On this episode of Head 2 Head presented by Tire Rack
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (car engine revving)
00:01 - Hi there, I'm on a racetrack,
00:03 and the weapon I brought is the all new Chevy Camaro 1LE.
00:08 - Why the hell would you bring that
00:11 when you could have brought an M2?
00:13 (laughing)
00:16 - Typical Johnny brings a muscle car to a track.
00:20 - Typical Jason brings a German car everywhere.
00:23 - It's not just a German car, it's the better car.
00:26 (car engine revving)
00:30 (car engine revving)
00:33 (laughing)
00:37 (laughing)
00:42 (soft music)
00:54 (soft music)
00:57 (upbeat music)
01:07 - So we should probably tell them what we're doing here.
01:12 - Right, well if you want a sporty four seat
01:14 front engine rear wheel drive coupe.
01:16 - With a manual transmission.
01:17 - With a manual transmission, there's not a lot of options.
01:19 - No.
01:20 - We could have brought along a Mustang.
01:20 - Except we're not a rental car company.
01:23 - Oh come on, look the Shelby is great,
01:24 but the V6 Mustang, come on.
01:26 - Right, okay, fair enough.
01:27 And we don't have a Toyota 86/Supra BRZ.
01:30 - 'Cause there's a hill.
01:31 - Yeah, well, you look, it's 205 horsepower.
01:33 - Wouldn't have made it up here.
01:34 - It's gonna get left for dead on this road.
01:36 - Right.
01:36 For the greater part of our lives,
01:39 BMW was the only game in town.
01:41 They dropped the ball, and who picked it up?
01:43 - GM, I mean they developed the Alpha platform,
01:45 which underpins that Camaro,
01:47 and they were honest about it.
01:49 They said, "Look, we have benchmarked the E46 M3."
01:52 And BMW's like, "We have benchmarked Mercedes.
01:55 "We're gonna get bigger and some more cars."
01:58 - And we could have brought the Camaro SS,
01:59 but we saw what that thing did to the poor M4.
02:03 - Yeah, I mean that V8 in that car is 455 horsepower,
02:06 whereas the M2's 365 horsepower,
02:08 the Camaro is 335 horsepower,
02:11 and they weigh about the same.
02:12 - Yeah, it doesn't really seem like
02:14 it would be a direct comparison.
02:15 - But it is.
02:16 (dramatic music)
02:20 - Camaro. - Yeah.
02:21 - Spelled with an E, isn't it?
02:23 - Cramro, Kevvy Cramro.
02:24 - Cramro, okay.
02:26 I can't see a thing.
02:27 (laughing)
02:28 - Look, didn't they lower the cowl like seven feet
02:31 from the last one?
02:32 - From the passenger seat, you can see really well,
02:34 but they have this giant instrument binnacle
02:36 with these rat mouse ears on top,
02:38 which if they could shave them down two inches,
02:40 yeah, it's fun to look. - If I was an inch shorter,
02:42 I couldn't see anything.
02:42 (laughing)
02:45 - Tire smoke?
02:46 - Yeah, but hey, it goes pretty good.
02:48 - Seven grand.
02:49 - Let's not forget, this is the V6.
02:51 This is not the V8, you know?
02:53 I mean, this thing hustles.
02:54 - Remember, it was like, what, 10 years ago,
02:56 BMW came out with the 335i, their first turbo motor.
02:59 - 300 horsepower.
03:01 - And here we are, 335 out of a naturally aspirated V6
03:05 that's not really any bigger.
03:06 - Engines are getting incredible.
03:08 - And fast, five seconds flat, zero to 60, from a six.
03:12 - Super good, especially because back in the day,
03:13 the V6 Camaro was like the super lame one, right?
03:17 It's the one you just, like, I want a car that looks cool.
03:20 But you know, it was like a V6 Challenger, you know?
03:23 It was just like, pfft.
03:24 - It was the car you rented, not the car you bought.
03:26 - Yeah, on accident.
03:27 And now it's like, it's really good.
03:29 In fact, it's so good that GM has made a 1LE version,
03:33 which we're driving right now.
03:34 - First time ever there's a 1LE package
03:37 for a six-cylinder Camaro.
03:38 - Just so everyone knows what the 1LE package is
03:40 for the V6, it's extra cooling, extra brakes,
03:44 extra tires, extra suspension, and--
03:47 - And the exhaust, a lot of exhaust.
03:48 I love that on this little touchscreen,
03:50 the exhaust mode is decoupled from the drive modes,
03:52 so I can be in stealth mode.
