NISSAN 370Z Roadster Review

Back in the 1960s, Nissan was still having an identity crisis shared with Datsun, a brand which it finally killed in 1986. Apart from that, they were also just beginning to be reckoned around the world as a serious car manufacturer. Nissan/Datsun's model lineup back in those days wasn't much compared to that of more established brands, so one of their plans for growth included the addition of a halo line of cars.

Their earliest plan was to build an affordable competitor to the British roadsters, which were pretty much ruling over the convertible sales in those days. Nissan/Datsun had already been building the humorously-named "Fairlady" series of cars in the 1950s, but they needed something with a little more punch for the decade to come.

They first tried to partner with Yamaha as an engine supplier in creating a new sports car that could run with the big boys for a relatively low price. For some reason, after a couple of years and a prototype later, Nissan decided not to go with the Yamaha proposal – which, in turn, took the project at Toyota, resulting in the famed 2000 GT model.

After this somewhat of a dead end, they decided to start work on a completely in-house made sports car at the request of Yutaka Katayama, who was the president of Nissan USA at the time. The car was to be named the "240Z" on most international markets and still the "Fairlady" in Japan. The final design was penned by Yoshihiko Matsuo, who was leading a team of just a few interior and exterior designers.

A bit European-like, the 240Z/Fairlady design was essentially a pretty cool-looking mix of British and Italian themes. The long engine hood and short rear overhang were part of a now-classic roadster/coupe proportion, which the latest 370Z is also trying to keep. After the original "Z" conquered the United States market, its next generations became a Japanese cultural icon all over the world, but mostly in its home market (where it remained known as the Fairlady Z) and in the United States.

Approximately 41 years later, the "Z" line of cars is at its sixth generation and it still uses two types of bodies: coupe and roadster. Launched in the summer of 2009, the new Nissan 370Z Roadster tries to blend an array of both old and new design cues, with the result being just a tiny bit controversial from some points of view. We took one equipped with the optional seven-speed automatic transmission and limited slip differential for a spin. Read on if you want to find out our different takes on the car.

Keeping quite a bit of deal in common with its lineage, the Nissan 370Z - especially in Roadster form - possesses quite a nice mix of retro and futuristic lines. The long hood is clearly both a retro motif and a technical requirement, since the Nissan FM platform that's under the sheet metal provides a front-midship arrangement of the engine, a la BMW.

Designed by Randy Rodriguez, a "Z" aficionado since he was a kid, the car looks like the offspring of a 350Z and a Datsun 240Z – the grandfather of them all. In many ways it's not a half bad combination, but the addition of a couple of modern design touches might be seen as a bit of stretch by some of the "Z" purists out there.

First of all, there's the boomerang-shaped headlights and taillights, which look absolutely vicious from most angles, but completely out of what some people have come to expect from a "Z". Second of all, the hood line sits quite a bit higher that expected, but that is most likely because of the new pedestrian safety rules. Way to go safety, you've ruined long and flat hoods!

The front of the car looks like a blood hungry vampire bat with an eye-infection, which can mean both good and bad things for some people. The similarity mostly comes from the two fang-like design elements sported by the grille, so we don't know why nobody has ever tried to paint them white, so as to further fuel the impression.

The side view is that of a typical two-seat roadster, encompassing the best of what could be found in the "Z" lineage. The very short front and rear overhangs add a lot of muscle to the overall impression, while some lateral design cues were presumably inspired by the belly of a shark. Mr. Randy Rodriguez was apparently watching quite a a lot of "Shark Week" episodes on the Discovery Channel while he was designing the car.

The rear is probably the most discussed part of the 370Z, with a handful of Nissan/Datsun aficionados thinking it looks a bit too bloated for the required sleekness of a "Z" design. The oversized tail pipes don't look half bad though, giving a very powerful feel to the whole arrangement. On the whole, the 370Z Roadster is a very good-looking car, despite some of its more controversial design touches.

Stepping for the first time inside a Nissan 370Z Roadster is a pretty original act. It's not like jumping inside a car but more like wearing it. Because, as soon as you close the door, no matter if the top is down or up, your personal space suddenly shrinks like a balloon. It's not exactly cramped in there, so let's just say it's a very cozy atmosphere.

The transmission tunnel occupies quite a large amount of the interior volume, making us realize that the gearbox is sitting right between the passengers, almost at elbow level. The already low practicality of the 350Z went right around the window with its 370 successor when Nissan decided to make the car shorter and lower than the previous generation.

The interior design doesn't offer a gigantic discrepancy compared to the 350Z, but the overall quality is quite a bit improved. There's a somewhat more premium atmosphere inside, despite the rather huge amount of plastic bits everywhere. Still, there are some Alcantara and leather inserts here and there so it's more upscale than the generation it replaces.

The steering wheel column is rigidly connected to the dashboard instruments like it was before, while the semi-powered seats feel a bit more comfortable but at least as supportive as the ones in the previous generation. Despite not switching to a hard top like all the cool kids are doing these days, the luggage compartment is still small, albeit it has actually grown to a "staggering" 140 liters (4.9 cubic feet).

