Ooh, that was actually kind of easy to get in.
Already getting inside this car eight out of 10,
my foot immediately went to put the clutch in
to start the car. And I then realized this is not a manual,
(car engine starting)
but you can't tell cause she hid it.
She did it a little sneaky boy there you see that.
Check tire pressure. We have that light.
That's it we're pretty much good
on pretty much in every other case.
Okay, so she tells me that I gotta put it in sport mode.
Where?
She's not answering. How do I put this in sport?
What do I do? Where's the button?
- [Anna] So put it in the drive,
and the you put it over into the flat stake.
- Oh, and then that automatically sport mode.
- [Anna] Yap. And then just make sure you downshift
and then it'll wrap match pretty slow down.
- Gotcha. Thank you. Bye
- [Anna] Goodbye.
- I figured it all out. I am a genius.
By the way, we have an Hitachi sticker in here,
which is another plus one sorority at a nine out of 10.
(car engine revving)
There is no back seat at all.
So there is space for the record.
However, there really isn't supposed to be space
and you can hear everything kicking up because of that,
which is (Indistinct) It's not bad.
That's...
(car engine revving)
when I gonna give her the beans too much,
but we're gonna
(car engine revving)
We were very excited to do this though, because Anna says,
this is probably the most fun she loves.
Aaah, the rev match,
the automatic rev matching.
That's pretty nice since it is naturally aspirated.
And it's a 3.7 liter. It's definitely not as pull,
hit you in the face as a supercharged model
or anything like that or twin turbo,
but it definitely has some get up and going.
I think what I love the most about Nissan 370Z,
is I'm pretty much just Nissan tuner cars as a whole,
is how they just do such a good job being who they are.
(car engine revving)
It's not a slouch by any means.
You just have to be willing
to really give it anything less than full Send.
And it just doesn't really want to do anything
that would make you smile, but it rides fantastic.
It drives good.
The visibility ain't terrible until you have
to look behind you. Cause I can't see
(car alarm beeping)
everything else about the car feels good reliability.
It's a VQ they've been around for a long time daily driving,
you can absolutely do it unless you live in,
in the Northern months where you run out of, you know,
dry ground and everything turns the ice.
(car engine revving)
You're pretty much all set access to modifications.
The VQ has plenty, but the biggest hiccup with the VQ
that the Camaro doesn't have
(car engine revving)
Is the fact that with a VQ you're pretty much stuck
within a certain power threshold.
That isn't massive until you go forced induction
because it's still a naturally aspirated motor.
It's still a mild displacement. It's not massive.
It's not as big as a Chevy Camaro versus a Chevy Camaro 2SS,
you throw a cam and intake long tube headers on it.
And you have an entirely different feasts.
This doesn't have that same level of engine modifications.
But these sort of cars aren't really about that.
They're more just about how does it feel?
How does it drive? How does it behave?
And then how does it look?
And the car does look really good.
I think having the lip and convex wheels gives it more
of a retro styling.
I'm not a huge fan of Convex Lift wheels.
I prefer concave a massive concave
with like a medium amount of lip.
But for this car specifically in the way that it's set up,
it looks properly good.
I think what I liked so much about these cars,
the fact that this car gets used for everything,
this car gets driven everywhere.
It goes literally anything you possibly imagine Anna does
in this car and she doesn't care that she gets any flack
for it or anything like that because she still takes
to the drag strip.
She takes it to look the lacrosse Speedway.
She takes it to road America.
She takes it everywhere and it is never broken down on her.
Not one time, which is astounding when you consider
that because every single mile
on this car have been very hard miles
(car engine revving)
and the rev matching is nice.
Now it's not a manual.
But I think even for not being a manual,
is still a pretty fun car.
(electronic music)
Next up we have clears to assess, Oh boy, am I excited?
I like these cars a lot. I think the reason I like them
so much is because they just,
they finally updated to point where it has a lot
of new Gentek without it being invasive.
So it's got the six speed manual.
It's got the rev matching, but it's also got all the tech,
like the Apple car-play the hood,
all of that good stuff that comes
with your must have Cleetus McFarland Air Freshener.
You can pick yours up. Probably.
I don't know what Cleetus's website is,
but actually I wonder how was racetrack is going.
Okay, where's the start button?
(car engine starting)
You can't be mad about that.
Check engine light is on getting this car was an eight,
but there's a check engine light,
which makes it a seven. I'm sorry.