03:54 - Foreground, hit the gas.
03:56 - Nice and quiet.
03:57 Or, we can go in track mode and deafen everyone.
04:00 I gotta say, for a V6, this thing sounds so racy
04:05 from the outside.
04:06 For any engine, this thing sounds racy.
04:08 - It's just loud and screaming, which is kinda cool.
04:10 - But, I have one issue with this.
04:12 The gears are so long that you're trapped.
04:14 Look, we're in third, 3,500.
04:17 - 4,000.
04:18 - You could go down to second.
04:20 But, I understand your point.
04:21 - 5,000.
04:22 - Yes.
04:23 - 55.
04:24 - But, I would also point out that the Porsche GT4
04:26 suffers from the same problem of extra long gearing.
04:29 - 98 miles an hour in third gear.
04:31 I wanna row this thing through the gears.
04:33 Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.
04:34 This gearing would be appropriate for the V8,
04:36 not for this V6.
04:37 - I would say, my problem with the transmission
04:39 isn't so much the gearing,
04:41 it's the quality of the transmission, right?
04:43 This is not the manual from the SS, from the V8.
04:46 It's not that great, tremic 60-60 unit.
04:49 It's, I don't know what it is, but it's just kinda,
04:51 it's okay.
04:52 - Yeah, it's okay.
04:54 - Speaking of other things that the V8 1LE has
04:56 that this doesn't, is all those electronic goodies
04:58 that really change the way these cars drive.
05:00 - Right, this car doesn't have PTM,
05:02 that's GM's Performance Traction Management,
05:04 which you get on the big Camaros,
05:05 you get on the big Corvettes, you get on the big Cadillacs.
05:07 These have five different stages
05:09 of traction control intervention.
05:11 So you can have a longer leash to get sideways.
05:13 You don't have the ELSD,
05:15 the Electronic Limited Slip Differential,
05:17 which is kinda magical.
05:19 And you don't have the magnetic ride shocks,
05:22 which are totally magical.
05:23 And then the combination,
05:24 what was that word that I came up with?
05:26 - Dynamagic. - Dynamagic.
05:27 - Yeah, good luck trademarking that.
05:28 But what you're left with is a really good chassis
05:31 with really good suspension tuning,
05:33 and it's kinda just a great little sports car.
05:35 - What?
05:36 Little sports car?
05:37 - Yeah, to me, sports cars are tidy and they're nimble,
05:40 and they're sort of buzzy and fun,
05:42 and this is just way too big to be a sports car.
05:45 Like that shifter is an arm's reach away.
05:48 That wheel is in a different county.
05:49 This is a massive car. - It's not, it's not.
05:51 It's not. - It's huge!
05:53 - A Ford Raptor is huge!
05:55 - Wait, wait, wait, a Ford Raptor is a huge pickup truck.
05:58 - Yeah.
05:59 - This is the world's biggest sports car.
06:01 - No, it's not. - Has to be.
06:02 - No, no. - Has to be, yes.
06:03 It is, look, it is literally as wide as a BMW 7 Series.
06:07 - So what, that M2 is two inches narrower than a BMW 7?
06:10 - On the specs, but that's all just because of the back,
06:12 the fender flares.
06:13 Like look, parked next to each other,
06:15 this thing is massive, huge, enormous.
06:18 Get out, get out.
06:20 - Oh, could you have parked any worse, Uncle Butthead?
06:25 - You're a nice, tidy little car.
06:26 - Yeah, well, cheating to prove a point is still cheating.
06:29 - When you finally get out of here,
06:30 look at the size difference between these two cars.
06:33 - Okay, well, give me an hour.
06:34 - Jesus. - All right.
06:35 - Look, it's huge! - What?
06:36 - It's not huge, it is bigger,
06:38 but it's only like two inches.
06:40 - Two inches wider?
06:41 - I mean, this is basically what a parking space
06:42 would be like, and with that 14-foot long door
06:44 and the extra width, it's a pain.
06:45 It's too big.
06:46 - It's not that big, and look, for every inch
06:48 they cut out of the BMW width-wise,
06:50 they stacked it up on the roof.
06:51 - Right, but we're not exactly in danger
06:53 of running out of height over here.
06:54 - Or space, look around you!
06:57 - People drive these cars in towns and in parking lots,
06:59 and imagine that on a tight little road in Italy
07:02 or any road in Europe or anywhere else in the world.
07:04 - But that's like buying clothes in Europe.
07:06 I'm an extra large in America, and in Europe,
07:08 I'm like a 4X, like everything's smaller over there.
