My first car was a 1967 Camaro. I have rebuilt several chevys and I have a 1998 Z-28 LS-1 motor in my 250 GTO Ferrari kit car. My everyday driver is a 2001 S-2000. If you want to compare the Supercharged Solstice to the S-2000 then compare it to my supercharged S-2000 with 275 rear wheel HP. You may have to rev it but the motor can take it and get you 21 mpg in the city. There are cars that are faster and handle better but take 5 seconds to put the top down and you can't beat the whole package. I have had well over 50 cars including 2 Camaros and 2 Corvettes but this is by far the funnest car I have ever driven. Put you bias aside and go drive one. Better yet see if you can find a turbo or supercharged one. It isn't even close to the stock one.

 

No offense to you man, but you gotta compare stock to stock. Its the same thing LS1 guys were saying when the 03 Cobra came out... well compare it to a supercharged LS1. That never really changed anyone's opinion.

I can say that my friend Greg drove one and he's more an "american muscle till I die" type of guy than I am, and he was floored by the car. He said it was the most fun car he's ever driven and would give body parts to have one. Id love to get my hands on one.

It has the fact going that its not *** ugly like the Solstice. But thats pretty objective I reckon.

 

Yea it is objective...I think the Solstice is a cool looking car and the S2000 is *** ugly.

 

Oh, cut me a break. All you guys can talk about is torque. Your big ole pushrod V-8s have more torque than a Ferrari F1 car. Would you care to race one??? You obviously have no idea about power. The camaro is dissapearing because it uses old technology and has horrid build quality. A big powerful engine doesn't make a car great. Can a camaro or corvette outrun an S2000/350Z/Boxster at the drag strip? Of course! That proves nothing. I've spent a fair amount of time in the V-8 Camaros. That car is an abomination-and is going away. Hopefully when GM brings it back (and they will) they will fix all the problems and produce a high quality V-8 muscle car America can be proud of. I dreamed of owning a Camaro as a high school kid but now cringe at the thought. I'm sure S2000 owners wish they had more low-end torque, but that is an amazing car anyways. By the way, I found this site while searching for a 69 Camaro-if you have one (in great condition)you'd like to part with, let me know

 

"Oh, cut me a break. All you guys can talk about is torque. Your big ole pushrod V-8s have more torque than a Ferrari F1 car. Would you care to race one???"

Sure thingy. Standing quarter mile, and I get an equivalent amount of money to build the Camaro as that spent on the F1 car.

Which tire would you like sucked off that Ferrari first?


"You obviously have no idea about power."

Yeah, you're right. So I come to a message board to have you educate me. Any guesses on the amount of power that F1 Ferrari is putting to the wheels? 800? 900? I can link a half dozen old-style small block V8's that out-power (and out-torque) any Ferrari you care to pick.


"A big powerful engine doesn't make a car great."

True, but it's a damned good start. Too bad the Germans and Japanese haven't figured that one out yet.


"Can a camaro or corvette outrun an S2000/350Z/Boxster at the drag strip? Of course!"

Oooops.... you forgot something.... Camaro and Corvette can outrun any of the three on a ROAD COURSE too.


"By the way, I found this site while searching for a 69 Camaro-if you have one (in great condition)you'd like to part with, let me know."

I vote that no one tells the troll anything. It will lower the average IQ of Camaro owners, and we don't want to scare him with a car that actually has some power.

 

I 2nd that...

 

Too many non-technically inclined people view OHV V8s as inferior to DOHC engines. Actually, a large-displacement OHV V8 is a very elegant solution to the problem of building a small, lightweight, powerful engine, as long as displacement is not limited. Which do you think has more power/weight, an LS1 or a DOHC Mustang Cobra engine? How 'bout an LS6 power/weight vs. the supercharged Cobra engine? It would also be interesting to see how the LS6 compares with the S2000 engine in this regard.

Anyway, in racing classes where displacement is limited, then DOHC, 4-valves/cyl, unobtanium connecting rods become very important if not crucial to have. This has nothing to do with street or informal road course events, though.

To say that one car beating another at a dragstrip proves nothing is obviously wrong. It proves that one is faster in the most important aspect of street performance! A high power/weight ratio is also extremely important in roadracing, where the S2000, 350Z, and Boxster, despite their more sophisticated underpinnings, suffer from being OVERWEIGHT for what they are.

All that said, I love the Z28 (despite its excessive mass, numb steering, and rear suspension monkey-motion), hate to see it go. I like the S2000 and Boxster, but wish they were each about 400 lb lighter. I don't like the 350Z, too ugly and WAY too heavy. The Solstice would've been my favorite new car in a long time, AT ~2400 LB! At 3000 lb, I don't really care for it.

Summary: vehicle power/weight is a MUCH bigger determining factor in vehicle performance (drag/roadrace/etc.) than perceived engine "technology".

