[Christian1LE]

Just wanted to share my thoughts about the Manual 2022 1SS 1LE I just purchased yesterday. I've never owned an American car before, my comparisons are mostly going to be against the BMW M cars since I recently did the 2 day school at BMW. Got to drive the M2, M3, M4, M5. All of them were unfortunately not manuals however.

These are just basic thoughts as I haven't been able to drive the 1LE past 4k RPM or on a track. I'm currently only at about 300 Miles.

Interior: Super basic but totally functional, exactly the interior I want out of a car. Everything is super intuitive, only thing I wish it had is a garage door button but I can set that up on my phone. I don't know why people complain about visibility. I can see pretty much 330 around the car(except for the rear), you really only miss visibility up towards the sky, I have no issue with blind spots or anything. Visibility out of the back window is however restrictive but a non issue for me so far. Seats/steering wheel feel great. Perhaps the 1 criticism I'll give is that there isn't a really good place to put your phone. Maybe someone has a good recommendation for a phone holder. Back seats are not usable really, less so than the M cars.

Ride: Similar to the M cars, they are all pretty stiff. Advantage to the camaro because you can actually change from touring/track where the M2 Comp has no options for that. Torque difference on the 1LE is obvious and the sound is way better. Also 1LE comes with some options that are only included in the M3/M4 such as the HUD/suspension/steering options. Tires do fling up a lot of crap so I'm going to PPF and get the rock guards installed ASAP. The one thing I prefer on the BMW's are the bucket seats on the M4 (for track use). Still have yet to test out the brakes in any capacity so not sure how it stacks up, but I doubt they will be better than the ceramic brake pads on the M3/M4.

<strike>I also noticed that the Rev match on these cars is not as good as the BMW.</strike>(I was doing it wrong also not sure how to strike out text). I don't personally care because I don't use Rev match but at lower RPM's it doesnt seem to do a great job. I haven't tried it at speed yet however because of the break in period. I would think if anyone is relying on Rev matching for daily driving instead of doing it themselves it's going to cause unnecessary wear to the clutch.

Look: I didn't really care for the rear end of the car at first but it's certainly growing on me, it looks so aggressive. Also love the look of the BMW's but the 1LE certainly looks meaner. Really appreciate how the car doesn't need any sort of spacers, the wheels are lined up directly with the side panels. Wheel gaps could be better though.

Looking forward to taking this out on the track next year, I love everything about it so far. Turns out not finding an M2 at a reasonable price was the best thing that could have happened.

Bonus M4 footage from the BMW Performance center.

[arpad_m]

Congratulations and thanks for the summary. Once you break the car in, you'll find that the faster you go, the more the car feels "in its element", it gradually tightens up and feels more on point.

Your points about visibility are exactly how I feel about it, setting the side mirrors properly results in more than adequate visibility, and I don't need to see 45 degrees of empty sky above my head to feel the car.

Homelink garage door openers were unfortunately removed in 2019 in favor of the rear view camera mirror assembly. As to the phone situation, I have a 2SS with the wireless charging pad, but I also added two cheap but very functional "supercar style" nets, see pic below.

[m6-lt1]

I’m not sure what you mean when you say the rev match isn’t good. I can’t see how it can be any better? It does sometimes blip the throttle when I am going into neutral because it thinks I want to down shit into first but other than that it’s perfect. It will also reduce clutch wear due to it matching revs on upshifts as well meaning it holds the rpm based on the speed you’re going and what the next gear is when you are up shifting thus insuring that every shift is perfectly matched to the rpm. Prior to owning this car I never thought I’d use rev match but I always use it when daily driving the car. I also greatly appreciated it on my first track day because I didn’t have to focus on heel toeing and was able to just focus on my driving.

[ZPirate]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new 1LE! I'm new here myself, but not do car forums as I've owned several Nissan Zs, a Corvette and a BMW 135i over the years. I'm currently waiting for my SS 1LE to be built. I've been admiring the SS 1LE for several years, but recently pulled the trigger on a new one.

I also had the opportunity to attend the one day M school several years ago. What a great experience that is. It really helps teach you about the nuances of performance driving. And you get to beat on BMW's cars, rather than your own. At least when I went BMW still had a couple of manual M cars in the fleet.

My 370Z had rev matching that was pretty good, but I'm old school so I tended to leave it turned off most of the time. I've test driven a couple of SS 1LEs and I thought the rev match worked about like it did on my 370Z.

I can't wait to get my SS 1LE. I've had my modded 135i for a while now and its time to move on to something different.

[Christian1LE]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

I’m not sure what you mean when you say the rev match isn’t good. I can’t see how it can be any better? It does sometimes blip the throttle when I am going into neutral because it thinks I want to down shit into first but other than that it’s perfect. It will also reduce clutch wear due to it matching revs on upshifts as well meaning it holds the rpm based on the speed you’re going and what the next gear is when you are up shifting thus insuring that every shift is perfectly matched to the rpm. Prior to owning this car I never thought I’d use rev match but I always use it when daily driving the car. I also greatly appreciated it on my first track day because I didn’t have to focus on heel toeing and was able to just focus on my driving.

When I'm shifting from 3rd to 2nd around 3krpm it doesnt seem to blip the throttle enough. I also test drove one that did the same thing so I don't think it's just the car. When i blip myself it's perfectly matched 1:1 with the auto rev match it doesnt quite get there. Not sure, maybe with some more driving time It will sort itself out, i'll do some more testing.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by Christian1LE

When I'm shifting from 3rd to 2nd around 3krpm it doesnt seem to blip the throttle enough. I also test drove one that did the same thing so I don't think it's just the car. When i blip myself it's perfectly matched 1:1 with the auto rev match it doesnt quite get there. Not sure, maybe with some more driving time It will sort itself out, i'll do some more testing.