07:11 Here, it works fine.
07:13 - Oh, so I think what you've just said
07:14 is that works fine in front of an American trailer park,
07:17 and that works in front of a European house?
07:20 - That is a disgusting stereotype!
07:22 Accurate, but disgusting, kind of like you!
07:26 - Good, fine, I'm accurate and disgusting.
07:27 Are you happy?
07:28 - I'm never happy!
07:29 I'm never happy!
07:31 I'm never happy!
07:32 I'm never happy!
07:34 If you didn't like the looks of the last generation Camaro,
07:37 you're not gonna be a fan of the new one,
07:40 as it looks like a 7/8 scale version
07:42 of the fifth generation car.
07:44 The sixth generation Camaro has all the classic
07:47 sports car cues, long hood, short deck, and a low roof.
07:52 The one of these trademark black hood
07:55 accentuates the popular stormtrooper look.
07:58 The M2 is in the running for the title
08:00 of best looking BMW currently on sale,
08:04 surpassed only, maybe, by the six series Grand Coupe.
08:09 While not as traditionally sporty as the Chevy,
08:12 the M2's muscular bulges and tiny overhangs
08:16 give it the look of a bodybuilder
08:17 wearing a sharply tailored suit.
08:20 Also, that blue is just fabulous.
08:23 So, M2, little rocket!
08:27 - Yeah!
08:28 - How do you like sitting sideways?
08:29 (laughing)
08:30 - It's not that bad, it's weird, but it's not--
08:33 - Come on!
08:34 - I'm just wondering, why did they do it?
08:35 Like, did it crash?
08:37 They wanna throw you into the center of the car?
08:39 - Who knows?
08:40 - The seat doesn't fit?
08:41 - Couldn't you set the computer
08:42 to just put the seat in straight?
08:43 - Yeah, or maybe it's just that the seat's too big,
08:46 so if this car was as wide as that Camaro,
08:49 you'd sit straight.
08:50 - Oh, you mother--
08:53 (laughing)
08:54 - No swearing?
08:55 - Fudge.
08:56 - Do you want more emails?
08:57 - Double fudge.
08:57 (laughing)
08:58 - Super fudge!
08:59 You made me go Judy Blume on you!
09:01 - Boy, the kids watching at home
09:02 are not gonna get that reference.
09:03 - That's fine, they're kids.
09:04 Anyways, despite sitting sideways.
09:08 - 5,500 RPM.
09:09 - Yeah?
09:10 - See what the big difference is?
09:11 If there was ever the slightest doubt
09:14 of the technical superiority of a straight six
09:16 over a V6, drive these two cars.
09:18 - Yeah, I mean--
09:19 - And that's where the money really is, right?
09:21 I mean, this engine, like, just, you know,
09:22 one thing we didn't talk about is the Camaro makes
09:24 about, you know, 285 pound feet of torque.
09:26 This is like 370.
09:28 Not only that, the Camaro makes the torque up here
09:30 for like one split sec, one spot in the rev range.
09:33 This is the whole rev range.
09:34 - This is 1,400 RPM and up, you have torque for days.
09:38 - This is an order of magnitude faster
09:40 than the Camaro, right?
09:42 I mean, this is about as fast as a Camaro SS.
09:44 - Yeah, the engine is totally awesome.
09:46 It's great, and it sounds good, right?
09:49 - And it responds, I mean, it does everything right,
09:51 and it's hooked up to a gearbox with correct gear ratios.
09:54 - It's a little rubbery, though.
09:55 I mean, it feels like the transmission
09:57 out of the old E36 M3.
09:59 - Well, I've never changed, I mean,
10:00 it's the same shifter for the last 200 years.
10:02 - Johnny, that was a beautiful blip throttle downshift.
10:05 I know you didn't do it, you cheater.
10:07 - Cheater!
10:08 - Well, that is annoying.
10:09 I wish there was, even like the Nissan Z
10:12 has a button to turn throttle blipping on.
10:13 The biggest problem with this car, from my perspective,
10:15 is the fact you can't disable throttle blipping.
10:19 - Why are they doing that in an M car?
10:20 - The Germans just don't like driving anymore.
10:22 They sit in traffic, they really don't.
10:24 They care about fuel economy and emissions
10:26 and all the rest of the stuff,
10:27 so they can have a little bit of fun with an M2,
10:29 but they're still like, look at our technical superiority!
10:32 We can put auto blip.
10:33 - Speaking of things BMW doesn't care about anymore,
10:36 steering.
