'84-'90 Vette or '90-'96 300zx TT - help me choose my next car...

[CrazyModGSR]

OK, I have decided to sell my turbo Integra GSR that I've had for 2 years (might even be 3 now). Anyway, I am debating whether to get a 90-96 300zx twin turbo, or a mid 80's corvette. The 300zx is 300 hp stock with 0-60 in 5.3 and 13.9 1/4 mile, the vette is about 5.5 0-60 and 14.1 1/4 mile. I am leaning towards the 300z as I still like imports, but not sure what to do. Please vote on the poll and help me decide. Also, does anyone know what years the Z had all wheel steering?

[blakscorpion21]

i vote for the z, it is a better car. the c4 vettes are ugly anyways.

[blakscorpion21]

i vote for the z, it is a better car. the c4 vettes are ugly anyways.

[Broke_as_****]

As always, looks are subjective.

Probably alot of people that believe a Celica of any year looks like chewed up ass.

Anyway, the Vette probably going to be cheaper to buy. You can find decent, stock examples that have been pretty well taken care of all the way down to $5,000-$6,000, least wise last time I looked.

The 350 Chevy motor brings with it almost limitless tuning potential, anything from nitrous, super or turbo charging kits, fuel injection kits, or hell, just swap in a newer LS7. Despite what alot of people would lead you to believe, they are not bad handling cars. They aren't the best but given some attention paid to the suspension, they can be made to handle quite well.

The Z is probably going to be in the $10,000-$15,000 range. Given that it's got the turbos already in the car, getting more power is fairly easy. A simple cat-back exhaust, ECU upgrade and cone filter will usually bring in 300-330 rwhp. There is an upgrading guide in the Past Z section of AF if you want more info than that.

As far as basic design, the Z is probably the better car. Rigid chassis coupled with what is still an advanced multi-link suspension system all driven by the VG engine that developes a very wide powerband. More than that, reading up on the design of the car reveals an almost anal attention to detail, everything from the placement and feel of the shifter to the speed sensitive power steering.

Having read alot of comparisons that were done back when both cars were going head to head, the Vette was usually a touch quicker in the performance events but the Z always gathered the most "which car would you take home with you" votes.

Anyway, all years of Twin Turbo Zs had the Super HICAS system but there was a mid-model change from hydraulic to electric control.

What are you planning on doing with this car? What are your performance goals? What do you enjoy most about the driving experience?

[curtis73]

Since you currently have an integra, you might enjoy the build quality of the 300, but it is not nearly the brute force of a vette. Vettes are a 30% class and 70% muscle. 300s are sorta half and half.

If you want a performance cruiser, do the 300. If you want brute force smiles, do the vette.

[CrazyModGSR]

I just really love a quick car. the fast I can get to 60+ the better. I also want a car that handles wonderfully. I will probably be spending up to $10k after the first year on a body kit, paint, interior, etc. the main thing is I want the car to last at LEAST 5 years, even if I drive it hard quite a bit. I'm not saying race from A to B, but I zip around a lot. I thought I found a good Z about 60 miles from here with 72k for $10k, but sold immediately

[Broke_as_****]

Originally Posted by CrazyModGSR

I just really love a quick car. the fast I can get to 60+ the better. I also want a car that handles wonderfully.

Good, Good.

I will probably be spending up to $10k after the first year on a body kit, paint, interior, etc.

Whoops, you made a wrong turn there.

the main thing is I want the car to last at LEAST 5 years, even if I drive it hard quite a bit. I'm not saying race from A to B, but I zip around a lot. I thought I found a good Z about 60 miles from here with 72k for $10k, but sold immediately

Reliablity is in the build and the maintence. Neither the Vette nor the Z is going to explode from use given proper attention.

[Jimster]

Pick up a well maintained version of either and they'll both last you much longer than 5 years. Go for the 300ZX I say, but you're not at all doing bad witha C4, the 300ZX just has that more luxurious/practical aura about it.

