Nissan 370Z 2009 Review

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Amazing how some things never go out of fashion. Nearly 40 years ago, Japan's Nissan Motor Company came up with a sexy, long-nosed sports coupe that looked great, had real hard-edged performance and offered stellar bang for your buck.

We're talking, of course, about the Datsun 240Z of 1969, a car that proved a runaway hit for Nissan right from day one, and a classic that still stirs the soul in 2008.

Today, high in the hills of Hokkaido, Japan's rural northern isle, it's time to meet and greet the 370Z, the latest bearer of the fabled Nissan Zed-car torch.

And true to form, the 370Z turns out to be another grunty, big-hearted rear-drive sportster – everything the 350Z has been over the past six years, only more so.

Yes, as fun as the 350Z has been (and still is), the 370Z shifts the long-lived, big-selling Zed formula up to the next level. Leaner, wider, shorter; it brings more power and muscle to the party. Through the twisties, the 370Z points, grips and corners in a way the 350Z never could.

Driven hard or slowly, the 370Z feels significantly more refined. It's also better made, with cabin quality that looks and feels good. It really seems as though Nissan went through the 350Z with a big 'to do' list and ticked off the items one by one. Which, as it transpires, is pretty much the way it happened.

Behind the scenes, 'Super Evolution' is the buzz phrase Nissan came up with for this new Zed, a car benchmarked exhaustively against Porsche's Cayman S, Boxster and BMW Z4M (but, curiously, not the Audi TT).

Job one was to keep the Zed-car image, which explains the familiar slant-backed silhouette, albeit with tauter new sheetmetal to give a hardened, more aggressive look ('like an athlete's body', says designer George Yanaka).

As a result, the 370Z is immediately recognisable as a Zed car – tough and purposeful – and yet, with its sleek new head and tail-lights, slimmer door handles and reshaped front air intake, it's also very different from the one that came before.

The engineering mission, explains chief product specialist John Yukawa, was to ensure the 370Z has a power-to-weight ratio better than Porsche's Boxster and Cayman S models. His solution: increase engine size up to 3.7-litres, cut wheelbase by 100mm and use a broader array of lightweight, high-tensile steel and aluminium to slash kerb weight by 108kg compared to the 350Z.

So doors, rear hatch and bonnet are now aluminium. But, in the other direction, engineering the Zed for the latest 'eco' and crash-safety demands, plus higher spec levels has added over 100kg. All of which means the Zed's back to square one at an unchanged 1480kg, in base Japan-spec at least. Regardless, the 370Z surpasses both benchmarked Porsches for power:weight punch...

In the go department, the new car shares both 3.7-litre VQ37 VHR engine and platform with the latest Skyline/Infiniti G37 Coupe. We don't know yet about versions for Oz, but in Japan Nissan's massaged this potent VVEL (Variable Valve Event and Lift) V6 for best-yet outputs of 247kW at 7000rpm and 365Nm peaking at 5200rpm: numbers that give it a useful edge over the 350Z.

The outgoing Zed is still a looker, but sitting there in the soft winter sunlight, the 370Z immediately looks more sculptured and athletic. But definitely a Zed.

Question: should Nissan have been braver and pushed the envelope farther with the look of the new Zed? Perhaps, but look at how the 911 and Corvette have evolved of late. Big stylistic jumps are clearly not flavour du jour, especially in a declining sports-car market and weak overall economy.

So in the metal, the 370Z is the same, only different. Check it out: the new car's a full 30mm broader, but also 65mm shorter end-to-end at 4250mm. Contrary to rumour, height stays exactly the same at 1315mm.

As you pull open the door and slide inside, it's clear that while the cabin style and layout is immediately familiar, the new Zed has finally got the smart-looking, high-quality materials and fittings it has always deserved.

You also sit lower now, braced by a snug driver's seat offering support in all the right places. In front of the driver, just behind an all-new 'oval' steering wheel, you find the new cowled instrument pack that tilts up and down along with the steering column, Alfa Romeo-style.

