First drive: Nissan's 350Z is a legend reborn
BY JUSTIN LACY | 17th Jul 2002
Nissan's answer to the question was - you can. And the result is the new 350Z, the company's fifth generation Z model and one of the first cars developed under the Renault-Nissan alliance.
The challenge Nissan set itself with the development of the 350Z was to create a car that embodied the spirit of the original 240Z, while combining it with the performance, value, durability and reliability associated with a modern sports car.
"We needed to embody all of the elements that made the first Z such a success: crisp styling, great performance and an affordable price. But we needed to do so in a 21st century landscape," NMC senior vice president design Shiro Nakamura said.
There is less riding on the success of the 350Z than when development began in 1998, as no one vehicle now carries the weight of the entire brand courtesy of the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP) achieving its goals one year ahead of schedule and the new Nissan 180 blueprint for the continued growth and strength of the company.
But it still remains critical to Nissan as an image vehicle and one that should help to bring more buyers into the company's dealerships and showrooms.
The 350Z was previewed to the Australian media this week in La Jolla, California (just north of San Diego), which is also home to the car's birthplace at Nissan Design America, Inc.
It is due to go on sale in the US in mid-August, just a few weeks after the Japanese domestic market is given the first taste of Nissan's new model, while Australia - the third largest market for the car - will have to wait until early next year before the Z can be driven out of dealerships.
Costing between $26,000 and $34,000 in the US, depending on model and specification, the 350Z is certainly priced very aggressively in what will be its biggest market worldwide. It undercuts homegrown US product like the Corvette, in a dramatic role reversal from when the 300ZX left the market in 1996.
At that time the twin-turbo 300ZX cost $US46,000, while the Corvette was still in the $US30,000 bracket - the original 240Z cost $US3500 while the Corvette was $US5000, which shows just how Nissan lost its way in terms of competitive pricing over successive models of the Z-car.
But as a better indication of where it will line-up in the Australian market, it is also cheaper than competitors such as Honda's S2000 and BMW's Z3.
To the man in the street here, a purchase price in excess of $60,000 (probably somewhere between $65,000-$70,000) is never going to be considered affordable, but against its competitors that is exactly what the 350Z is.
An Audi TT Coupe costs $70,950, the TT Quattro more than $83,000, the S2000 starts at just under $75,000 and the Z3 is around the same money. None of them can get near the 350Z for engine size or power and all have less to offer in terms of interior space - courtesy of their small car underpinnings in the case of the Audi and BMW.
Nissan also considers the Porsche Boxster S as a rival for the new Z, but while that might be plausible in the US where it costs around $US10,000 more than the most expensive 350Z, in Australia it's unlikely anyone who is considering, or can afford, a Boxster will also be shopping at their local Nissan dealer A high level of standard equipment should also favour the Z when it lands Down Under, with the single model line-up that's being suggested at this stage likely to feature leather trim, Xenon headlights, traction control, side airbags and a Bose audio system. Satellite navigation and Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC), Nissan's vehicle stability system, are also possibilities.
But Nissan Australia executives will not be drawn on the subject of exact pricing and final specification for the Oz-bound 350Z given its still distant on-sale date.
In North America, the 350Z line-up comprises five models and seven variants - 350Z (base), 350Z Enthusiast, 350Z Performance, 350Z Touring and 350Z Track.
A six-speed manual transmission is standard on all models, while only the Enthusiast and Touring versions are available with the five-speed auto. The Touring model is the one favoured for Australia.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Key specs for US model (Australia specification yet to be finalised):
· 3.5-litre DOHC all-alloy V6 engine with Continuous Variable Valve Timing Control System (CVTCS)
· 214kW of power at 6200rpm
· 371Nm of torque at 4800rpm
· Six-speed manual or electronically-controlled five-speed automatic with manual shift mode
· Independent multi-link suspension front and rear
· Suspension tower strut braces front and rear
· Four-wheel ventilated disc brakes with two-piston front and single piston rear calipers
· ABS, Brake Assist and EBD
· Brembo brake package on Track model with larger discs, four-piston front and two-piston rear callipers
· 17 or 18-inch alloy wheels
· Length - 4308mm (4445mm - 200SX)
· Width - 1816mm (1695mm - 200SX)
· Height - 1318mm (1285mm - 200SX)
· Kerb mass - approximately 1460kg (Touring model, 6 man) (1265kg - 200SX Spec S, 6 man)
DRIVE IMPRESSIONS:
WHILE styling is always a subjective thing, there is no doubting the 350Z turns heads and stops traffic, just like the Audi TT and more recently the Holden Monaro did when they first hit the road.Against a typical American backdrop of monstrous 4WDs (or SUVs in US-speak) and even bigger pick-ups, the Z looks positively futuristic and draws the stares and open-mouthed gapes to go with it.
