Nisaan's 370Z more of everything

Sure, Nissan had the Skyline GT-R since the Sixties, but that story never left Japan until 1989.

The carmaker's global bread and butter sportscar was always the Z, which started life as the Datsun 240Z. The inline sixes have long since given way to V arrangements, which meant that the last generation 350Z looked nothing like the legendary genesis. The old Z's needed long, sloping noses to house the straight engines, but when the firm's trusty and compact 3.5-litre V6 was called on duty six years ago, the need for a GT-looking design disappeared. Instead, Nissan penned the 350Z to resemble the Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a stump in the front, a high waistline shedding any notion of good visibility and a bulbous rear that befits a car dubbed with a rounded letter of the alphabet, such as S, not Z. (And another certain S would come back to haunt the new Z later on, too.)

The result of the 350Z was rather wide, tall and short. Worlds away from the slender, long and low Zs of old.

This time around

The 2009 Z is much better. It's 10mm lower than before, 33mm wider, but also 65mm shorter, which sort of still makes it look a bit squashed. But its new headlights at least follow the choppy letter-Z form, as do the taillights and the upswept line of the rear quarter window. Want more Z styling cues? Well you get the Zorro Zs scattered around the cabin and the body, the aluminium door handles as on the old model and a shark-like cavern of a front air dam.

Nissan has, thankfully, improved quality inside too, as the new Z again comes with three dials in the centre of the dash angled at the driver, column-attached gauges, soft plastics, as well as suede on the seats and door panels. Behind the two-seats (and it is strictly a two seater) is a bulky strut brace and a handy parcel shelf that's pretty usable this time around, which wasn't the case in the old car.

As first impressions go, compared to the 350Z (although it wasn't a high benchmark to start with), the 370Z is a much higher quality piece of work. As for its rivals… I'll leave the gutting news for later. I don't want to put you off so early, so let's move onto the really good stuff.

The digits

If there is one word you could use to describe the 350Z, it would certainly be tail-happy, so Nissan has widened the front and rear track by 15mm and 55mm respectively to counter this. But then they went and shortened the wheelbase by a massive 100mm which not only makes things a bit claustrophobic inside, but also fails to eradicate any of the wagging-tail nature of the Z. Which isn't really a fault, actually, as I found out on my blast to the waiting photographer. In order to make the photoshoot on time I had to take some evasive action on more than a couple of occasions, skittering through mud and rain puddles the size of Lake Baikal. (Hence the state of the car in these images. Sorry.)

Anyway, handling and performance are further enhanced in the 370Z by shedding weight — the new car is 32kg lighter which, coupled with more power from its 3.7-litre V6, makes it faster to 100kph by four tenths, so 5.3 seconds. That is, if you buy the manual. The auto I've been driving takes about 5.6 seconds to get there.

Shedding weight meant aluminium doors, bonnet and tailgate, while increasing the power to 332bhp (up from the 350Z's 309bhp) meant an increase in capacity (obvious by the new moniker) and an inclusion of Variable Valve Event and Lift (VVEL) for better low-end power and high-end torque. Since it's normally aspirated, the power onslaught is linear and the powertrain whine complementing it below 4,000rpm quite addictive. At first I though there was a problem with the fuel pump, because the whine was quite intrusive, but as I pressed on and on towards the 7,500rpm redline, it became an insatiable pleasure. Torque is also up from 358Nm to 366Nm, though it becomes available 400rpm later than before, at 4,200rpm. Which just means you have to work the new seven-speed automatic transmission harder, snapping at the paddle shifts with vigour and relishing in the rapid downshifts coupled with a throttle-matching blip in manual mode.

It's one of a handful (in fact I can count my favourite auto boxes on a seal's flipper) automatic transmissions I genuinely enjoyed leaving in manual mode, with a mechanical feel to the paddles and an insatiable thirst in its driver to ride the rev limiter all the way through bends, hanging on and on until the exit point and yet another up shift.

