Originally Posted by m4a1mustang

The Z doesn't compete with the cars you listed based on class (2 seat sports car vs. 2+2 sport coupes) but it does compete a bit with the Mustang 5.0, Camaro SS, and maybe the Challenger V8s on price. But I really don't think Nissan has their sights set on these cars. They were very clear in the beginning that they targeted the Cayman. I think they are more concerned with how well the Z stacks up against similarly classed 2-seaters over a wider price range.

I'm a little skeptical that Nissan would give a future Z much more power than the 370 already has. I think it's more likely that the Z either goes away (poor sales) or gets reinvented as a smaller, more efficient sports car (think 4-cyl turbo), or even some sort of hybrid sports car. It really depends on where they want to take the brand.

Consider that Nissan originally planned to sell 30,000+ units a year when they rolled out the 370. They only average a third of that a year. From a purely financial standpoint, I'd be more concerned about whether or not the Z program gets dropped moreso than I would be about it getting a power increase for the next model.