So we drove the zeal one,
which we said was 650 horsepower of,
Oh dear God kill me. And this one is obviously not as much,
but it's definitely enough horsepower
to put you on your butt and the whole time you're doing it,
it sounds like it just wants to eat you.
I think that's the one thing I really enjoy
about all muscle cars, new generations specifically,
because the older ones start to get a little weird,
almost too Lopi in my eyes.
Whereas these new ones start
to get a more refined rumble
(car engine revving)
and you just can't be mad about it.
And it's got the a, it's got the heads up display.
You don't even have to look down.
I will say it is a little,
it's a much different weight above the axles
when you're just driving it.
When you're daily driving it, the 370Z feels more.
I want to say it feels lower to the ground.
It feels smaller. The wheelbase is a little bit tighter.
And as a result,
you don't feel as much of that disconnect to the ground.
This car, you do feel a little bit more on top of the road,
than connected to it.
But you make up for that with smiles per gallon,
flat bottom steering wheel is a must by the way.
This is awesome.
(car engine revving)
It's definitely
(car engine revving)
a fun car. And the rev match. You ready?
(car engine revving)
I mean, I know people don't always enjoy
that because it's made it easy, but gosh, damn Is it fun?
I feel a little bit more planted in this car.
It feels better. There's more space in my eyes.
The center area is huge though,
in this car compared to the 370,
but this car has a ton of space to actually sit in,
seats in the back. There's a trunk.
I mean, if you're looking at daily practicalities,
the Camaro is definitely not bad at all.
(car engine revving)
Max, Which one do you like?
- [Max] Camero. - Camaro?
- [Max] Yeah.
- What would you rate the Camaro?
- [Max] Eight.
- Max gives this car eight out of 10.
Max, what do you give the 370?
- [Max] Six and a half.
- Uuh, six and a half out of 10.
- [Max] If it was manual it would be nine.
If it was manual. Oh boy. Oh boy. We're having that talk.
And the brakes in this car are properly good too.
(car engine revving)
If you're looking for a car,
that's gonna be able to just scary a little bit,
(car engine revving)
be loud and obnoxious,
but still have space and practicality.
The Camaro definitely does that.
The 370Z is more of a tuner car.
It's more of what I would almost consider
like an older generation enthusiastic peak now
because they are a little bit older there.
That one is about seven to eight years old,
but even the 350Z is now we're dating almost over a decade.
And I think that starts to show,
(car engine revving)
not to say that that's a bad thing,
but even when you're comparing price per dollar,
(car engine revving)
and you think about all the modifications you're going
to do to a 370
or 2 tuner car to get the same sort of feeling.
I don't know. I think the 2SS does it without much fight.
And in my eyes, if I had to pick one
for daily driving modified everything all around,
probably pick the Camaro, but there is a,
there is a part inside of me,
a 2007 version of me
that wants me to sing the Tokyo theme song,
Tokyo drift theme song.
And that's only when I'm in the 370Z,
which makes me almost sad because I don't wanna,
I don't wanna sing the Tokyo drift song in this car.
I wannna sing like Shania Twain.
I don't even listen to Shania Twain.
(indistinct)
♪If you see it, then you mean it♪
♪Then you know, you have to go♪
(indistict)
♪Huh, huh♪
♪Huh Huh♪
(indistinct)
(humming)
Comparing a car that is a domestic.
That's probably twice as much as the tuner counterpart
may seem a little bit unfair.
But when you start talking about all the modifications
and the pieces in the carbon fiber and the carbon fiber
and the anime sticker, it starts to add up.
When you're looking at a domestic car,
they have gotten very, very far in terms of making it.
Well, not your typical stereotypical domestic car.
And they are a fun car,
practicality and space that one takes the cake,
but there will always be a special place in my heart
for wide arch Nissan tuner cars that are just by-product.
Good to look at.
Let us know what you wanna talk about
in the next episode of opposite lanes.
I'm Alex from Fimenti industries.
If you look for wheels, tires or suspension,
be sure to check us out over
fimentiindustries.com
Somebody in the comments said, Alex,
you need to talk slower. And to that I say, no,
whether you're really talking about,
if you want a tuner car or a muscle car, though,
when you start comparing Apples to Apples,
the $30,000 tuner car is still a Nissan 370Z,
which is one of the newer generation 370z.
So even if you do get a newer one,
that's at the same price point in the same year model,
they're probably not even that comparable anymore
because one.