Low slung and mean, the Nissan 370Z open-top sports gives a lot of car at a modest price.NISSAN’S 370Z Roadster comes from a long line of high-performance machines built by the Japanese company that prides itself on providing a lot of bang for not too many bucks.
Visually the Nissan Roadster is unusual in this class – it looks the part, whether the roof up or down.
Many look great with the top lowered, but somewhat of a compromise when the car is closed, but not the Nissan 370Z.
This Nissan sports is strictly a two-seater, the purest form of sports car.
The interior has ample space and there’s a reasonable amount of stowage space in the door pockets and the centre console, with small bins behind the seats that can cope with handbags, camera cases and the like.
The boot is small, but it can take a full size golf bag, plus some extra soft luggage. We had no trouble in fitting in weekly supermarket shopping trip for two.
The 370Z Roadster has a one-touch fast-folding lined roof for the first time; the Nissan 350Z’s roof had to be manually locked in, other models in the long line of Z-cars had lift out panels rather than a pure convertible top.
Operating time for the 370Z’s roof is around 20 seconds so you can go from topless to fully closed while stopped at a red light, letting you keep it down even when the weather looks as though it’s about to break.
The Nissan 370Z has a glass rear window, which wears a lot better than plastic units. However rear vision is poor.
That’s aggravated by large areas of rear three quarters on the soft-top. Driving isn’t a problem if the door mirrors are correctly set to cover the so-called blind spot. However parking can be a real hassle.
The 2011 370Z Roadster has an identical mechanical package to the 370Z coupe, with a 245 kW, 3.7-litre V6 engine. There’s 363 Nm of torque at 5200 rpm but there’s a decent amount of pulling power from around 2000 revs so you don’t need to have big revs on board to get decent performance in day-to-day driving.
This Nissan engine is a free-revving powerplant. Some may find it harsher than they like when it’s nearing its rev limit, but we feel this is part of the character of a sports car and is more than acceptable to our way of thinking.
There’s acceleration to back up the appearance of this sports roadster. As a guide, the 5.8 seconds to 100 km/h from the seven-speed automatic we tested provides a satisfactory ride for the keen driver.
While it’s not in supercar territory, it isn’t all that far short – and keep in mind that this sporting Japanese machine costs far less than convertibles from Porsche and the like.
Good suspension design and a rigid body, give the 370Z a flat stance that makes it more nimble in the twisty bits. Handling is sharp and precise with plenty of feel through the steering wheel and the seat of the pants.
To reduce weight the 370Z has an aluminium bonnet, doors and boot lid. Nissan’s engineers have added extra structural integrity to the 370Z Roadster with reinforcement over and above the 370Z coupe.
This is in the A-pillars, the doors, boot opening and side sills. There’s negligible scuttle shake, even over rough roads.
Rough roads create a lot of tyre noise on rough roads, but otherwise the interior is generally a relaxed place to be during quiet cruising. The seats are comfortable and hug the passengers in a supportive way without squeezing them when the driver does become enthusiastic. Wind noise is well controlled with the roof down, even at speeds in excess of 100 km/h. The wind deflector that sits just behind the headrests does its job well.
Model range: Nissan 370Z 3.7-litre two-door coupe: $68,640 (manual), $71,640 (automatic); Nissan 370Z Roadster 3.7-litre two-door convertible: $74,090 (manual), $77,990 (automatic).