The 370Z's busy centre console, with optional LCD sat-nav screen lifted from the Infiniti range, gives the car a more sophisticated edge than the last Zed, with only the trademark three ancillary dials sitting on the dashtop looking a bit of an afterthought. But praise be, the new car finally has a glovebox, while that big strut brace that famously made such a mess of the 350Z's rear luggage area is now downsized and moved well forward, freeing up plenty more useable space. Another result.

Time to roll. Press the start button and the 3696cc V6 instantly fires. Engage first and the 370Z pulls cleanly away, albeit still with some classic Zed low-speed transmission rumble.

It takes just a few straights and corners on Nissan's wonderfully bendy and undulating course to appreciate the new model's improved dynamics.

Straight off the bat, the 370Z feels dramatically faster, more stable and buttoned down than the faithful old 350Z, quicker to respond to steering inputs, quicker full stop. All the work Nissan has put in to increase body rigidity (up 40 percent) and front and rear downforce to keep the Zed glued to the road has really paid off. As taut and precise as a Porsche Cayman or Boxster? Truly, it's not far off.

Some caveats: The cars we drove were prototype Japan-spec, six-speed manuals with a 19-inch wheel package. And yes, this was a Nissan test track so conditions were some way off a typical day's driving in Oz.

Even so, with its array of different corners, hills, surfaces and high-speed loop, Nissan's remote playground is a true test of a car's abilities. Promisingly, the 370Z felt marvellously capable, poised and agile.

Put that sharpness down, in part, to the shortened wheelbase, stiffer body and, of course, the Zed's front/rear multi-link suspension (essentially carried over, but now significantly more rigid and with 15/55mm wider tracks).

Those high-performance Bridgestone Potenza RE050As (245/40R19 front; 275/35R19 rear) really hug the tarmac. The 370Z's hard to unstick, at least in the dry, gripping strongly at the front while, if you play with the loud pedal, those back tyres can be tempted into a well-telegraphed, easily caught slide. Strong brakes and meaty, consistent and accurate steering further inspire big waves of confidence.

Zed fans will also love the new, hard-edged V6 with its broad powerband and 7500rpm redline. It feels far more liberated than the outgoing 3.5-litre, especially in the mid-range, and, despite the 5200rpm torque peak, it's certainly not lacking for mid-range grunt.

At the top end, the 370Z is shatteringly fast. But the V6, when really working hard near 6000rpm, starts to get very loud, even angry. Too much? For some, yes...

The Zed's manual gearchange, despite its new shorter shift and smoother action, is still not the best. This whiff of agriculturalism, along with the V6's raucous top end, is, of course, entirely in keeping with the rough-and-ready Zed-car heritage. Anyone expecting that clinical/techy German precision feel will be in for a disappointment. It's come a long way, but the Zed's not there yet.

Nissan will also offer the 370Z with a new seven-speed auto featuring paddleshifters and a more sporting calibration than that of the old five-speeder.

Stick with the manual and you get the option of the novel 'SynchroRev' control. This delivers an automatic heel-'n'-toe-style throttle blip, and allows downshifts to be snapped through faster than a professional driver could manage without SynchroRev, says Nissan. The company claims the tech is a world-first.

So how fast is it? Nissan claims the 370Z should dispatch 0-100km/h in "under 5.0 seconds" and will be speed-limited to 250km/h in places like Europe. In 180km/h-maxed Japan, the Zed's neutered on the wide-open straights of the test course, proving totally stable and unruffled even at maximum shout.

A flying lap with Nissan legendary chief test driver Hiroyoshi Kato in the power seat brought it all home. Kato, who signed off the chassis on the R32-R34 Skyline GT-Rs, among others, is formidably smooth and quick, yet what also sticks in the memory are his high-speed lane changes. A slight flick of the wheel and the 370Z swerved instantly from one lane to another, the coupe unerringly stable, still firmly damped and in control. Great stuff.

Eco? The new Zed manages a high of 10.2L/100km in Japan with CO ranging from 237-248g/km. So greener, but a smaller 72-litre tank limits the range.

Four decades after the groundbreaking 240Z, Nissan has delivered another great Zed, one with the kind of looks, speed and handling to live up to the legend. It really is a belting drive. If it's not ultimately quite as polished as the Porsche Cayman S, the gap is now getting awfully close. And of course, the Zed will again be cracking value.

Some things just never go out of fashion.