My Impressions of the NISMO 370Z VS Touring

awesomez

I have driven a Nismo recently and I must say I am not that excited about it. It's definitely stiffer and anybody who plans to only take their car to the track and back home should definitely go with Nismo. Since I own a Touring Sport 7AT I can tell with complete certainty that it's better than nismo if you plan to drive it any significant amount on the road. It will still do good on track, possibly faster but not better.

Also, sport does get the vlsd as well.

shabarivas

Yea but any serious Z will upgrade sways ... and coils ... which puts me leagues ahead of the nismo... what differentiated the old nismo was the seam welded-ness

bucketman

Nismo's front and rear springs and sway bars are different. Body dampers designed to control body roll and the front strut bar is stiffened. These things will make the car and body stiffer. Only thing I wish is that it was seam welded like the 350 Nismo. Two weeks until track day(road course)!!!!!!!!!!

fuct

im sure the front and rear body dampers will be available anyways, at a steep price.

///M-Power

90% track / 10% road -- get the Nismo
10% track / 90% road -- get the Touring with SP

The rear suspension of the Nismo is incredibly stiff and might be too punishing for some. Furthermore, I noticed the leather on the steering wheel of the Nismo is much smoother to the touch vs the standard Z, I find this strange since it's less "grippy" than the standard wheel.

CBRich

I think everyone's taking this too technical. The thing is stiffer. No, it is not seam welded and the chassis is actually the same. But everything else has been changed to stiffen up the car as much as possible. Who cares anyway? If you want the Nismo get it. If you're upset because you didn't hold out stop crying. It doesn't matter.

Lug

I'm just upset that I'm still driving a 2006 350Z.

__________________
keep Chubbs in your pocket - Chubbs

shabarivas

Ha ha this is not a pissing match CB... And the reasons forums exist is to devle into whatever technical limits we can...

And yes - chassis stiffness is ENTIRELY different than suspension stiffness... one affects the compression rebound body roll while the other affects lateral torque and front / back flexing of the body of the car...

JoeyD

Wow! A lot to address. Body Dampers, of which in total there are six, do make a difference in chassis rigidity.

the 90-10 comparison is completely subjective. I drive 99 Road and >1% track. The Nismo is simply more fun to drive, better to look at, and all around a better sports car. If you are scared of a few more bumps, don't buy one. I enjoy them because I see both sides of the compromise.

Personally, I like my sports cars to over-steer just a bit rather than plow like both the base and sport 370s do. I also addressed that the only performance difference between my base touring and a sport were the differential and the brakes (I had 285s r and 245s f). The brakes, as we all know, will certainly make the car stop shorter, but also act detrimentally to the handling of the car.

No offense to Edmund's or Car&Driver, but I had 22K miles on my first Z a 350 and 22K on my first 370. As well as countless thousands behind the wheel of the following: C6 'Vette, C6 ZO6, Turbo IS300, and Mazdaspeed 6. No one can tell me that I am not qualified to judge if one car is superior to another.

That being said I don't doubt at all that a base 370Z 7AT could marginally win against me in my Nismo at a drag strip. If you buy any Z to drag you bought the wrong car.

__________________
When was the last time you did 230MPH in something with 4 seats?

chief_Roka

Lol... a lil over emotional bro.
Look, in the end if u r happy in ya Nismo is all that matters.
I don't ride the drag strip. I just used it as an example.
N uwith very similar power.
Your only chance of winning a race is pure skill. Not that yours is a nismo n the other guy has a sport. I use to illegal race for a long time. I seen some miracle wins in my day.
Vettes gettin blown out by modded integras. 5.0 stangs blowin porsches.
It all translated really to skill. Cuz once the horspower is at the wheels. Its all on u to handle it properly. I got 90k miles in a fully modded 93 rx7 n 60k in a mildly modded g35.
Not to mention grand nationals, silvias, corvette. Protoge fully modded n a few other cars I had the pleasure of driving. Both fwd n rwd.
N really all I'm saying is I expect a base 370 to be inferior. It better be with $10k between base n nismo. Remember. The touring doesn't mean nothing. Its just interior amenities that u opted to pay for n has nothing to do with performance.

Auston

It's not clear that the NISMO is heavier. In fact, it may be lighter than the Base MT + Sport, or Touring MT + Sport. According to this article a Touring MT + Sport is at 3,373 lbs (3,278 + 95). This would make the sport package about 95 lbs. If so, a Base MT + SP would weigh 3,327 (3,232 +95). The NISMO is listed by Nissan at 3,300 lbs.

awesomez

The last time I was in NC, the roads were smooth as babys bottom so nismo might be ok for you. Just trying going to one of your neighboring states, with it, VA or SC.

rcm2525

I have and I drive 110 miles a day on some of Virginias worst. The ride is no problem unless your a pussy.

veejayy

great review-thanks!

MeetJoeAsian

I was at the auction yesterday, and there was a Nismo 350Z there with 22k miles, so I took it to the test track at the auction, and I was very VERY impressed at the handling. To tell you the truth, I thought it handled a lot better than my 370Z/SP...I don't care much for the looks of neither of the Nismos because they look too spaceship-py. However, it's one of those cars, that I think I will fall in love with the looks due to it's handling, ya know what I mean? hehehe..

The test track is a short strip that you can take any car and test it out before you bid, and I took that N-350 and gunned it and made a sharp 360 turn, and I was very impressed by how well it held ground when I did that at high speed

__________________
http://facebook.com/meetjoeasian