2024 Nissan Z NISMO Quick Review

Welcome to Extra Throttle House. I'm Thomas. And I'm James. And we finally have the Nissan Zenith moment. Yeah, it's been a minute, hasn't it? It has. Like it's been out for a minute. We weren't invited to the launch, so. Weren't we? No. I don't know why. Here it is. Yeah. In stealth gray, in a color that's exclusive to the car. But more importantly, compared to the normal one, it's been tweaked. I think it looks better. It does look better. All they had to do was take this square grille and just angle it a little bit. And the front now looks great. Yes, because otherwise it did have very good sports car proportions elsewhere. Yeah, it still is a great looking car in terms of profile. I like the headlights. I like this little scoop in the swoop in the things. And it's just, it's a good looking little sports scoop. And it's a good size too. The headlights have got a bit Sonata syndrome. This little fish eye. Okay, I see what you're saying. But that's nitpicking. I do think that this is better looking than an M2. I think it's better looking than the Supra. Yeah. What else is there? A Mustang. Oh no, I like the dark horse. Yeah, this is not as good looking as Mustang. But this isn't as much as the dark horse. No, but it is still absolutely eye-watering piss your pants expensive. 76 Canadian, 66 US. It's a lot. Where do they get off charging that much? Well, no one's buying it. So it doesn't matter really in the end. They can charge whatever they want. Maybe that means you can get a discount. Because actually this for a few dollars off. So things that you might notice walking around. Obviously we've got the red skirting going around. We also have these wider raised wheels, which kind of look cool. And we've got rocker panel extensions, a slightly taller spoiler at the back. Overall, good looking. Well, more importantly is the performance upgrades. Yeah, we've got 20 horsepower more. So that's 420 man. And we've got more torque actually. So I think it's like 386 pound feet of torque. Yeah, it's a lot. These are all good numbers. And it's got the Dunlop sport max tire. Yes, to handle that power. Wider and stickier. That was one of the big failings of the Z, the basic Z, was the tires were crap. It's interesting you say big failings, because in everyone's mind, the big failing of this is that they went auto only instead of manual. And that is a big failing. Not that the manual was any good. The manual was the weakest part of the normal one. It was, but I don't know if an auto is the answer. Especially with the turbocharging and the thing. No, turbocharging and automatic goes well together. No, no, no, they do. But I just, I think I'm worried about the ratios. We'll see. I just, I haven't, yeah. That sounds like a load. That sounds like you've experienced this. I may have experienced it already. Here's, okay. This is a lot of money. Here's what you're not getting. No, nothing matters. This is so much money. If you get this, you're foregoing an S58 engine M2. You're foregoing a 500 horsepower naturally aspirated V8 in a dark horse. There's options in this range. And I'm hoping that the Nismo Z is a redemption story for the Z. I really want it to be, honestly. I want history to be recorded accurately. We didn't hate the normal Z. It just, in fact, if you remember the video, we had three different owners. No, we did. And no, no, owner three did. And you were owner three. There you go. At the limit, it failed. But as just a pretty sports car. Yeah, it was fine. It was fine. It wasn't, it just, it didn't, yeah. So does the Nismo change that? Does it do? Shall we do? We shall do. I'll do here. And I'll do there. You do over there. Yeah. Okay. Starting it up. Cool seats. Yeah, they're not bad. Nismo Recaros? Yep. I like these. I like the big bright gauge cluster. That's nice. It is nice. The interior is good. It's got boost gauges. Hold on, I say the interior is good. The interior is nicely laid out. Okay, it's not good. Well, the material qualities, these door cards. Yeah. Why are there blank buttons in a $76,000 top end car? I have no idea. And I just noticed that. That's pretty bad. Yeah. This doesn't come close to like, the M2 is way nicer inside. Oh, of course it is. Turn that aircon down a bit. We don't need to be that cooled. Okay. So we're going to go sport plus. Look at that shifter. That's an automatic shifter if I'm being serious. It is very much that, aren't you? And the traction control off. Real handbrake. That's nice at least, yeah. Nice steering wheel. Our guitar, a new marker. Yeah. They've done a lot of the things right. Yeah, like this is a nice little cockpit. It's so familiar because it's the same dimensions as this car was in 2002. Yeah, look at those door handles. Yeah, I think they've cheaped out a bit. Yeah. Which is fine. American cars do the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If, if, there's an if. American cars do the same thing. And then they come through on the performance side. Oh, okay. And don't forget, this is the Nismo. Which means it's lighter. It's actually heavier. Somehow it's heavier. 