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More power, more grip, more focus – and more fun. But could you really justify an extra $18,200 for the Nissan Z Nismo over a base automatic Z?
It’s always a good sign when you feel a bit sad having to hand a car back, as was the case for us with the new Z Nismo – the most fun we’ve had in a Nissan since the 200SX.
The new Nismo-tuned version of the seventh-generation Z coupe has landed in Australia, with more power, new styling, overhauled suspension and a retuned automatic transmission – even if that means there’s no manual version available.
With its 309kW twin-turbo V6, this is the most powerful Z car in the lineage’s 55-year history – and one of the most expensive. At $94,000 before on-road costs, the Z also commands a hefty $18,200 premium over a base automatic Z.
That at least buys you plenty of genuine motorsport DNA. Nismo is short for ‘Nissan Motorsports’ and, over the last 40 years, Nismo has built fire-breathing race cars for series around the world from Super GT in its native Japan to the FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hour, Formula E and V8 Supercars, closer to home.
The Z Nismo is the latest in a long and storied line of Nismo-tuned models, including the R33 Skyline 400R, R34 GT-R Z-Tune and, more recently, the R35 GT-R Nismo. Nismo also produced track-focused versions of the 350Z and 370Z, although the new twin-turbo Z Nismo with significantly more torque would be in another league for acceleration.
Just 100 examples of the Z Nismo were initially promised to Australia – and these sold out within an hour. But if you want one, there is currently more stock. Even so, this is a car you’re unlikely to see on even a monthly basis in Australia, making it more than a bit unique.
The Z Nismo’s price looks a bit more reasonable when compared to its rear-drive coupe rivals. A 285kW/500Nm automatic Toyota GR Supra GTS is $97,380, while somehow a new 338kW/550Nm BMW M2 is now $121,700.
When it arrives in the coming months, the new S650-generation Ford Mustang GT Fastback automatic will cost $80,902. (All these prices are before on-road costs.) Yet none would arguably feel quite as special as the Z Nismo.
At $94,000 before on-road costs, the Z Nismo comes standard with:
The Nissan Z does not offer over-the-air updates or app connectivity.
In terms of mechanical changes over the regular Z, the Nismo is hardly a marketing-led styling exercise. Meaningful changes include:
Curiously, the Z Nismo uses a steel driveshaft instead of the carbon fibre composite item of the base Z – presumably, so it can handle the additional torque. At 1640kg (tare), the Z Nismo weighs 79kg more than a base automatic Z.
On the outside, there are plenty of ways to spot a Z Nismo, such as:
Nissan says the front canards, side skirts and rear wing offer genuine aerodynamic advantages, including helping to reduce drag and lift.
To our eyes the Z Nismo looks tough, like an aftermarket-tuned car from the factory. It’s aggressive without being over-the-top – with more than a bit of classic Aston Martin Vantage about its rear – even though the ride height could have probably been a bit lower.
The Z Nismo is great fun to drive in an old-school, analogue kind of way – with impressive twin-turbo grunt and classic rear-drive dynamics. With a burliness to its chassis and controls, it fulfils the ‘Japanese muscle car’ brief.
The Z Nismo feels very focused, too, in much the same way as many other track-orientated cars. If the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Huracan STO, Nismo GT-R and Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale all came from the same planet, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that’s where the Z Nismo originated from, too.
Driving on a winding road and exploring the Z Nismo’s capabilities, it takes a bit of time to trust the Z Nismo. The Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 tyres – the same as those on the GT-R Nismo – are temperature sensitive, meaning until they’re warm, this can be a dicey car, pushing into early understeer and flickering its traction-control light with ease. Especially when road conditions are cold.
That can feel a bit unnerving because while the steering is lovely and direct off-centre, there isn’t much feel. And we’re conscious the base Z’s chassis has enough of a task attempting to transmit the new twin-turbo engine’s 298kW to the road, let alone this one with even more power.
