>> I've always like Z's but for the last handful of years they didn't really look like one to me; that's gonna change. Here's an early production sample of the 2010 370Z. Yep we got it--let's go for a ride and of course check the Tech.
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>> First of all, big news inside. The old Z, the 350, got a lot of knocks for having a tacky interior; big improvement here. First of all it's more business like, there's less garish short of plastic; they still have the pod modules going on here for the instruments, but they're much more traditional sports car, great crisp gauges. This one on the left is still kind of ugly and it uses this bizarre little row of dots to show how much gas and temperature you've got--yuck--up here classic Z stuff. This is the most harkening to the original Z of all the modern cars. Now this is where our Nav system would go but of course in this very basic car it's a storage binnacle but again nicely done. Here's our basic audio system--again there's a Bose option, we don't have it. This guy is a CD with an aux-in jack which will be standard on the car. If you get the Bose audio, there'll be additional sources and of course eight speakers of Bose amplified sound. Now our gear shift--it looks like a standard six speed manual right? But there's a special trick going on here. This is the world's first, downshift rev matching manual--they call it Synchro match over at Nissan. You activate it with this button right here, part of the sport mode and then whenever you go and snatch a downshift; it automatically matches the rev's gunk-gunk if you're not so good at driving a stick. You go for that downshift, dump the clutch and you're perfect; but enough about all this. It's a Z for crying out loud let's get on the road.
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>> The first thing you notice about the 370Z is the hard note of its exhaust and engine, very much showing some GTR DNA but the ride isn't nearly as unbearably hard as the GTR. In fact, it's quite livable--in spite of this new Z having about four inches less wheelbase. If anything I'd expect it to kind of porpoise [assumed spelling] more but nope it's surprisingly compliant. Power comes from the new 3.7 liter V6 that is now Nissan's top motor of that type. It delivers 332 horsepower and 270 foot pounds of torque, zero to sixty in about five seconds; the throttle response is calibrated to be moderate in the upper part of pedal travel and then really come on in the latter half; nice and livable. Now about that rev matching gimmick--it really works though I'm not sure how useful it is. You run the motor up then depress the clutch and don't worry about the RPM's because as soon as you select the gear for your downshift, the revs snap right to an exact match between flywheel and transmission input; and while Nissan doesn't seem to mention it, I swear it also works on up shifts and that really low RPM like from a start, this feature doesn't seem to do anything at all. So it's not there to help those who never really learned how to get a manual car off the line smoothly.
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>> Okay let's price out the 2010 370Z now early production car here so I don't have the hard numbers but I can tell you this--base right around $30,000 dollars even; options Nav, iPod, Bose audio, don't have pricing on that yet; there will also be a sport package that will bring you that rev matching six speed manual, better tires, brakes, wheels and limited slip rear end.
