Nissan 370Z 3.7 (A) Review

Notice how we say "would," implicating some possibility of malevolence that might have existed in our bright yellow test car, dampening our 25 year-old boy-racer spirits. But more on that later.

For now, we'll tell you the major do-overs concerning Fairlady 2009.

It's 6.9 cm shorter in length, 9.9 cm less in wheelbase, and those two doors are hinged onto a bonnet and hatch-like tailgate that are all made from aluminium. So you might think that Nissan has made good on the 350Z's heavy nature.

The standard model's only 43 kg lighter than 350Z. The additional bulk comes in the form of safety equipment like side curtain airbags, reinforcements and so on.

In "mandatory" fashion, the car's track has been widened by 1.3 cm in front and 5.6 cm at the back, and that's about all there is mundane to it.

Oh wait, there's one more thing. We forgot to mention that our test car arrived as an automatic. Horror of horrors, when you're in possession of a rear-wheel driven, naturally aspirated torque monster that potentially shoots past 250 km/h with the limiter disabled, the last thing you need standing in your way is the absence of a clutch pedal.

Now we're upset.

But all is not lost just yet. At least on paper it isn't. It does have seven gear ratios in the quick-locking torque converter gearbox and on paper, weighs only 15 kg more than the manual version at worst.

The Z's 1,508 kg kerb-weight is in all the right places. 54/46 front-to-rear in distribution to be exact. Lighter components like a stiffer aluminium front suspension cradle work in conjunction with a "V-bar." It's combined with newly designed double-wishbone arms in front and four-way multi-linked rear connectors featuring new shock valves at the back.
Nissan claims that the use of carbon-composites for the radiator housing actually stiffens the chassis, evidence of weight watchers in action.

On paper, they also cite a 30-percent increase in torsional rigidity in front and a 22-percent increase at the back. Vertical bending forces have also been limited following a 30-percent increase in resistance.

As for the new "VVEL" engine, this 3.7-litre V6 comes directly from Nissan's Infiniti arm. There's roughly a 20 horsepower increase over the last 350Z, and torque is up to 363 Nm at 5,200 rpm, with just over 325 Nm available at only 2,000 rpm - very, very lusty.

Performance

Imagine that - with so much twist at 2,000 revs or so, you would be able to forge massive, massive burnouts just like how wheel-maker RAYS forged their equally massive 19" x 9J (19" x 10J, rear wheels) rims for the 370Z.

Wrong.

All of us who tested the car on that day agreed on Nissan's "relative" interpretation of the Vehicle Dynamics Control being "turned off." You think you're getting somewhere when you floor the throttle whilst holding on to the brakes. But just when you start wetting yourself in anticipation of that huge plume of smoke in your mirrors, the computers cut the power and instead, you're left looking like a fool without his beef.

You see, in light of the dizzy, grippy four-wheel-driven GTR, we'd like to think of the 370Z as a high performance, capable muscle car that can do anything you want it to, both OFF-traction as well as any grip-work that it's entirely capable of, something like what Chevrolet has done with its Corvette.

Even mini second-gear drifts were foiled by the interruption of traction control.

If you're an enthusiast in the abovementioned area, then you'll be able to associate with our plight, although it is a plight no greater than a four year-old complaining about his lollipop being salty instead of sweet. The rest of the car definitely lived up to our expectations. Well, almost all of it.

For example, that new 7-speeder has great shifting times, doesn't automatically shift up into the next gear, and yields a stopwatched 5.8-second sprint from 0 to 100 km/h. The massive amount of torque ensures that it does 80-120 km/h in just under 6 seconds. The only caveat would be that torque is limited in first gear, damping slightly that off-the-light sprint that so many of us love doing.
As for the twisty stuff, the suspension and the chassis felt noticeably firmer than the 350Z, if not a little more uncomfortable. As you might expect, it also corners flatter, accelerates out of corners faster, and grabs harder at the brakes. Those huge, OEM Brembos are big enough to make a whiplash-free stop slightly challenging, but brake fade was absent on the street despite repeated hard stops from beyond 100 km/h.

And while lateral grip in corners was an improvement over the 350Z, we don't like how the 370Z plunges straight ahead every single time the limits of grip were breached. Perhaps another caveat in driving "fun" in the face of safety, Nissan might have gone overboard with its safety concerns, opting instead to lock any potential oversteer in the closet for good.

Or perhaps, we would have to hold our horses for the venerable NISMO version of the 370Z, returning to the point that this car is a tourer, and not a racer.

The last word in refinement

Well one area that clearly deserves credit would be the Z's interior and overall refinement values, precisely the same thing the 350Z was criticized for in the past.

No more low quality surfaces, no more plasticky panels and short-lived suede. Yes it has a good cabin, and driving the car was easier than we thought as we could see the leading edges of this Fairlady's front end.

For what it's worth ($155,300 for the base automatic model - that's less than the outgoing 350Z) you're getting a better performing vehicle, solidly built controls and surfaces on the inside that are easy to read and operate, right down to the three, curiously formed gauges in front of the wheel.

We might give a second thought to the electronic fuel gauge that calculates the remaining amount of petrol left in your tank based on fuel mileage instead of absolute litres, and the fact that we had only 1 out of 16 dots left after just 140 kilometres of hard driving.

Oh wait, it just increased to four.