[Vettribution87]

As hard as it is for me to admit I have to say that the 300ZX is likely a better car all-round. Its design is simply much newer then the C4's.

At around about the time the 300ZX was introduced was also around about the time Chevrolet decided to work on its next generation model (the C5). Because of various GM bureaucracy and market problems the C5 that was planned for 1992 was held back until 1997. But in those years they were able to refine the C5 to be so much better then its predecessor.

As for modifying? Well although you can do all sorts of modifications to a small block Chevy, you are severely limited by the C4's low hood.
Brilliant aerodynamics but a pest when you want to fit a forced induction system of any kind.
Also the years of Vette you refer to are equipped with the L98 engine. The main problem I am having with modifying the L98 is that it cannot really be done incrementally. It has to be one big package with a new chip.
The L98s ECU is read-only and so to take full advantage of any modifications a new chip needs to be made.
The L98s chip is still a learning computer however and can take advantage of certain modifications (like a new exhaust) and adjust itself to exploit the benefits accordingly. It’s just that anything major would be flagged as an error and anything minor would be likely ignored. The former may in fact impede the cars operation due to the ECU making the wrong decisions.

Still there are places that offer custom chips and the like but it must be just so much easy to have an ECU with "Programmable Read-Only Memory" (PROM). LT1 equipped Vettes (1992-onward) had an ECU with PROM and the settings could be changed by plugging in a computer.

As for looks? Well I prefer the look of the C4 but I think most people will lean toward the more contemporary looks (by 1990's standards) of the 300ZX.

Now I know that I appear to be preaching the 300ZX a lot (Man I can’t believe I am promoting the 300ZX like some Nissan sales rep.) I still don’t want to discourage you from a C4.
It’s just that to compare a 1984-1990 Vette to a 1990-1996 300ZX, it would be an uphill battle for me to try to prove the Vette better.

For all that matters to me I would choose the Corvette over the 300ZX in spite of all this simply because in Western Australia US cars are rare and Vettes even rarer.
IMOH the Corvette has a more kudos to its name then any Nissan. All around the world everyone knows roughly what a Corvette is. There are probably tribes of people out in the most remote regions untouched by civilisation, and yet they probably know that Corvette= fast car.

Anyway, if you live in the US you should try an aim for a C5 as one of those will wipe the floor with a 300ZX simply because it was designed precisely for that reason. The 300ZX was one of the cars on the engineer’s hit list when they made the C5.
Still I don’t know the market price on a 2nd-hand C5, but if its only maybe $3000 more, it would be well worth saving up for.

[MetalHeadZaid]

although i have never driven either, i would say the 300zx. i am a nissan fan though so my opinion may be biased, but i have alot of respect for the c4 (when comparing to the c3, and other cars in 1984) We arent talking about the zr1 though.

[Broke_as_****]

Good post Vettribution87 but I have to point out just from experience:

Originally Posted by Vettribution87

Still I don’t know the market price on a 2nd-hand C5, but if its only maybe $3000 more, it would be well worth saving up for.

Back before I got my Z I was looking at getting a C5 Vette and even the 97s were still around $20,000-$25,000 with a few pretty tattered ones going down to $15,000. Thats quite a jump over the $5,000-$7,500 that a good C4 Vette of any year was listed at. But that may just be my area, things tend to be expensive around Seattle.

Anyway, I think the biggest argument to be made in favor of the C4 in this case is that you should be able to find one for about half of what you would pay for a similar condition Z.

[9ball]

Well, the C4 from 84-90 was far inferior to the C4 from 91-96, and I don't feel that a comparison between the early C4 and the 89- 300zxtt is worth wasting time on. In 91 the C4 jumped from 240hp to 300hp, and had a different suspension that had a "soft" setting so that your butt wasn't purple after a drive around town. The later C4 is actually a really close comparison to the 300zxtt, being that they had the same factory horsepower and both are very very tuneable.