As the four test cars were parked side-by-side on the street in downtown La Jolla, a bystander actually asked Nissan North America executives if he could buy one of the Zs there and then, and promptly rushed off to find his chequebook.
He clearly did not realise the test cars were PT1 (prototype stage 1) versions, not full production models. Nissan employs PT1 and PT2 versions before heading into production.
That is the sort of response the 350Z generates in the big-selling coupe/sports car market that is the US. Whether it will translate directly to the Australian market, we'll have to wait until early next year to find out, but there is every chance it will.
The 350Z does not disappoint when it comes to the driving experience either, at least not in manual form.
The auto version did not seem as cohesive a package as the manual, with gear changes that were sometimes harsh (both up and down through the gearbox, possibly as a result of too much spacing between some of the ratios), a less responsive throttle and an exhaust note on the droning side of pleasant (it sounded very similar to Mitsubishi's Ralliart Magna).
But the sweet shifting six-speed manual was described by one American journalist, following its media preview last month, as better than that in a Porsche 911.
While it is not quite that good, it is smooth and positive enough so as not to have given Aussie journos any additional problems in adapting to the left-hand drive format of the cars sampled.
Even an accidental take-off in second gear did not trouble the Z, with the drivetrain coping without so much as a shudder.
The torquey V6 engine was obviously a big help in that instance, but it is also happy to spin all the way to redline, accompanied by the sort of pleasing mechanical whine and throaty exhaust note normally associated with BMW's in-line sixes.
At around 1450kg, depending on model and equipment levels, the Z is no lightweight road-going racer, but the 3.5-litre engine handles it without too many dramas and also hints at the performance potential possible should Nissan decide to once again offer a turbo model.
The weight is not wasted on the Z though as it is extremely stiff with what feels like class-leading torsional rigidity. There were no creaks and groans even in the pre-production prototypes and the car showed little sign of body flex, or bodyroll for that matter, during cornering.
It will be interesting to see how the 350Z lends itself to a roadster application, which is scheduled to be released as a second version of the sports car in 12 to 16 months time.
The ride is definitely firm, but really just as a sports car should be. It is by no means uncomfortable and is worth the slight trade off for the neutral handling qualities it exhibits.
Understeer is easily controlled if you push too hard on the way into a corner, while there is plenty of rear-end grip from the low profile Bridgestone tyres to keep oversteer in check, although the switchable VDC remained on during our drive loop just in case one of the aforementioned SUVs or pickups decided to get creative with its cornering lines.
VDC is no certainty to make it onto Australian-spec cars - to keep the price at a reasonable level - but on the test roads heading east across California it proved to be an unobtrusive system in the interests of driver enjoyment.
On the inside there is plenty of attention to detail as well - grippy bucket seats, with specific comfort differences for driver and passenger steering column-mounted instruments that move in accordance with steering wheel rake adjustment so as not to be obscured behind the wheel rim good forward vision (although its not so great over the shoulder, rear three-quarter for overtaking) and even "Z" logos built into the inner air vent design between the door and the dash.
With the new 350Z, Nissan has produced a car that goes a long way to justifying the hype that has surrounded it since the Z Concept car was first shown to world in 1999.
If the production car on Australian roads proves as good as the prototype preview on America's west coast, Nissan is sure to have a winner on its hands and an image leader to hold the company over until at least the arrival of the next GT-R - and possibly even longer.