Costa Mesa, CA – Welcome to the first edition of RC Reviews. Our goal is to bring you a new car
review every week via this column, or at least as close as I can get to weekly. Race Central will be reviewing late
model cars from various manufacturers.
Our reviews (Kurt on the Race Central Radio Show and this column) are
products of real world driving. Our assessment comes from doing the everyday
things that each of us do in our daily drivers.
Going to the store, picking up the dry cleaning, heading to a movie or
event, heading out for a night on the town.
Basically, the things we all do pretty much every day. This isn’t about
instrument testing, although from time to
time we might have the opportunity to wring out particular models at a track for
some lively analysis of how cars can and will perform outside of the daily
grind.
The day before I planned on heading up to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California
for the IRL/Grand-AM race weekend (some 800+ miles round trip), a 2008 Nissan
350Z is bestowed upon me. I had
intended to fly up but now a road trip is in order, and the Nogaro Red 350Z is
my steed.
My first thoughts as I approach the car are…how I am going to fit in it, and I
guess I’m not taking much luggage along.
Neither turns out to be a problem.
Ingress and egress are actually pretty easy for my 6 foot tall (and too
many pounds to admit) frame. Luggage
for the weekend fit with room to spare even with the rear strut tower brace
running through the middle of the hatch.
With a high-revving 3.5-liter V-6 making 306 horsepower and 268
lb-ft torque, and a slick shifting
six-speed manual transmission (a five-speed automatic is offered) I am sure the
drive will go by quickly. And it did. The car purrs along in 6th gear
and uphill climbs are shrugged off as mere bumps in the road. Passing is no problem either when left in
6th gear but the downshift into 5th makes them more
exciting. The 18-inch alloy wheels shod
with Bridgestone Potenza
RE050a’s not only stick to the road surface but relay every nuance of the road
surface through the steering wheel.
That steering wheel houses stereo and cruise control functions and feels great
in your hands, leather wrapped and just about the perfect thickness and
diameter. All the expected goodies come in this Enthusiast model. Power windows (auto up and down),
locks, remote keyless entry and hatch release (all on the fob) airbags, traction
control, two 12-volt DC power plugs, auto climate control, cruise control, tilt
steering wheel (but no telescoping) and the Instrument Panel tilts with it and
much more. What this model did not
have was leather seating, the already mentioned
telescoping steering wheel, iPod adapter, auto-on/off headlights (but
does have bi-xenon’s) or very much storage space for just about anything. All-in-all a very well packaged
offering from Nissan which will set you back $31,500 and change. There is a base model offered below
this trim level and you can move up to the Touring, Grand Touring and the
hot-rod of the line - the Nismo. The
base and Nismo models are coupe only with drop-tops available on the other
models.
The 350Z is stiffly sprung and you feel as if your backside is
just barely skimming over the surface below. Passengers
may feel a bit left out as the cockpit is focused on the driver as any sports
car should be. The dials and gauges are
all very easily read at day or night. One
thing I really liked was high on the center dash is three gauges, oil pressure,
volts, and the one closest to the driver is programmable to show you at a quick
glance your speed, a clock, average MPG, miles left in the tank, Etc. I left it on MPH versus looking down at
the dial. My only real complaints are the
seats gets rather uncomfortable on a long trip and the clutch pick-up is a
little high for my liking which makes it a little hard to drive smoothly in
rush-hour traffic, luckily I did not run into much, which here in the Orange
County/Los Angeles area is like
hitting the jackpot from a slot machine in Vegas.
Visibility out the rear is, well it’s abysmal. Backing out of a parking space,
especially if you happen to get sandwiched by a couple of SUV’s is a scary
proposition. Having faith in fellow
drivers hoping that they see you coming and stop to let you out is a must.
So enough of the numbers and options, how did it drive on this road trip? One word can sum it up pretty
well….fun! I really enjoyed driving
this car. The engine and exhaust
note is fantastic at any RPM, gas mileage was respectable, I averaged 25.1 mpg
over about 1000 miles, granted most of that was interstate mileage with the car
in 6th gear at sane and safe speeds with the A/C on full blast most
of the way. Around town and
depending on how well you control yourself during stop-light drag races you can
experience similar returns. The
Nogaro Red gets you noticed, and is a $500.00 option. So if you don’t like red, or fear
that you’ll stand out a little too much to the traffic cops then pick another
color. However the car looks
absolutely great in this color, as well as in black.
From the cramped city streets and highways to the two-lane roads and rolling
hills of Sonoma, CA this car did everything I asked of it very well. So well in fact that I don’t miss
those frequent flier miles one bit!
Column and photos provided by Rich
Branch, EVP of Race Central.