Interesting, I’m going to have to try that this weekend. At my last track day I did downshift from 3rd to 2nd just before a tight turn and it matched revs perfectly each time but those downshifts the car was blipping the throttle to about 5k (probably should have just left it in 3rd to be honest because our cars make such good torque). I don’t think this is what you’re doing but something I noticed is when people who are used to cable actuated throttles drive my car they drop the clutch too fast because they aren’t used to there being the tiniest bit of delay before the revs drop after pressing in the clutch vs old school cable throttle cars.

[JamesNoBrakes]

I'll say, you are missing a LOT not being above 4K. The ability to downshift into first or 2nd like during autocross with rev-match is just amazing, NLS also for the opposite situations. This engine really comes alive with max torque and HP above 4000 and while it is plenty happy to chug along at 1100 or so (the torque will climb out of almost anything) it's only punchy in terms of acceleration up around and past that 4K mark IME. A lot of other engines are pretty punchy at lower RPM, but the LT1 is a bit of a different game above 4000 when you are driving on a track, as opposed to the massive torque but low acceleration way down low in the RPM range.

There are some programming things, where I think it doesn't rev-match to first below something like 1500rpm or like 15mph, so if you are coming to a slow stop and downshifting like normal, it doesn't do it for first gear, but then again, it's not great practice to do this, it's better to use the brakes.

I've done quite a few track events now and the rev-match is brilliant. If it's not rev-matching correctly 3 to 2, there's a problem with the car.

[Christian1LE]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

I'll say, you are missing a LOT not being above 4K. The ability to downshift into first or 2nd like during autocross with rev-match is just amazing, NLS also for the opposite situations. This engine really comes alive with max torque and HP above 4000 and while it is plenty happy to chug along at 1100 or so (the torque will climb out of almost anything) it's only punchy in terms of acceleration up around and past that 4K mark IME. A lot of other engines are pretty punchy at lower RPM, but the LT1 is a bit of a different game above 4000 when you are driving on a track, as opposed to the massive torque but low acceleration way down low in the RPM range.

There are some programming things, where I think it doesn't rev-match to first below something like 1500rpm or like 15mph, so if you are coming to a slow stop and downshifting like normal, it doesn't do it for first gear, but then again, it's not great practice to do this, it's better to use the brakes.

Seems like I just need to test it out more. And tell me about it, Need to get to 1500 miles first .

[5.M0NSTER]

I had a 2017 BMW M2 before this, and this is much more serious car. Do a proper track day next spring, and you’ll have no doubt you made the right choice. Sound, suspension and brakes are all on par with BMW if not better. Balance is superb. The only thing I miss from the BMW is the I-drive.

The Camaro in its stock form can keep up with a lot of the 911s on the track. Love mine.

[N Camarolina]

Congrats on your new 1LE.

I've had mine for a little over a year now and on the track for 8 or 9 days so far. The rev match works flawlessly on track and I love that it frees my mind to focus on trail braking, apex hunting, and smoothing all my inputs.

I too live in NC. Where are you?

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Congratulations and thanks for the summary. Once you break the car in, you'll find that the faster you go, the more the car feels "in its element", it gradually tightens up and feels more on point.

Your points about visibility are exactly how I feel about it, setting the side mirrors properly results in more than adequate visibility, and I don't need to see 45 degrees of empty sky above my head to feel the car.

Homelink garage door openers were unfortunately removed in 2019 in favor of the rear view camera mirror assembly. As to the phone situation, I have a 2SS with the wireless charging pad, but I also added two cheap but very functional "supercar style" nets, see pic below.

I like those nets you have. Where did you purchase them?
Thank You

[Christian1LE]

Originally Posted by N Camarolina

Congrats on your new 1LE.

I've had mine for a little over a year now and on the track for 8 or 9 days so far. The rev match works flawlessly on track and I love that it frees my mind to focus on trail braking, apex hunting, and smoothing all my inputs.

I too live in NC. Where are you?

Surf City atm, but making a move over to Colorado or Utah next year.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

I like those nets you have. Where did you purchase them?
Thank You

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GXL2KZT

Don't mind the negative reviews, they're all about the 3M dual sided tape being unusable on carpeted or non-flat surfaces, which is a given. I pulled those off, attached a few short velcro strips to the frame, and now they're sticking to the carpeting like it's nobody's business.

[Christian1LE]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

I’m not sure what you mean when you say the rev match isn’t good. I can’t see how it can be any better? It does sometimes blip the throttle when I am going into neutral because it thinks I want to down shit into first but other than that it’s perfect. It will also reduce clutch wear due to it matching revs on upshifts as well meaning it holds the rpm based on the speed you’re going and what the next gear is when you are up shifting thus insuring that every shift is perfectly matched to the rpm. Prior to owning this car I never thought I’d use rev match but I always use it when daily driving the car. I also greatly appreciated it on my first track day because I didn’t have to focus on heel toeing and was able to just focus on my driving.

Ok, user error after all. I was basically cancelling out auto rev match by unintentionally pressing the gas (muscle memory) when using auto-rev match. I tried it again today with my foot completely off the gas and it's working great. I got really confused trying to recreate the problem because I didn't notice that I was instinctively trying to blip the throttle myself.