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The visceral Nissan GT-R supercar has given an angry persona to its younger brother. Never has the Z been this raw and focused. Raw, because the famous Nissan V6 (now enlarged) has found a beautiful and purposeful new home and focused, because Nissan is not taking its eyes off Zuffenhausen.
Presenting the new 370Z, now on sale in India. Nissan India organised an agonisingly short "driving experience" of the new Z, that too on a straight, gravel-strewn stretch, barely long enough for it to jog, let alone run. Well, at least they didn't make you sit in the passenger seat and let a driver take you around... But you know what, the new Z is so impressive that even in that short time, even in that pencil-straight (and pencil-long) stretch, it gave its best shot. All I could experience was a fraction of its straightline acceleration capabilities - no cornering, no handling, no ride, no braking, no grip, no nothing. Still I came back shaking my head at the kind of machine the engineers at Nissan have created. Yet another precision tool like the GT-R. The 370Z doesn't have to try very hard to impress you.
The Z cars have a hallowed history, not just within Japan, but across the whole automotive world. With the 370Z, I have driven all the Z cars of the ages - except... except... (this rankles) the original 240Z. I am not including the 260Z, as I think it was a compromise. Anyway, regular readers of Business Standard Motoring magazine will remember the stories on the 280Z, the 300ZX, the 350Z, the 350Z facelift and hopefully, this one, the 370Z. What brings them all together - what defines the Z cars, beginning with the legendary 240Z - is thoroughbred performance at an affordable price. With the 350Z, Nissan came quite close to making a Porsche out of it. And now with the 370Z, they have made it, and then some.
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