All the same, the car is a fun runner, clipping through the gears and winding up nicely to redline. That combined with the taut Z suspension and precise steering means the car remains a lot of fun, but with a quiet, nicely upholstered side that might almost allow someone to make a phone call while driving. In a Z, that just should not be a consideration, but in this one, it is. Sad.
''What a cute butt!"
Turning around to look, we had to agree, it was a cute butt. Soft and round but still muscular and altogether very purposeful-looking. We smiled.
Our 370Z roadster test car sat outside the bagel shop, on full display through the large plate-glass window. Passersby paused to look, sipping their morning coffees, admiring its wide rear stance, the curvature of the trunk line where it hugs the wheel flares, the dual rear cowls tucked in behind the fixed roll hoops--less mechanized and cold than its predecessor overall and entirely more sensuous in effect. We'd like to think that we brightened a few folks' mornings. Or, rather, that the car did.
Just a year after the 370Z coupe supplanted the fantastic 350Z, the roadster is set to do the same this September. And while it largely carries over the mechanicals from the coupe, the roadster has its own styling--and lifestyle--statements to make.
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Badges, we don't need to see no badges to separate Nissan's Nismo 370Z from its cult-car predecessor or a stock 370Z. Just toss it into turn two at Willow Springs International Raceway, and the difference--along with the tail--will quickly come forward.
During our walk-around tour of the 2009 Nissan Nismo 370Z, we spotted plenty of visible evidence, besides all the badges, to erase any notion of it being merely a badge-engineered special 370Z.
Clues also reveal it to be a more seriously track-oriented machine than the previous limited-edition (1,500 units from 2007 to 2008) Nismo 350Z. Most obvious is that rather than simply resculpting the front-end styling to achieve more downforce and enhance airflow, Nissan North America's Special-ty Vehicles Group, with conversion partner Autech Japan, grafted on a new nose that slopes down lower and about six inches farther. It contributes to an overall length of 174.3 inches, nearly seven inches longer than a 370Z (the wheelbase remains at 100.4 inches).
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