Nismo vs Sport ?

analogman

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time hard-core gear head, but new here. Have owned 104 cars over 45 years of driving (so yes, I'm 'older'), including a couple of Z cars way back when (260Z, 280ZX), and 3 Infiniti G coupes.

I'm looking to buy a 370Z (either new or late model used, 2015-2017), and am debating between a Nismo and a Sport. I'd like to pick the brains of all of you with first-hand experience and would appreciate your thoughts.

1) Is the Nismo worth the price premium over a Sport? Whether it's new or used, it seems a Nismo is about $8,000 more than a Sport. I like the Nismo better and can afford it, but don't like to make a habit of spending money unnecessarily. On 'paper', the Sport looks to be about 90% of the Nismo. I've driven both, but would appreciate the thoughts of those that have had more seat time as to whether or not it's worth the price premium.

2) For those with Nismo's, how comfortable are the Recaro seats to live with on longer drives? I've taken a couple of test drives in a Nismo for about 20 minutes. They feel fine to me for that time, but things can be different for a multi-hour drive. The car won't be my daily driver, just a weekend fun toy, but I'd still like to be able to take it on trips.

Thanks everyone!

Read T

If you like the looks of the Nismo, then go Nismo.

I purchased a sport then bought lightly used second hand nismo Take Offs. Ended up spending about $400 for Nismo struts/springs, $200 For Nismo S-tune? sway bars, and about $300 for Nismo H-pipe style cat back exhaust.

Besides the ECU and bodywork I mostly have a Nismo for only $900 over the price of the sport and don't have the NVH of aftermarket parts. Worked great for me.

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MCDX

Nismo if you want to track it without going into mods immediately (of course except for brakes, tires and stuff that every car needs for track abuse).

If you mod the car anyway with a new suspension and exhaust, then the Nismo is almost pointless.

My only reasons to not go Nismo was the colour options and the lack of an AT here in Europe. And exhaust and suspension may come one day anyway.

Biggest point: 90% of the drivers won't use the full potential of neither car anyway

Zingston

Regarding your #2: I actually love the way the Nismo looks and appreciate the upgrades it offers, however I found the seats very uncomfortable.

I ended up getting the Sport Tech version. No regrets.

KCZ

I've been mulling over this same question all summer. I'm coming from a modded 350Z (full suspension, exhaust, CAI, etc, but not FI) and clearly a 370Z Sport would be a step down in those areas, but I think the Nismo would as well. Thoughts? I don't want to pay the extra $$$ for the Nismo if I'm going to end up modding it anyway. There aren't any dealers around that will actually let me test drive one to sort this out.

danegrey

Nismo if your not going to mod
Sport if your going to mod

Went sport, because I did mods
Like stated above Nismo is great and different look, but I would not mod if I bought one

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the Z needs to be driven and driven hard for the car lives for it

2011 Nismo#91

IMO
Nismo for the looks.
Base for the modders.
Sport for everthing inbetween.

The only 2 things for the sport over the base is the rev matching and default larger brakes. You can usually find plenty of sport/nismo rims for decent prices if you hunt for them.

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MaysEffect

The Z no matter what variant is a modders car, depending on your level of "need" for comfort ultimately is the question. The sport is unquestionably more comfortable imo over longer drives and in traffic. But if you want comfort get a G. The Z will require modifications no matter what. 8k in your pocket will go a long way in making a better driving experience. Whether or not you want to go down that rabbit hole is dependent on how hard you plan on driving. The Nismo up to about 7 or 8 tenths driving pace works significantly better without having to worry about modifications. The Sport shows its colors anywhere close to aggressive driving with increased body roll, increased understeer and slower transitional response.

The Nismo can handle stickier tires better on the stock suspension. So at the very minimum all you'd want is a set of tires capable of handling additional abuse. Stepping up in size is slightly more advantageous than outright racing tires in the same size. Something that can handle wet and dry without being horrible in one or the other. Like the new contisport or ps4 in a plus size.

KCZ

When I test drove a Sport, I thought the body roll was horrendous. How much better is the Nismo, for those of you who've actually driven both?

Did just the Stillen sways fix the body roll problem?

zeeder

Bros Fourr Speed on youtube said that it's night and day. He said the Nismo is completely flat. There's also a lot more chassis bracing, from what I've heard, on the Nismo.

His review of the differences:

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Ventruck

I can agree with this. I have a Sport Touring and a lot of the mods I'd want to do already come on the Nismo (chassis-related stuff as well as the final; general aesthetic). All I'd think of changing at that point is the clutch setup, and tune.


But by all means if you have the money to mod a Nismo, have at it.

Raeshlavik

I have a Nismo tech, and heavily compared the sport and the Nismo before purchase.

The Nismo essentially has all of the common aftermarket parts already on it, and even with general street use you'll notice the more collected suspension and stiffer everything. It really has that supercar feel.

I live near the mountains here in Colorado, so I get to use that better suspension whenever I like.

And the Nismo just looks better, in my opinion... So for me, the extra for the Nismo was a no-brainer as I could just go drive it.

As for the seats; I've logged a ten hour trip in the Nismo's Recaros and thought they were quite comfortable... Better than the seats in a friend's FiST by a long shot at any rate.

Cranberry

First off, Welcome to the Z life!!!

you can check out my mods in the youtube link in my signature but I have heavily modded my car and carry a lot of track experience with it. I was in your same position when debating what one to buy and I need to say that after my full experience I would only consider the nismo model if I was a mid life crisis guy that wanted something sporty and nice looking with no intentions of modifying it.

The only thing your getting with Nismo is a name IMP... there are much better aftermarket parts available at a fraction of the price. Nissan is attempting to advertise the NISMO name as a race grade product but it really just isn't, infact when I ran the nismo suspension for 3 races last year, I ended up taking it out and putting in the base model suspension because I found it handled better.

as for the extra 20 HP or so that comes with the NISMO, you can literally spend $900 on your exhaust and gain that HP back. spend another $800 or so on an up rev tune and your pushing more hp then the NISMO at a fraction of the price.

If you like the red body skirting and the stiffer street ride then go with the NISMO, but if you don't want to waste money, buy a sport model and put $1500 - $2000 into the car and it will be better then any stock NISMO on the road.

Hope this helps!

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b15

I chose my 2010 touring/sport/nav over the Nismo because of the base model interior and the ugly wing at that time. However, Nissan finally got it together for the 15+ Nismo. In my opinion, if you're looking at a 15+, I would get the Nismo with tech. The 15+ Nismo looks great and finally has the touring/nav interior. Great combo if you ask me.

MaysEffect

This is very much dependent on tires and tire size. The Nismo suspension in most cases will and can handle stickier tires better. For normal tires it may actually make it feel worse like you said.