However, once the tyres gain temperature and you’ve learned the Z Nismo isn’t out to bite, it’s quite a friendly car. It feels delightfully compact and easy to place in corners, while the solidly mounted rear suspension and tight Recaro seats metaphorically attach the rear axle to your hips in a beautifully communicative way.
There’s plenty of grunt and if you’re into easy power oversteer, you’ll love the Z, whose Nismo-retuned ESC allows plenty of throttle-steer exiting second-gear corners.
And this is ultimately the best way to enjoy the Z Nismo, as despite the retuning, its chassis is still hardly the most sophisticated around and starts to run out of talent the harder you push, burdened by the car’s significant 1640kg mass.
The V6 engine, meanwhile, has plenty of character. There’s a bit of turbo lag before it comes on boost, though this unit is more about low- to mid-range torque than high-revving power. There’s not much to entice you to chase the 7000rpm redline.
At low revs, there’s a nice burble to the exhaust but in the upper register, it sounds a bit too much like Nissan outsourced the engine noise to Dyson. Which is a shame because higher engine revs are where you tend to spend most of your time when you’re having fun.
There’s a bit of Nismo-specific artificial induction noise coming through the front speakers, but not enough, and it sounds a bit too fake. While there’s occasionally some grin-inducing loud burbles on the overrun, this is a car that will have you browsing aftermarket exhaust systems within a fortnight of taking delivery.
It’s also fast, though not blisteringly so. Nissan doesn’t claim 0-100km/h times for its Z cars and, unfortunately, we didn’t test the Nismo’s acceleration this time around. But even with the Nismo-retuned launch control and 10mm wider, 285-section rear tyres, we wouldn’t expect it to be too much faster than the base Z, which sprints from zero to 100km/h in about 4.7 seconds.
While it’s a pity you can’t get the Z Nismo as a manual – it would suit the car’s throwback character – the nine-speed automatic transmission is a surprising highlight of the Z Nismo.
Recalibrated for this car with different clutch packs, Nismo claims downshifts are nearly twice as fast as the base Z automatic – and we’d believe them.
While the transmission can feel tense and highly strung in daily driving, it does mean it’s impressively responsive down the gears in the Z Nismo’s model-specific Sport Plus mode – giving you a fresh ratio impressively early. With nine available, it feels like there’s one for every corner.
The 380mm front brakes (25mm larger than the base Z) also feel good, with a nice, firm pedal bristling with communication and bite.
Something that would undoubtedly improve the Z Nismo would be different tyres. While the Dunlops cling on tenaciously when up to temperature (thanks to their soft and sticky 200 treadwear rating) they simply lack the communication of something like a Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2.
Day-to-day, the Z Nismo would be okay to live with. The low front lip doesn’t scrape too easily while the suspension, despite being firm, is nowhere as rock-hard as that of the old GT-R Nismo.
There’s plenty of tyre noise from the Dunlops’ stiff sidewalls, however, and you will come to know the varying levels of coarseness of road surfaces in your area. Overall levels of noise, vibration and harshness are high.
Ultimately, the Z Nismo is more fun than oh-my-lord fast. We probably wouldn’t be challenging any GR Supras or BMW M2s to drag races – the Z Nismo is quick, but not explosively so. Instead, it’s friendly, awesome fun in a power-oversteering way, and feels like a baby, rear-drive GT-R Nismo. That’s a massive compliment.
The Z’s cabin remains classic sports car – low, ensconcing and driver-focused. There’s reasonable space and we love the triple analogue dials on the dashboard for things like boost pressure. It’s very 2000s.
The Nismo adds a motorsport touch to the Z’s cabin. Jump inside and you’re reminded you’re in the Nismo courtesy of the special Recaro front bucket seats, the Alcantara-trimmed steering wheel (with rally-inspired red line at 12 o’clock) and the model-specific red anodised ‘Start’ and ‘Drive Mode’ selector buttons.
