Okay, this one may seem like a waste of time, surely the Lane Z will outpace the Yat Ming hands down. Pretty much, but here are a few pictures and a few thoughts. Neither car has been modified exept I have painted on the missing portion of the hood stripes which continues into the cowl panel on the Road Legends version.
Overall shape & size goes to the Lane. BUT, check out the next picture. The roof shape, etc. is very good on the Lane. For some reason Lane chose not to paint the trim around the outside edge of the vinyl roof, it looks half done and really odd that some trim is "chrome" plastic and right next to it is painted silver trim. It reall accentuates the painted trim and not in a positive way. I'm sure it was a last minute thing to finish off the vinyl roof which may not appear on future issues. The "vinyl" is pretty well done but reflects no seams and the already mentioned lack of trim. I'd would have preferred they not paint ANY of the trim since the chrome foil does not stick well to the silver paint they used. The nose "droop" is really pretty accurate to the 1:1's, the rear "droop" is where it is pretty far off. The paint is very, very good on both as are the tampos. The smoothness of the body casting is extremely high on both. The "camaro" tampo on the front fender of the Lane looks a little too big to me but the grill emblem (though not painted) looks about the right size as are the front valance and trunklid tampos. The lower body side chrome trim on the Lane is in the correct position unlike the YM version which placed the trim in completely the wrong position.
The space between the base of C pillar and the top of the rear wheel opening looks too thick on the Lane, the YM seems to have gotten this one item better.The wheel center caps are pretty close to the 1:1 look. The 1:1 caps are a lot smaller and smoother than I originally remembered, so the caps on the Lane appear to be correct. The words imprinted in the 1:1 versions would be so small as to not even really show up well in 1:18. Maybe tiny stickers could be used? The tires are nice looking and the wheel/tire assemblies are correctly sized for the car (unlike the YM version in which the wheel/tire assemblies are way too big).
The engine comparison goes to Lane hands down more because the
YM is so lame than because the Lane is so very awesome. The Lane
has lots of details, but the engine is very blocky looking and
the intake manifold ends too soon and a section of the top of
the engine block shows as does glaringly the seam between the
two halves of the engine block. Honestly, I expected better from
Lane in this area. The shape and colors all look pretty okay.
Lane wins hands down. The grill is well done. No comment needed on the YM grill, YUCK! I would have liked the thin horizontal chrome bars on the Lane to continue all the way into the headlight bezels as on the 1:1's.
Underside again goes to Lane. But I'm not thrilled with their huge billboard advertising printed on the sides of the undercarriage. And I'm not sure the 1:1 67 Camaros had bare metal cross members and fan shrouds as their model does but I just don't know for sure. I did notice the front valance panel has holes in it for a future front air dam.
The YM doesn't have a trunk so Lane wins. But why is the spare in the middle of the trunk? The spare should be to the passenger side somewhat. Big boo-boo. The spare tire is in the center because placing it to one side or the other would cause the trunk lid to not close. The swing arm hinges of the trunk lid protrude into the trunk area far enough that binding would occur if the spare was to the side where it belongs. (Does this make me feel better about the misplacement of the spare? Not really.)
Final thoughts: I would also like to have seen this model with a trunk spoiler, but many didn't have them so this makes for a nice unique look too. And what's with the teeny-tiny mufflers on the YM? Those things are way out of scale. The tail lights on the Lane are much better but it would be nice if the lenses were colored clear plastic. As they are they just look model-ish.