I'd still love to experience Nissan's unique rev-matching manual gearbox, but it's not offered in the region.

So the 370Z is lighter, looks a little nicer (when it's washed), feels more durable inside and comes with plenty power to scare Porsches, albeit small ones. Unfortunately it's also priced perilously close to the Cayman S (there is that pesky S again) and new BMW Z4 sDrive35i. Which are better cars in every single department, be it build quality, badge credentials, looks or performance.

OK, maybe not performance, as Nissan's Z can tug at the neck of a manual BMW Z, but throw a Porsche into the mix and there is a danger of the fight quickly becoming very one-sided.

On its own though, the 370Z's handling is beautifully balanced, with well-weighted steering (a couple of people complained to me that it was in fact too heavy, but it's actually lighter than a Porsche's steering) lively turn in and a composed rear end that only breaks loose with the traction control off. Which is not advisable given the open skies at the moment, and is therefore a button I pressed once, and then duly pressed again for the last time the moment I slithered wildly sideways through the first mucky roundabout. So it's still a proper Z. Only this time around it rides brilliantly on long highway cruises, and then transforms into a rabid hound the moment you shoot off towards an Emirates Road exit. The shorter wheelbase means the rear wheels now sit directly behind your bum, so that you feel like you're sitting on top of the axle. It makes for a very communicative and intuitive drive.

Every steering input is accurately transmitted to the eager front (which I couldn't provoke into understeer), while any wicked plans the rear may be having hit your nerve endings right through the spine allowing you to react in an instant. So, instead of a shorter wheelbase making the new Z even twitchier, it made it more easily controllable. This is also in part thanks to the new double-wishbone front suspension and a revised multi-link set-up out back. The changes allow improved camber stiffness, letting the suspension focus on exploiting the Bridgestones' grip.

Even the speed sensitive power steering which mars so many modern cars, robbing them of mechanical feel, doesn't detract from the overall Z experience, a car straight out of the old school of sportscar design.

Also new in the 370Z are bigger brakes (355mm front and 350mm rear) which anchor you safely down to zero in an arrow straight line, from speeds of up to 200kph. The ABS also doesn't kick in to ruin the whole thing, unless it detects properly low traction early on. You don't need time to get used to the point at which the system intrudes, instead you can just slam on the brake pedal with as much of a shove as you can muster.

Verdict

The Nissan 370Z comes with more of everything (except weight and height, fortunately), including equipment — you get keyless stop/start, a viscous limited slip diff, electronic brake force distribution, driver, passenger and curtain airbags, bi-xenon headlamps with LED tails, power adjustable seats, and a Bose sound system.

Oh, and Nissan's new scratch resistant paint, which works with a sort of resin that flows into a scratch over a period of a few days, filling it back up to original condition.

You get a lot for your money, which is only fair, since Nissan wants a lot of your money for it in the first place — Dh203,500. Ouch. You can buy that Cayman S for Dh211k, and although it's less powerful with 319bhp from a 3.4-litre engine, it's a tenth faster to 100kph and is also incomparably better in terms of fit and finish inside. It's not just eight thou' better, it's 40, 50 thousand better, which is why the 370Z should have stayed in the 350Z's price bracket of around Dh160,000.

I love this car, I really do, but I can't tell you (without lying) that you should go buy it over a Cayman S. I guess I have to leave you with this: would you rather have a Nissan or a Porsche?

332bhpThanks to 200cc extra, the new 370Z comes with 23 more horses than the 350Z

1,466kgWeighing 32kg less than before, the 370Z is a relative lightweight by today's terms

Model 370Z

Engine 3.7-litre V6 Transmission Seven-speed auto RWD

Max power 332bhp @ 7,000rpm

Max torque 366Nm @ 5,200rpm

Top speed 250kph

0-100kph 5.6sec

Price Dh203,500

Interior

Exterior

Trim