The Corvette/Z3/S2000/Whatever Car You Want To Compare It To Killer

OK, so I don't OWN one of these.

However, give me a year.

I've loved Z's ever since I've been a kid. I remember the 88' being a favorite of mine...until the last generation Z appeared in the early 90's, with it's massive power, gorgeous looks, and massive price (50K).

It ended up being the massive price that killed an otherwise perfect automobile that I had the pleasure of driving on multiple occasions (again, not mine).

Following this brain fart, Nissan has obviously done it's homework in reintroducing the Z car to the masses again.

Three years ago, when I first saw the original prototype shapes for the new Z car, I was to put it kindly, extremely depressed. I had been EXTREMELY pumped to hear that Nissan was going to bring back the Z...but what I saw on the pages of the magazine I was reading looked like some sort of mutated frog-thing. Not good.

Fast forward to about a year ago. Official press photos started circulating. AMENDMENTS! Someone must have been smacked in the head, because the car looked astounding. A modern reinterpretation of what the Z car used to be. And I don't mean an ugly rehash like the current Thunderbird. Nissan has taken styling cues from basically every generation in styling this car- from the curved roofline that suggests the previous generation, to the look of the interior, which utilizes pods to house the instrumens, much like the early 260Z. Speaking of the interior, it has an almost delicate look to it. There's no other word to describe it. Very show car like. Metal accents abound, and quality plastics everywhere. A nice touch is the brace that goes across the back hatch to lend structural support. A 'Z' badge is emblazoned across it, and can be seen when you look at the back of the car. It's the little things sometimes.

Thing is- looking at the pictures does NOT do the car justice. This HAS to be seen on the road. It is quite simply, the most beautiful mass produced sports car in the world today. Period. On my test drive alone, over the course of 30 minutes, we were talked to at EVERY red light, and on 3 occasions I had other speed racer cars come flying by me, only to see their brakes immediately go, and have them follow me around.

As your mom or dad was sure to have told you when you were younger though- looks aren't everything.

The car I was lucky enough to test drive was the touring model, which unfortunately comes with a 5 speed automatic. There are two other models in addition to this- a base version with a 6 speed manual, and 17 inch wheels, and a track package with 18 inch wheels, a 6 speed, and upgraded suspension and brake bits.

All of the cars, including the one I drove, have a 287 horsepower variant of the Nissan 3.5 L V6 that now powers a large number of other cars in the Nissan product line (Altima, Maxima,Pathfinder). It is NOT a family engine though. Tuned for maximum power, this thing is a ROCKET, with a beautiful sound, and an extremely lively engine that requires very little tip in to get going. With the automatic transmission that I drove, this is as close to carefree performance driving as anyone is going to get. Speaking of the automatic, it does a very nice job of keeping the car in it's powerband, with nice and crisp shifting. The other thing is, it is very responsive to prods of the pedal to get it to shift up or down, unlike a ton of other sports car automatics I've driven (Mustang and Integra, please step up). I know I was driving the automatic, but in a very non-official timing (ie. my head), I got it to 100 kph (60 mph) in around 6 seconds. It felt MUCH faster than that.

Moving on to the suspension and brakes, you'll find that the engineers didn't let down on that facet of the car either. The Z once again dips into the Nissan parts bin, and comes out this time with a variant of the suspension used in the Infiniti G35. I've driven the G35- it's basically a sports car with 4 doors, so I was looking forward to its application in the Z. I wasn't disapppointed. Some might say that the ride is a little stiff. To that, I say YOU'RE DRIVING A SPORTS CAR. The stiffness pays off big time in the turns. There is VERY little roll or lean in this car. It feels like it's glued to the road. Not only that, but in the turns the steering is extremely neutral with little to no understeer. I'm assuming this is mostly due to the near 50-50 weight split of the car. The closest I've ever felt to the handling of the Z is another Japanese car- the Acura NSX. It's THAT good.

Of course, no matter how fast you go, you'll eventually be stopping. And once again (it's getting boring saying that), the Z delivers in spades. You can see the brakes between the rims, and the stopping power this car posesses is proof they're not just pretty for show. The ABS doesn't kick in till you REALLY hit the pedal hard, and when you do hit it, you're stopping in a real hurry. Not wanting to scare the dealer much more than he probably already was with my psycho driving, I didn't really invesigate this further however. But, they felt extremely strong.

Going back to the interior, a couple more notes- everything is layed out in a fairly logical manner. The design of the roof pillars makes it a little difficult to see out back...but again the price you pay to look good I suppose. Also of note is that Nissan has abandoned the 'clustering' of instruments from the previous generation, and have a more traditional look to the cockpit. The stereo included is fabulous, with a 6 disc in dash CD changer, 7 speakers, and room for a LOT of expansion if you're the stereo type (and MF is).

About the only things I didn't like about the Z were minor quibbles- a lack of space in the hatch, and no turbo option. The space issue in my opinion is just me being picky. The turbo? I bet in a couple of years we'll see it...but I figure Nissan kept it out this time to minimize costs.

And minimize they did. For a touring model like the one I drove, minus a navigation system, the total cost in Canadian was 45,000 dollars, or approximately 30,000 American. That's just an incredible deal, especially if you consider that in that price range, the competitors have nowhere near the performance and looks the Nissan posesses (Miata, S2000, RSX).

About the only problem is that pairing the price and the performance the way Nissan did has caused MASSIVE waiting lists.

MF is on a waiting list. For a blue one. Daytone Blue to be exact. With a 6 speed. Next year of course. ;)

And one final note- there will be an upcoming convertible version of the Z- and unlike the old convertible, it won't just be a hatchet job. It'll be a complete, from the ground up new model.

So many cars to buy and so little money.

If the Z was an album, it'd get 10/10.