100 pounds, 100 pounds heavier. And one of our issues with the normal one was the weight. That sounds good. It's, yeah, it's, it's not bad. There's two noises that are happening. There's air. Yes. And there's like a whine noise from the V6. Hey, the V6 whined in the 370Z Nismo as well. Yeah. Sounded like a supercharger. Yeah, it's, it's, it's very like high pitched. So there's a few things I didn't like about the normal Z. There's a lot of things I didn't like about the normal Z. One was that the suspension was way too soft for how much grip it had and the rest of the car. Right. They have, I don't want to say fixed that because there's still some issues with the suspension, but it's significantly more controlled in the corners now. Yeah, they've done, they've done all the things you'd expect a Nismo to have, apart from their sway. There's underbody chassis bracing, there's stiffer anti-roll bars, stiffer springs, everything that would help control the mass of a vehicle. Steering is nice. Yeah, see, all the things that I did like about the Z are still present. That is, it is a nicely balanced car. It's very approachable in its dynamics. Yes. Like there isn't really anything, you know, that it does that's, that's really unpredictable. It's, it's all kind of all right there in front of you, laid out. But. Yeah. There's a big but. It's still heavy. It feels heavy. Like you, can you feel it kind of like do this pogo on its suspension here? No, I do feel it. I feel it. It's not, it's not pleasant. But, but the weight is an issue that all of the cars are running into. The M2 has the weight issue as well. Yeah, but the M2 has some German engineers behind it doing suspension wizardry so you don't notice it. Yeah. It's also a much newer stuff. Yes. It's using newer stuff. I do miss the, I didn't even like the manual but I'm missing the manual because these, I don't know, I don't, the shifts kind of don't always do what you want them to do and the ratios are kind of funky. And if you hit the rev limiter or go anywhere near it, it denies the upshift. Yeah, I noticed that when I drove it as well. But the way that most people. That was nice. It wasn't a drift though. No, I mean, no, because we can't. No, it wasn't. Yeah, yeah, we signed a document. Yeah, the car is like this. And we've got to be careful with these tyres actually because when we first picked up this car, it had a puncture in the tyre. It did. And then Joey, our man Joey on our team, who was driving it to his cottage, had a blowout on the highway. Yes. But fortunately, Clarington Nissan, if you're watching this, were an incredibly helpful. They were very, very helpful. I think that Nissan roadside assistance was crap. Okay. But the dealership was good. Okay, there you go. So thank you, Clarington Nissan. Yeah. By the way, the reason that it does that coming out of a drift is that it doesn't have a nice rev limiter. Right. Like an M car will let you go and sit up there. This will cut power and it really brings it down. It kind of, you have to be right in the perfect amount of power band in boost, in between the gears. It's tricky and not super nice to slide around. Which is weird because if they were gonna go with the beefed up transmission and put it all behind the nine speed, that should be a highlight of the car. Yes, it should be able to do the hooliganism. But I mean, I think there's some weird electronic trickery to protect some parts of the car that don't let you do. It'll do it. Accidentally, that was an accident. I slipped. Slipped. Yeah. I like that. That was good. That felt good. Yeah. That's a sports car. It does sports car stuff. It's a sport, it does, it does. No question, that's sports car stuff. I like it. I think, I think that's what it comes down to. It's not a bad car. It's just, we get so caught up in whether it's competitive or not. To explain it a little bit better, this doesn't do anything really badly. Yeah. It just doesn't do anything exceptionally well. Like there isn't one aspect of it that really stands out as being good or bad. Everything's just kind of at 72%. It was like all my test scores in university. Nice, 72. Yeah. That sounds pretty good. I wanted it at 80. All right, so the ride is a bit busy. In sport plus. Maybe if I, I'll pop it down to standard here. We'll take it out of manual mode and we'll try and just cruise with this. The performance feels like it's there. It feels quick. Yeah, it's, it could be better. I think the issue that I have is that, like I know, I know Z enthusiasts. They're great folks, right? They really like their Zs. And it seems like there's more to be done on this car. It could