10:37 - Are you even beating the dead horse
10:38 about the BMW steering for about as long as anybody?
10:41 - The horse ain't dead yet, it's still in a lot of pain,
10:42 but I'm trying, look.
10:43 BMW's electric power steering, when it first came out,
10:46 was, I would call it Buick bad,
10:48 except Buick steering was better.
10:49 - Oh.
10:50 - It's gotten so much better
10:53 with every progressive generation.
10:54 - It's at least, like, the ratio's good.
10:56 You know, it's like 15 to one, it's a nice sporty ratio.
10:59 It's just so numb.
10:59 - Like the brake pedal on this car.
11:01 You have an initial nothing, and then a sudden change.
11:04 The brake pedal, nothing, sudden change.
11:07 Everything in this car is covered
11:08 with a little layer of syrup that you gotta get through
11:10 before you get to the pancake.
11:11 - Yeah, like some squishy rubber you gotta get into.
11:14 - Every part of it.
11:15 - But here's the thing,
11:16 this is an absolutely brilliant car around town.
11:19 - Oh, thank you for agreeing with me.
11:21 You could've just watched the video I did on this car.
11:23 - Oh, I watched the video.
11:24 It's just, yeah, I just kinda take everything you say
11:26 with a grain of salt.
11:26 - Oh, a whole grain, thank you.
11:28 - Well, do you know you?
11:29 Anyways, my point is--
11:30 - Judy Blume!
11:31 - You are a melon farmer.
11:33 Anyways, my point is, if you drive
11:36 like the people that live around me drive,
11:37 you know what I mean?
11:38 Like you like to go 80 miles an hour to school zone,
11:40 you like to make sudden right-hand turns
11:41 for no reason whatsoever, this car is awesome.
11:43 Around town, this just feels so special.
11:46 It's punchy and so good.
11:48 But, you know, when you get up here on a back road,
11:50 it's, you know, up to about eight tenths, it's great,
11:52 and then it just kinda falls apart a little bit.
11:54 And, it's an M car.
11:56 Maybe I wanna take it to a racetrack.
11:58 What's my oil temperature at?
12:00 Couldn't tell you.
12:01 Also, can't tell you what the coolant temperature is,
12:03 'cause it doesn't have a gauge for that either.
12:04 - Yeah, it's so, like, shouldn't M cars have that?
12:07 - They call this the M2, but in a lot of ways,
12:09 it's not a full M car.
12:10 Like, all the other M cars have the oil temp gauge.
12:12 They also all have M dynamic mode,
12:14 which is a reduced intervention mode
12:16 for the stability control that really works on track,
12:19 and this doesn't have that.
12:20 This doesn't have the ability to turn off
12:21 that stupid throttle blipping.
12:24 - Doesn't have a bespoke engine.
12:25 - Right, so it's kind of like not entirely an M car.
12:28 - Lot of fun.
12:29 - Lot of fun, and I agree with you
12:31 that the car's great on the road,
12:32 but I disagree about the over eight tenths thing.
12:35 Yeah, under seven tenths, great.
12:37 Eight, nine tenths, kinda goes a little Serbia.
12:39 11 tenths, magic.
12:42 You found the elusive 11 tenths.
12:44 Oh, have I ever.
12:46 (upbeat music)
12:49 Hey, Jason, question for ya.
12:55 How many times have you been kicked off a racetrack?
12:58 - Define kicked off.
12:59 Asked to leave.
13:01 Oh, every track I've ever been to.
13:03 (laughing)
13:06 All right, all right, all right, all right.
13:07 I'll behave a little bit, but I gotta tell you,
13:10 this wet track turns the M2 into an M4 a little bit.
13:14 It gets bigger and more expensive?
13:15 No, it gets overwhelmed by its power.
13:17 So, you know, you ask for a little bit of throttle
13:20 and you get it, and then the turbos go bam
13:22 and throw you sideways.
13:23 It's work.
13:25 Fun, but work.
13:26 The Camaro here is the opposite.
13:29 It's just so buttoned down on this track.
13:32 And to me, that's funny 'cause it has a Chevrolet badge
13:34 on it, and I can't tell you how many times
13:36 I've driven like a Corvette and there's one drop of water
13:40 and it starts spinning in circles,
13:42 which has always confounded me because they're from Michigan
13:45 where it rains constantly.
13:47 - Well, speaking of Michigan,
13:48 that exhaust note is full Detroit.
13:51 It's insane.
13:53 - Hey, man, it's a racetrack.