While they look cool and offer more support, the Nismo-specific Recaro front seats do lose the electric adjustment of the base Z’s seats. And heating functionality.
The large 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster does a lot to modernise what would otherwise be an older-feeling cabin.
The different displays available include a track-focused mode with a big central digital tachometer (with 7000rpm redline), tyre pressures, and temperature gauges for engine oil, transmission oil, water and even diff oil – handy for a day at the track.
Otherwise, the tech offering is reasonably limited. The central 8.0-inch infotainment screen is on the small side (although that’s probably not a bad thing if it means retaining hard buttons and dials for the heating and cooling). While it offers Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both require a cable. There’s no wireless phone charger and no head-up display.
At 241 litres, the boot isn’t enormous, but the Z’s liftback status at least grants excellent access, meaning you can use every litre of it. You could cram in enough soft bags for a weekend away for two people.
Unlike some other two-seater vehicles, the Z doesn’t really offer any meaningful storage space behind the front seats. It also doesn’t have a spare tyre – just a puncture repair kit.
Additionally, we had some minor build-quality concerns, with a not-particularly-subtle rattle coming from around the triple analogue dash dials, and the rubber seal of the rear hatch squeaking over some bumps.
Overall, the Z’s interior does what it’s supposed to do – focus you on the driving.
The Z Nismo hasn’t been crash-tested by any independent new car assessment programs, leaving us with no objective safety data to work with. We’d say it’s reasonably safe by new car standards.
It comes with:
Tech fiends hoping for an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) should look elsewhere. While you can switch on lane departure warning, the Z Nismo does not feature active lane keeping. There’s no adaptive cruise control – just the old-school type. There’s no driver attention monitor, either.
All things we’d assume, to be fair, most would-be Z Nismo owners would happily do without.
The Z Nismo will be expensive to own and run. It uses a lot of fuel, its tyres are expensive and, at $2272 over five years, it’s a bit pricey to service.
On our test, we recorded urban fuel consumption of 9.0L/100km, sporty driving fuel consumption of 25.0L/100km (minimum) and highway consumption of 6.7L/100km. The Z requires the most expensive 98RON premium unleaded.
A full set of Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 tyres will cost you more than $3000, although as already mentioned we’d recommend swapping them for Michelins or Continentals.
One major cost consideration when purchasing the Z Nismo is that, owing to its relative rarity, it very well might hold its value better than a base Z, or even cars like the Toyota GR Supra or BMW M2 – if you only intend to keep the car for four or five years.
The Z Nismo comes with Nissan’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre factory warranty, and five years of roadside assistance.
We love the Z Nismo – and would gladly cop the $18,200 over the base Z.
Nismo has done enough – just – to rationalise the extra cost. It’s also great fun to drive with plenty of feel-good vibes, the ride quality is sufficiently liveable, and it’ll drift for days.
It looks awesome, turns plenty of heads, and gets a lot of questions from random passersby. Somehow people can tell it’s a bit special, even if they know nothing about cars. We can’t imagine that would be too much the case with some of its rivals.
There’s something special about this car that would keep the inner little girl or boy that little bit excited for that little bit longer – which is the whole reason for buying a sports car.
Also, $94,000 is still reasonably good value in the grand scheme of two-door, rear-drive sports cars in 2024.
It’s not perfect, though. It loves a drink, we wish it sounded better at high revs, and it’s a pity you can’t get it as a manual.
And the fundamental chassis engineering feels archaic – indeed, driving a Z Nismo back-to-back with a new BMW M2, with its trick adaptive dampers and myriad modes, would be like comparing a Motorola RAZR flip-phone to the latest iPhone. An M2 would absolutely smoke a Z Nismo as well – in both a straight line, on a winding road or around a racetrack.
But an M2 is $27,000 more expensive. And while you’d be going slower, you’d be smiling larger in the Z Nismo.
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