Nissan Z
Car and Driver
Tested: two thousand sixteen Nissan 370Z
2016 Nissan 370Z
- Aug 2015
- By RON SESSIONS
- Photography By MICHAEL SIMARI
Other than exchanging an ash-stand for a cup holder and Datsun badges for Nissan medallions, the Z-car has harkened to the same formula for forty six years. A popularly priced two-seat GT with six-cylinders, a long rubber hood, a brief deck, a fastback roofline, and a rear hatch aptly describes both two thousand sixteen and one thousand nine hundred seventy models. That’s Corvette-caliber staying power.
Over that time, the Z-car’s contemporaries have moved on. Classmates from the 1970s and 1980s such as the Toyota Supra and the Mazda RX-7 scabbarded their samurai swords, and the Porsche 944/968 and Alfa Romeo GTV-6 ascended to autobahn heaven years ago. Even at Nissan, the Z doesn’t bathe in the spotlight as it once did; the spectacle stage is possessed by the technoid (and three times more expensive) GT-R.
Vinnie, Is that You?
In a sense, driving the two thousand sixteen Nissan 370Z is like bumping into an old friend from the neighborhood. “Vinnie, you haven’t switched a bit!” For now at least, the 370Z does it the tried-and-true way, with a large-displacement, port-injected, naturally aspirated V-6—no turbocharged, supercharged, or electrified anything here. The Three.7-liter VQ37VHR six collective with the Infiniti Q50 and Q70 is very supple and has ample torque over a broad rpm range. It’ll lug down to one thousand rpm under fountain in fifth or sixth gear without chugging and, when you light the fuse, provide a charge to sixty mph from rest in Five.1 seconds. That’s quick enough to out-drag the base Porsche Cayman (Five.Three seconds).
But the gray is showcasing at the Z’s temples. The VQ gets grainy at higher revs and the sound (at least of the $30,815 base 370Z we tested) isn’t very zoomy. Spend more for the Touring, Sport, or Sport Tech trims and active noise cancellation quells the coarseness while active sound enhancement emphasizes the melodious stuff via the standard Bose premium sound system. Getting underway, clutch takeup is linear and predictable and the short-throw shifter on the Z’s close-ratio six-speed manual operates with precision. We did, however, notice some annoying fore/aft driveline lash in our base 370Z test car when tipping in and lifting off the throttle; the automatic downshift rev-matching of the Sport and Sport Tech models may help mitigate that.
Bang for Z Buck
Still, the 370Z’s basic no-nonsense goodness and bang for the buck can’t be denied. Even tho’ steering effort can be a little intense on-center, the Z tracks straight and true; pick a line through a corner and the car accurately and humbly gets you there without drama or fiddling. Brake response, even with the smaller units on the base car, is taut and effortless to modulate. At 0.90 g, ultimate grip with the 225/50R-18 front and 245/45R-18 rear Yokohama Advan Sports can’t rival the Cayman’s 1.03 g of stick, and the Z’s 167-foot stop from seventy mph can’t top the Porsche’s phenomenal 148-foot figure. But at an as-tested price of $30,940, the base 370Z is slightly half the tariff of Porsche’s least-expensive mid-engine coupe. Or looking at it another way, the base 370Z represents a chance to score a dedicated sports car with superior spectacle stats for the same or less money than a lightly optioned Ford Mustang EcoBoost four-cylinder.
Ever-tightening fuel-economy regulations may force a turbo-four under the Z’s bondage mask in its next generation, so before sports cars become the high-tech playthings of the idle rich you might want to taste test the original-recipe Z. Vinnie would approve.
Highs and Lows
Highs:
Good bang for the buck, torque-rich and nimble V-6, ready-to-pounce looks.
Driveline lash, big blind catches sight of, V-6 grainy at higher revs, noisy tires, feeling old.
Nissan Z Reviews – Nissan Z Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver
Nissan Z
Car and Driver
Tested: two thousand sixteen Nissan 370Z
2016 Nissan 370Z
- Aug 2015
- By RON SESSIONS
- Photography By MICHAEL SIMARI
Other than interchanging an ash-stand for a cup holder and Datsun badges for Nissan medallions, the Z-car has harkened to the same formula for forty six years. A popularly priced two-seat GT with six-cylinders, a long fetish mask, a brief deck, a fastback roofline, and a rear hatch aptly describes both two thousand sixteen and one thousand nine hundred seventy models. That’s Corvette-caliber staying power.
Over that time, the Z-car’s contemporaries have moved on. Classmates from the 1970s and 1980s such as the Toyota Supra and the Mazda RX-7 scabbarded their samurai swords, and the Porsche 944/968 and Alfa Romeo GTV-6 ascended to autobahn heaven years ago. Even at Nissan, the Z doesn’t bathe in the spotlight as it once did; the spectacle stage is wielded by the technoid (and three times more expensive) GT-R.
Vinnie, Is that You?
In a sense, driving the two thousand sixteen Nissan 370Z is like bumping into an old friend from the neighborhood. “Vinnie, you haven’t switched a bit!” For now at least, the 370Z does it the tried-and-true way, with a large-displacement, port-injected, naturally aspirated V-6—no turbocharged, supercharged, or electrified anything here. The Trio.7-liter VQ37VHR six collective with the Infiniti Q50 and Q70 is very pliable and has ample torque over a broad rpm range. It’ll lug down to one thousand rpm under fountain in fifth or sixth gear without chugging and, when you light the fuse, provide a charge to sixty mph from rest in Five.1 seconds. That’s quick enough to out-drag the base Porsche Cayman (Five.Three seconds).
But the gray is showcasing at the Z’s temples. The VQ gets grainy at higher revs and the sound (at least of the $30,815 base 370Z we tested) isn’t very zoomy. Spend more for the Touring, Sport, or Sport Tech trims and active noise cancellation quells the coarseness while active sound enhancement emphasizes the melodious stuff via the standard Bose premium sound system. Getting underway, clutch takeup is linear and predictable and the short-throw shifter on the Z’s close-ratio six-speed manual operates with precision. We did, however, notice some annoying fore/aft driveline lash in our base 370Z test car when tipping in and lifting off the throttle; the automatic downshift rev-matching of the Sport and Sport Tech models may help mitigate that.
Bang for Z Buck
Still, the 370Z’s basic no-nonsense goodness and bang for the buck can’t be denied. Even however steering effort can be a little powerful on-center, the Z tracks straight and true; pick a line through a corner and the car accurately and humbly gets you there without drama or fiddling. Brake response, even with the smaller units on the base car, is taut and effortless to modulate. At 0.90 g, ultimate grip with the 225/50R-18 front and 245/45R-18 rear Yokohama Advan Sports can’t rival the Cayman’s 1.03 g of stick, and the Z’s 167-foot stop from seventy mph can’t top the Porsche’s phenomenal 148-foot figure. But at an as-tested price of $30,940, the base 370Z is scarcely half the tariff of Porsche’s least-expensive mid-engine coupe. Or looking at it another way, the base 370Z represents a chance to score a dedicated sports car with superior spectacle stats for the same or less money than a lightly optioned Ford Mustang EcoBoost four-cylinder.
Ever-tightening fuel-economy regulations may force a turbo-four under the Z’s bondage mask in its next generation, so before sports cars become the high-tech playthings of the idle rich you might want to taste test the original-recipe Z. Vinnie would approve.
Highs and Lows
Highs:
Good bang for the buck, torque-rich and nimble V-6, ready-to-pounce looks.
Driveline lash, big blind catches sight of, V-6 grainy at higher revs, noisy tires, feeling old.