13:54 You wanna have a racy exhaust note.
13:56 - Yeah, it's helpful to me because I know
13:58 when you're back on the power,
13:59 so I can get on the power too.
14:01 - What, you think that Bavarian slip and slide
14:03 can keep up with the one LE?
14:05 - Keep up?
14:06 (engine revving)
14:09 Bye.
14:10 (laughing)
14:11 - Well, that's torque for you.
14:13 - Look, I've reviewed this car before.
14:14 It is brilliant on the track.
14:16 It is so much fun.
14:17 It puts its power down, especially in the dry,
14:20 way better than some of the other M products.
14:22 And I trust it.
14:24 That's a really good thing
14:25 when you're driving on slippery surfaces
14:27 with a 365 horsepower rear wheel drive car.
14:30 Oh, but just rock it.
14:32 (engine revving)
14:34 BMW is definitely quicker,
14:36 but I'm thinking this thing just handles better.
14:38 And maybe the tires are better.
14:41 I don't know.
14:42 Maybe it's the driver.
14:43 Definitely not the driver.
14:45 (laughing)
14:47 That is one of my gripes with this one LE though.
14:51 That transmission, no bueno.
14:54 Especially the two to three shifts I just blew.
14:56 (engine revving)
14:58 The M2 is so much faster on the straightaways
15:00 that I can pull a 15 car lead on him
15:03 and then do whatever I want in the corners.
15:05 (engine revving)
15:08 Yeah, the front end of the one LE is just so good.
15:11 If you really do something stupid,
15:12 you can force it to understeer,
15:14 but for the most part, it just steers.
15:16 And the chassis is so good.
15:18 It's not drifty like that M2 is,
15:19 but it'll just kind of rotate enough
15:22 and get you pointed where you want to go
15:24 so you can start putting the power down.
15:26 It's just such a good little track car.
15:28 Luckily this track has corners.
15:30 (engine revving)
15:33 Oh, you.
15:43 Oh, look at that.
15:45 Judy Blume super fudge.
15:48 So you're mine.
15:50 Go one LE.
15:51 Let's back up.
15:52 Oh, okay.
15:54 Hey Johnny, I'm back.
15:55 Right on your bumper.
15:56 Well, this has certainly been one of the more enjoyable
16:01 amateur hours of my career.
16:02 However, we're going to hand both these cars over
16:05 to a true professional named Randy.
16:07 (engine revving)
16:10 (engine revving)
16:14 (engine revving)
16:16 (engine revving)
16:27 (engine revving)
16:41 (engine revving)
16:44 (engine revving)
17:03 (engine revving)
17:05 (engine revving)
17:24 (engine revving)
17:26 (explosion)
17:40 We had both driven both of these cars before we got here
17:47 and I thought the M2 would pull a little bit of a lead,
17:50 but the more I drove that car as usual,
17:53 the more I completely fell in love with it.
17:55 And the more I drove the Camaro,
17:56 the more I fell out of love with it.
17:58 - Yeah, but the problem is your only criteria
18:00 for loving a car is can I drift it?
18:02 - Not the only one, but look, I could drift a Camry.
18:04 It doesn't mean I love it.
18:05 It's actually because of the engine.
18:07 In normal driving, that NVH, it's harsh.
18:10 I just don't think I could live with the noise
18:11 that thing makes every day.
18:13 And maybe I'm being a little bit harsh on it
18:14 because I know there's the right engine.
18:16 There's the V8, which it needs.
18:17 - You're absolutely correct.
18:19 The problem with the V6.1 LE is that
18:21 for not a lot more money, you can have the V8.1 LE.
18:25 And it not only beats that car,
18:27 it wipes the floor with that car.
18:29 So I think we have a winner.
18:30 - Yeah, me.
18:31 - What?
18:32 - I brought the winning car.
18:34 - Okay, well tell that to BMW when you give it back to them
18:36 with no tires, brakes, paint, gas.
18:39 - Filthy.
18:40 - Yeah. - Yeah.
18:41 - Anyways, the winner of this head-to-head is the BMW M2.
18:46 (car engine roaring)
18:50 - Cool.
18:51 - In a world, in a world, the geologist.
18:55 - The motion picture of Intel.
18:56 - He's got a chip on his shoulder and he's ready to rock.
18:59 Petrifying audiences this November.
19:01 (car engine roaring)
19:04 (car engine roaring)
19:08 (car engine roaring)
19:12 (car engine roaring)
19:15 (car engine roaring)
19:18 (car engine revving)