Using typical Japanese humor, the underside of the trunk lid shows a drawing of the way you may fit a golf bag inside the compartment. And no, it's not as easy as you might think, there's a special procedure apparently. Speaking of which, we are really curious about the percentage of golf players who are buying Nissan 370Z Roadsters.

Despite being significantly smaller and a little bit more lightweight than its predecessor, the 370Z Roadster is still as out of place in the city as many other rear-wheel drive sports cars with over 300 horsepower. It's not the overall power actually, nor the rear wheel drive that make it a bit irritating, but the humongous 19 inch alloy wheels with low tire walls.

That, along with the stiff suspension and the rather large turning radius can make low speed handling a bit of a turn off. Not to mention the fact that you have to really work on your forearm muscles in order to casually turn the steering wheel during parking maneuvers.

Speaking of parking, our test car was fitted with front and rear aftermarket parking sensors, since the car itself wasn't fitted from the factory with this feature on this trim level. You might think that a car this short shouldn't need them, but the fact is that overall visibility is quite low.

The front is a bit bulgy so no matter how high you set the driver's seat you won't be able to see where the hood "ends", while rear visibility is close to catastrophic when the roof is up. The rear windshield provides almost the same level of vision as the one in a Lamborghini Countach, a car which was notorious for its open-door-sit-half-way-out parking jobs.

With the top down things obviously improve as far as visibility goes, but considering the fact that the upper line of the doors and the luggage compartment is so high you still have to elevate yourself a bit whenever trying to better grasp what's going on in the rear of the car.

As far as fuel consumption goes, things aren't exactly swell either. We didn't expect a good fuel economy considering the 370Z uses a naturally aspirated 3.7-liter V6 connected to an automatic transmission with a torque converter, but the "Z" is actually even thirstier in heavy traffic.

During our stint in a busy city, the onboard computer was showing anything between 19 and 23 liters per 100 kilometers (US 10.2-12.4 mpg), depending on the amount of traffic and the way we were leaving from stop lights. All in all, the Nissan 370Z Roadster is not completely out of place in the city, but a crowded metropolis is definitely far from representing its playground.

Taking it outside de city, that's where you will know what you paid for with the 370Z Roadster. As odd as it may seem, the limited slip differential isn't as intrusive as on other sports cars with rear wheel drive. You know that it's there, you also somewhat feel that it's there, but the way it works its magic is almost invisible. With the stability and traction control off – from the too easily accessible "off" button to the left of the steering wheel – the rear slides around corners so natural you'd think it's just the way it's supposed to do on an everyday basis.

Still, with ESP (which obviously includes traction control) left on, the 370Z Roadster handles like its on rails, albeit only as long as the asphalt is dry. This is despite having almost 330 horsepower, rear wheel drive and the wheelbase of a small compact car.

We had the chance to also test the 350Z Coupe a few years before and we encountered the same "problem". The tail wouldn't step out in almost any situation as long as the road surface was dry. The only way to induce a rear skid was by pulling the handbrake or by simulating a "Scandinavian flick" at high speed. Otherwise, throttle-on drifting was almost impossible to do.

Getting back to the 370Z Roadster, "fun times" of a different kind are probable even if all the assist systems are fully engaged, mainly thanks to the sport tuned chassis and the enormous grip generated by the 275/35 rear tires. During some high speed tackling of some tighter-than-usual corners we were almost feeling the lateral Gs pulling our bodies to the side.

Even though its far from behaving like a Porsche Boxster, the handling is close to magnificent, but only as long as you're not the kind of person who's too much into suspension comfort. Speaking of which, if you travel mainly on less-than-perfect roads, your kidneys will probably start manufacturing voodoo dolls in the shape of Nissan 370Z Roadsters.

Obviously, the sport-tuned suspension and the very low tire walls are at fault for this. It handles fine on smooth surfaces, but can almost tear your spine into pieces on a paved road. Even so, typical 370Z customers are probably not expecting a Lexus-like wafting when buying their two-door "san".

During our highway part of the test drive we managed an average fuel economy of about 12 liters per 100 kilometers (US 19.6 mpg), but we should probably add the fact that we neared the car's top speed for a couple of times. While always keeping it under the speed limit and using the cruise control we're more than sure that the fuel economy can decrease to under 10 liters per 100 km (US 23.5 mpg). Then again, the "Zed" isn't that type of car.

As far as long distances are concerned, the Nissan 370Z Roadster is not exactly your best travel companion. The fun bit is still there, though it quickly starts evaporating as soon as you realize that you may only bring another person with you, the luggage compartment is only fit for a couple of briefcases (or the infamous golf bag) and the car has the fuel economy of a two ton V8 SUV.

In other words, it's all fun and games until you start looking at it like at a real, everyday car. As a big boy toy for the weekends it's great, if you have the roads for it, but other than that the compromise is a bit too steep to remain a best-buy example from this point of view. Especially since most of its competitors offer either better mileage, a hard top, better performance or a bigger luggage compartment.