Nissan 370Z NISMO on sale in August

Nissan’s global performance sub-brand – NISMO – will finally become a model family Down Under in late August, when the 370Z NISMO joins the GT-R NISMO on sale here.

Australia’s second NISMO model was today officially confirmed for local release by September, following its national media launch on August 29.

NISMO has been a ‘hurry up and wait’ prospect in Australia, where the range-topping GT-R NISMO supercar was finally confirmed for release with a $299,000 entry price last October.

At the time, Nissan Australia promised to release a second NISMO model here by February 2018, and our sources confirmed the tweaked 370Z sports car would be available here for the first time by the end of this year.

Yes, the current 370Z launched in 2009 will form the next element of NISMO’s line-up Down Under, despite the fact its replacement has been tipped to surface at the Tokyo motor show in October.

Available overseas in both coupe and convertible form for years, the 370Z NISMO is powered by a 257kW version of the standard 370Z’s 3.7-litre naturally-aspirated V6.

No local details are yet to be confirmed, but in Europe it comes fitted with a NISMO body kit and interior, 19-inch RAYS alloy wheels and upgrades brakes, suspension and body rigidity.

Expected to be priced at under $100,000 but positioned well upstream of the standard 370 Coupe (currently priced from $56,930), the 370Z NISMO will be the cheapest model in the range – at least until a third model is released here.

Nissan has always said it would launch NISMO here with a three-model range, but now it appears Australian Design Rule issues will prevent the JUKE NISMO RS becoming the third member of the family as expected.

Nissan this week launched a cosmetically enhanced N-Sport version of its QASHQAI to go with the X-TRAIL N-Sport, but for now it’s unlikely we’ll see the rest of NISMO’s existing hard-core model range available here because the cars on which they’re based are not sold in Australia.

These include Europe’s latest Pulsar and the Note small cars, while a Patrol NISMO is also available in the Middle East.

However, the NISMO line-up is likely to expand dramatically within a few years, with Nissan planning a massive new product onslaught between 2019 and 2020.