For years the BMW M3 coupe, now the M4, faced off against competitors from its own home country, Germany. Audi S4. Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Yeah, those guys. But would you ever imagine the M4 could face a realistic challenge from an all-American muscle car? While the previous generation Chevrolet Camaro was, well, pretty massive in both size and weight, its all-new 2016 successor rides on an also new (and much lighter) rear-wheel-drive platform. With its naturally aspirated V8 under the hood, the 2016 Camaro SS is truly a magnificent thing.

The new Camaro lineup was, after all, named as Motor Trend's 2016 Car of the Year. So can the Camaro SS withstand everything the M4 throws at it? Has Chevrolet sufficiently upped the refinement level? What about pure performance specs? Motor Trend pitted the two against each other to find out.