Dan Baldwin
'95 Z28 M6 convertible
'71 240Z 3.1 (Vipers for breakfast, Z06s for lunch, 911 turbos for dinner)

 

You guys amaze me. You sit here bashing someone elses car but can't take one word of criticism about your car without calling him a troll. I own '99 C5 and '01 S2000. I like the vette despite the realitively poor quality because the positives outweigh the negatives. I'll never put 20,000 miles a year on the car so I'm not overly worried about things falling apart. And the engine is awesome-nothing like dropping the peddle on a big V-8. The camaro is a different story. While the Corvette has kept up with the times, the Camaro hasn't. It was time for it to go away because it needed to be completely redone. It will be back.

Why do I own an S2000? Because it is an awesome car. It is not redundent to own a vette and s2000. They are completely different cars. I have an awesome time driving both cars. For $32800 there is no better roadster. And You can't beat the Vettes performance versus cost.

And for those who think their Camaro SS is better than a Ferrari I'll just say that you really are delusional. If someone offered to trade his 360 Modena for the vette and S2000 I wouldn't give him a second to change his mind. Heck, I'd even throw in the wifes SUV and my winter beater.

 

Now that you are here, can you please give first hand input to those few strange people who refuse to believe that Corvette buyers simply want a Corvette as opposed to GTO, BMW M5s, CTSs, and lord knows what else, and those really ridiculous people that thinks GM secretly fools Corvette buyers by not letting them think Z28s have the same engine

 

"I like the vette despite the realitively poor quality because the positives outweigh the negatives."

And these negatives are the load of horsesh!t that needs to be stamped out. You can quote some personal experience if you like, but the statistics say, and have said for years, that Corvette is the #1 car in its class for quality.

Numero uno.

I am sick and tired of hearing this categorical bu!!**** about "superior Japanese quality". Had it up to my ears. Honda's flagship gets soundly trounced in the quality department by that Chevrolet of yours.

You're in Detroit, eh? I'd be happy to meet ya somewhere and go over your S2000's interior and exterior for fit and finish and provide you with the laundry list of bad fits, exposed parting lines, exposed fasteners, color mismatches, grain wash-out, etc...

 

Amen brother. Corvette has been heralded for it's best in class quality since C5 came out.

 

You are kidding about the Corvette having better reliability right? Have you ever looked at Consumer Reports? The Corvette got that absolute worst rating and the S2000 got the highest out of six possible ratings. I have never owned a Corvette, but I have owned a new 99 TA and it was a piece of junk. Lets see bad rear end, U-joints, and needed the tranny rebuilt because I lost second gear, all within the first year. Probably would have had engine problems too if I didn't trade it in. Of course everyone will have there own ideas based on personal experience, rumors, or whatever, but CR is pretty thorough with their statistics. They don't even publish the results if the sample size is too small. I am not trying to get into an argument about this with anyone, but since it is impossible to accurately quantify reliability, and anyone can have good or bad experiences that are not exactly representative, let's just leave this one alone. I know what I believe, and we just happen to disagree.

 

"Of course everyone will have there own ideas based on personal experience, rumors, or whatever, but CR is pretty thorough with their statistics."


I spent a few years doing quality for a living, actual real-deal quality, and Consumer's Reports couldn't find their a$$ with either hand. Too many times I have opened up that worthless rag to find that two mechanically IDENTICAL cars have different reliability ratings. Example? 1994 Pontiac Bonneville SE and 1994 Buick LeSabre.

CR claimed that the brakes on the Bonneville are better than the brakes on the LeSabre, and that the LeSabre had a better HVAC system.

NEWSFLASH: They're identical. I identical brakes, identical master cylinders, boosters, calipers, pads, shoes and drums. Oh yeah, and apart from the actual HVAC controls, the HVAC systems are identical also.

Another example? Corolla vs. Prism.

Look it up and you tell me how good those clowns are.


Making an asinine claim like:
"You are kidding about the Corvette having better reliability right? Have you ever looked at Consumer Reports?"

And then saying:

"let's just leave this one alone"

I think not.

 

I was offerring CR as another point of reference, but one that is in favor of the S2000. But then I went on to say that there is really no good way to say for sure which is reliable, so let's forget it. Believe what you want to believe, I made my desicion with my wallet. I really don't care what you guys think anyway. Besides the Vette is way more expensive, so it should be faster, better built, etc. Just the fact that the two are being compared at all in any context speaks volumes about the S.

 

SO you judged CORVETTES quality based on your ownership of a TRANS AM ?!?

And even on that you "assume" your engine would "probably have problems if you didn't trade it in"?

Sorry if you had trouble with the T/A, and I believe you, but you are so far off base, I don't even see how you can make those statements.