have been much better than it was. And I feel bad for them. It's the weight though. I think the weight and the price. Because there's nothing wrong with what's going on in here. The steering's great. Yeah, the steering is good. And the issue is again, lack of money. Like BMW and Toyota have the money to take a heavy sports car and make it not feel like a heavy sports car. Buy more time and engineering, better quality suspension, better software. I don't think Nissan has that ability. So they're struggling with it here. So I kind of feel for everybody involved because I think we all want this car to be really excellent. We all want it to not be $65,000. I think it looks the part. And I think it's one of those things where, like let's say you're not a track rat. And don't get me wrong, Nismo by its very name should be able to do the track. However, most people buying this have got a good job. They want to reward themselves with something cool. It's fast. It makes great sounds. It looks good. It does all those things. It does do those things, but so does a Supra. I'm sorry. So does a Supra. And a Supra is more car than this to drive. Do you think so? I know so. I've driven one. So have you. Yeah, but surely a lap time is where that would come in. I haven't done a lap time. I knew that. I don't know what it is though. I know that the Nissan Z right now is sitting very poorly. Very low on the leaderboard. In the 116s. Yeah. And that is not good enough. No. I at least would love to know that this is a redemption story as a lap time. All right, well, let's watch the lap. Okay, let's take a look at the fastest lap in the Z Nismo. As we already mentioned, the suspension changes made a huge difference to the way this corners compared to the normal Z. It's much more controlled and it allows you to play with the actually very good balance of this car. Overall grip levels are definitely improved and it feels like more time was spent dialing this one in. However, I didn't like the transmission shift logic in auto and in manual mode, which I lapped it in, I found it a bit dimwitted to respond to shift commands sometimes. Overall, the Nismo Z does have a few faults but it is an easy to handle track car. Let's watch the rest of the lap. I have the leaderboard here. Do you now? Yeah, so in 41st place or whatever it is when you're watching this is the normal Nissan Z 116.43. Yes. And that was the manual. Yeah. In order for me to consider this a redemption, it has to be sitting, that's the new Mustang GT Performance, was a 114.17. That was the previous gen. No, that's the new gen. That's the S650. Oh, right, okay. Yeah. And that's a V8 naturally aspirated. Yeah. That's a pretty cool car. Yeah, it is. So anything higher than 114 and then dark horse, well, dark horse was actually quite rapid. Dark horse was ridiculously fast. Yes, yeah, that's not a thing. Okay, so I would expect it to be, it just has to be quicker than a Mustang GT to me. Okay. Which is also a slightly not perfect version of itself. This did a 113.36. Ah, ooh. That's faster than the previous gen M2 Comp. Now, yeah, see that M2 Comp time, I feel like needs to be stricken from the leaderboard because that was the first year this track has been driven on in like 10 years. Ever so slightly quicker than a Civic Type R. The new Civic Type R, I felt bothered. The new Civic Type R. Okay. And Integra Type S, because they're the same. Okay. So, and it's the same price as those? No, it's way more. Quite a bit more. No, it's way more than that. Hey, it's quicker than an RCF Track Edition, and it's cheaper than that. I have done slow jogs that are quicker than an RCF Track Edition. I'm quicker on my bike. I think 113.36 is absolutely fine for this car. That is where, unfortunately, that's where the normal Z should have been. Okay. That's fair. That's what the Z should be. On our board, that little area is home to the Z. The one, whatever, 60, whatever the heck, the old one, they're not good enough. No. And this is too much money for that amount of performance. This should be up closer to the Dark Horse. This should be like a one, low 112. The difference is, I think the market will reflect that. And even though Nissan potentially have priced this incorrectly in the used world, it will make sense. But yeah, right now you can get a Supra now with a manual and the Dark Horse and the Mustang GT, they can all be had manual or automatic. Yep. This being automatic only, and this being heavier than the normal one, there's a weird way to do it. Yes. However, I think it still has a place. It's just- No, it has a place. It is a much better car. It fixed almost all the issues that I had with the regular Z. Yeah. So this is a good car. I'm just a little bit bitter, but I wish it was better and cheaper. I know. So that's all it is. I mean, it's got a small, it's a smaller niche. Yes. It's a niche on Z. Pah!