The 350Z launches in America

For motorists living 'Down Under', it would be fair to say there are one or two drawbacks. For one, those things called 'safety cameras' are anything but. Still, though the editor said not to go off on a rant...

Two, we have some pretty wretched roads, many of which have been in need of repair, nay, a complete overhaul since the late 1970s.

And three? We always get new cars after everybody else - except for locally designed Commodores and Falcons.

Which is why we've decided to take a close look at the all-new, giant-killing, history-making, brand-spanking 350Z. Forget 260 or 280, this one's 350!

The Yanks have been a little critical of a few areas of recently-released new 'Zed', such as the limited rear visibility, rigid suspension and ultra-low driving position. It could also be argued that they like to complain for the sake of complaining, but the editor said not to go off on a rant...

On the whole, however, the American motoring fraternity, arguably the biggest and most lucrative in the world, is really quite chuffed at the new Nissan, which is about to launch over there.

They have also spoken of its good points - it is relatively cheap, looks flashy, goes like a rocket and handles like a Porsche.

Indeed, the new 350Z is already being touted as a sharp track-day tool for serious drivers, with all sorts of sumptuous goodies affixed to its chassis.

For example, the new 'Zed' makes use of all-new, well, everything really. Nissan has created a true sportscar, and even went so far as to call it a racecar, but that'd be stretching the truth just a tad.

Even so, the Nissan coupe has been designed to produce minimal body roll and thanks to some savvy engineering, produces zero degrees of lift at the front, close to zero at the back, and the top of the line Track model has a mighty fine 0.29 drag coefficient.

Further adding to its nimble handling are advanced four-wheel independent multi-link suspension arrays, made of lightweight aluminium components.

The lovely 17-inch alloy wheels are shod with copious amounts of rubber, the rears ultra-wide 235-width tyres, with a slim 50 profile, or 235/50s for the traditionalists. This also helps in putting to the power to the ground, and adds to traction too. You can even opt for 18-inch wheels, with 245/45R18 tyres.

We should also mention that the new 'Zed' comes with four-wheel vented discs and ABS and a couple of airbags. If you want to splurge on the top model, or as an added extra, you can also get a smart set of ultra-stoppingly Brembo brakes.

When you add all this goodness into one package, together with a fairly rigid chassis, and Nissan's 3.5-litre V6, you've got a recipe for driving success.

The versatile 3.5-litre mill pushes out some 214kW of power @ 6200rpm, while a 6600rpm redline will see the tacho needle bouncing happily at this limit - better than cracked heads, exploding cylinders and flying pistons...

With so many kay double-yoos on offer, the car has been officially quoted as having a 0-100km/h sprint time of roughly 6.0 seconds, but our spies tell us that some fiesty American journo's have clocked the 350Z at 5.5 seconds. That's seriously fast!

The engine is used in a wide variety of Nissan's, such as the American Maxima equivalent, but in this situation Nissan has tooled around with the engine to extract more power than ever before.

The new powerplant has 24 valves, or four valves per cylinder, with variable timing, and dual overhead cams. The engine also has increased valve lift and the compression ratio has been significantly increased to 10.3:1. A beautifully crafted twin-exhaust system finishes off the unique rear end and also lets the engine breath that little bit better.

The intake ports have been fettled to boost power further and, get this - power is transferred to the rear-wheels via a carbon-fibre driveshaft. Normally these seriously light and durable devices are reserved only for hi-po, million-dollar rally cars. Very nice.

The engine starts getting serious at about 4000rpm, with peak torque of 353Nm occuring @ 4800rpm. Torque is transmitted to the rear wheels via a five-speed automatic gearbox, with tiptronic +/- shifting. But thankfully Nissan has included a true 'tronic 'box. Long story short, if you are in quick shift mode and hit the 6600rpm rev limiter, it'll simply bounce off this until the driver changes it, rather than the electronics deciding that you must want to change gear.

That said, we'd take the close ration six-speed manual transmission over the auto any day of the week. Better fuel economy, quicker take offs and most importantly, more street cred.

Inside the Nissan speedster is very much either a work of art, or an absolutely offensive jumble of contemporary curves and angles. We quite like it, but not everybody does. It's very much like it's conceptual counterpart on the inside, which was first seen at the '99 International Auto Show in Detroit. It's got two seats, plenty of knobs and switches, lovely bucket seats, a fairly unobtrusive dash - and not a whole lot of luggage space.

But this car wasn't designed for driving across europe in comfort - it was built to push the boundaries of the common sportscar and, arguably, it's going to do just that.

Other goodies for the 350Z, which may or may not come as standard when it arrives locally, include brake assist, electronic brakeforce distribution, traction control and vehicle dynamic control. Limited slip diffs will be standard on most models.

In the US, four versions are offered, which can be boosted with other upgrades, such as the Brembo brakes, though whether we get this wealth of models remains to be seen. Chances are we'll only get one or two models. Always the poorer cousin of the motoring world...

Anyway, starting at $US26,269 ($47,644) rising to the top-of-the-line racing model for $US34,079 ($61,800), the base model is called the Enthusiast. The 350Z Enthusiast? Cough, cough... Next up is the Performance 350Z, then the Touring model, followed by the Track 350Z model. The Track model has ultra-stiff suspension, but sadly no fire extinguisher.

If Nissan Australia can keep the price competetive, we would anticipate demand to outstrip supply. The US gets 30,000 units this year, quite a lot for a niche sports model, but it's anyone's guess as to how many are allocated to Australian dealers. As of the time of writing, Nissan expects the car to be on sale locally by January or February of 2003. If you're interested, we'd suggest getting dibs on one real soon.

We'll do a full report on the Australian-spec 350Z when in launches in early 2003, but at least we now know that the new 'Zed' is all it's cracked up to be, both in the handling and performance departments. Look out for the convertible roadster variant, to be released 'very soon' say the American Nissan reps.

Nissan has based the new 'Zed' on its FM platform, or front midship. This refers to positioning of the engine, which will be like the upcoming Mazda RX-8, located slightly behind the front wheels to achieve a better centre of gravity - hence better steering response. It has a front to rear weight ratio of 53:47, not quite the 50:50 of the RX-8, but close nonetheless. Not content to rest on it's laurels either, Nissan Japan is readying a special version of the soon-to-be-launched Skyline 350 GT, using the world's first production 8-speed Extroid CVT. Should be a corker!

As for the new 350Z, it is a sight for sore eyes. It's relatively cheap for what it offers and it adheres to the true sportscar formula of a two seater, front-engined, rear-wheel driver and is already being closely compared to the BMW M3 and Porsche Boxster. Only a few months to go!