It’s hard to come across a car these days that’s not trying to be too many things at one time. Today there always has to be a fine balance between comfort, power, utility, price and ultimately and of course the all important entertainment aspect. Well most modern sports cars do find that balance quite well but more often than not, there is something amiss.
Cars of old never had that problem, if it was about speed and power then there was no compromise, it was only about speed and power. If it was about luxury and comfort, then hundreds of cows would be slaughtered for their hide to provide the meticulous being inside the ultimate in automotive luxury. It is this focus that we miss these days, cars today just try to be too many things at the same time. Can you imagine a metal band playing ballads? No. That’s because there is nothing more focused than music, rockers would be stoned to death if they were to do a Britney, that’s just how it is, and it sounds like a great idea to stick to one purpose. Or is it?
I was privileged enough to be able to throw a Nissan 370Z around some bends and keep it floored on the straights some weeks ago, and it left me somewhat … mystified. Let me just make one thing clear first, it’s a great car, it’s fast, it looks good, it handles great, basically it’s pretty damn fine, I just couldn’t figure out whether it was a tourer, an all out performance car, or daddy’s Sunday driver.
The silky smooth 3.7-liter naturally aspirated engine is definitely a gem from the minute you thumb the start button. The sound it emits is what I can only describe as metallic, it’s not ruthless like the six’s of a straight flowing M3, and neither is it bassy like the six’s of a R34 Skyline. It’s definitely soulful and there really is nothing like it in its segment. If you’re wondering; it’s nothing like the boring 350 either, the roar of the new Z makes the 350 seem feeble.
Driving it is quite a pleasure as well; the clutch is surprisingly light for a car of this pedigree but what really was surprising is the feel of the gear shifts. Of course there’s the usual short meaty throw from click to click but in the car that I was driving, it somehow didn’t quite gel with the feel of everything, it felt somewhat artificial. During short stops at stop lights and at idle, you could feel the whole gearbox vibrating under your palm. I just pinned this down to it being a media test car and we all know how media test cars are treated.
What really is cool about the car though is the SynchroRev Match mode. It literally eliminates the need to heel and toe, it matches the revs to the cars speed perfectly and the best part is since there’s very little work to be done now, you can concentrate on braking later before entering a corner, which just means more speed. I could go on and on about how the system eliminates the connection between car and driver and how it does not cater to the purists but the system can be totally switched off, so if you are one of those looking for a purist ride, this could just be it. And there’s more.
The 370Z is a big car, there’s absolutely no doubt about it. Sit inside and the car doesn’t shrink around you, the hood is long, there’s hardly any rearward visibility, the passenger sits some ways away, it just is a big car. But when it comes down to doing what a performance car should be doing, the 370Z does it like a champ. Of course, there’s the usual help from the hoards of electronics but where’s the fun in that? So I went over to my usual secret test road, switched it all off and let loose.
I won’t tell you where my favourite road is because I would never risk it being littered by traffic and eventually speed breakers but I’ll help you visualize it. First a short straight and a smooth flowing right hander, here the 370’s massive engine helps you get up to speed, the full 328hp is only available at 7000rpm and the 363Nm of torque at 5200rpm, but there's power courtesy of all that grunt from the 3.7-liter engine and with the electronics switched off, you got to ease off the throttle just a little as you head for the righter, you can’t risk oversteer here because there’s a steep uphill double apex leftie that immediately curves down with a negative camber. Get it wrong here and you’ll be hugging the trees.
Through this combination of challenging corners, the Z showed immense poise and balance, even with the disabled electronics. Sure, I might not have been pushing it as hard as I would have on track because I just could not risk it, but through experience I know that a 'regular' car would understeer on entry and oversteer on exit. However, even with the massive size of the Z, it was more of a point and throttle game. And though there was no concern on entry, it was the exit that was the most fun.
As you enter the leftie, throttle up the hill, and prepare for the exit down and get off the pedal, still carrying speed the rear immediately breaks loose. Counter steer and balance the throttle just right, not too much because there’s no runoff area, with this delicate combination the Z just holds the oversteer in fourth gear, there’s enough power to see you through the corner and prepare you for the longest straight on this road. The Z so far has been incredibly entertaining and engaging.
Now I have a good 300meters of tarmac sprawled ahead of me and 328hp under my right foot, so I did the only logical thing there is to do, floor it. Fourth gear at the beginning of the straight and sixth by the time I reach the end and with a healthy dosage of speed built up, now it was time to tackle the 90degree right hander. Hard on the Nissan 4-pot brakes, no worries about heeling and toeing, down to third and make the entry at about 100km/h and again the rear lets loose, off the throttle just a bit to reel in the rear, plenty of runoff area here so I make full use of the tarmac. And now to prepare for the upcoming fast left hander again. Put it simply and in a typically Malaysian way, mao man thai (no problem), I could pretty much predict what the car was going to do over the next series of corners, such was the usability of the car that even an average driver could have fun in it.
There’s a traffic light at the end of my personal miniature track where I got a moment to reflect on the Z. I was seated in a very supportive but somewhat hard sports semi-bucket seat wrapped in beige leather, all the controls where within easy reach of my longer than usual arm, I've got good power available, the plastics feels like there's quality behind them and there's space. Brilliant.
That just brought me to my earlier problem, what is it? It definitely is comfortable, it cruises on highways at incredible speeds with ease, its seriously fast and you hardly feel speed in this thing (which is scary because 200km/h feels like 100), it attacks corners like a hot hatch, and it’s very very entertaining. Then it struck me, it does do a lot of things at one time, maybe it tries too hard, but for everything that it does, it does it perfectly well. What’s the problem with that? Then I turned around and attacked my track again. This really is RM370,000 at its best.
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