00:00 Hey guys, Chris here from Car Expert,
00:01 and we're back at Queensland Raceway, our test track.
00:04 Today, we've got the Nissan 370Z.
00:06 My first go in this car,
00:08 so interested to see how it performs.
00:10 It's a V6 with 245 kilowatts and 363 newton meters of torque.
00:15 A rear wheel drive and a seven speed automatic
00:18 acting as a manual transmission.
00:20 We'll see how that performs.
00:21 First, we'll do an acceleration run,
00:23 zero to a hundred and back to zero, see how that goes.
00:25 And then we'll get on the track
00:26 and see what sort of lap time it can do.
00:29 (car engine roaring)
00:32 All right, so initial impressions.
00:45 I like the seating position.
00:46 I'm in a really good angle.
00:48 There's lots of adjustment on the side
00:50 so I can get the back down low,
00:51 the front up high, angled back a bit.
00:54 I really like that.
00:55 I feel like I'm in a nice place in the car.
00:58 Little bit of movement.
00:59 So we'll see how the lateral support is.
01:01 They seem reasonably deep.
01:02 They should be suited to a lot of different body shapes.
01:05 Steering wheel, I like the Alcantara finish
01:08 where your hands are holding on.
01:10 So that's a nice touch.
01:11 Does feel a little bit big,
01:13 just a little bit larger circumference wise
01:15 than I would like.
01:16 And also, I messed around for a while
01:18 going up and down and round
01:20 and I just couldn't quite get the wheel
01:22 exactly where I wanted.
01:23 I don't know whether the dash actually moves with the wheel.
01:25 So I don't know whether that was playing with my mind
01:27 or what, but just something a little bit different.
01:30 It could be just me, not a big issue at all.
01:33 I noticed the pedals are not quite set where I'd like them.
01:37 I've actually got to reach in to grab the pedals.
01:40 But remember, this is an automatic transmission
01:42 so you're not really gonna be using those pedals a lot.
01:45 And I think it's a car where you're probably more likely
01:47 to go with a manual transmission,
01:49 a bit like your 86 or your Mazda MX-5, things like that.
01:54 So not a huge issue, but I just,
01:56 'cause they don't move with the wheel as well
01:57 and they're a bit out of reach,
01:59 I'm gonna be interested to see
02:00 whether that's an issue at all.
02:02 Steering, steering's just a bit light,
02:04 a little bit disconnected initially,
02:07 which is not a great sign
02:09 'cause that's what gives me connection to the track
02:11 and confidence to fire into turn one here with speed.
02:14 Pedal position feels fine.
02:16 Brake pedal actually feels really good.
02:19 That's exactly what I want.
02:20 I want a pedal, you're not expecting a race car solid pedal,
02:24 but you want a pedal that as you load it,
02:27 it builds force and then you can modulate
02:30 at a sort of a higher load.
02:32 You don't want something that's changing,
02:34 changing pressure and adjusting.
02:36 So hopefully that stays together
02:38 'cause the initial feeling there, yeah, that's awesome.
02:40 I like that.
02:41 (engine revving)
02:43 So the engine, naturally aspirated and 245 kilowatts,
02:48 so decent power numbers and a V6, 3.7 litre V6,
02:51 so a pretty decent size engine there.
02:54 Good torque numbers.
02:56 Doesn't feel bad.
02:58 (engine revving)
03:00 More when you get up the top end of the rev range,
03:02 that's where it works a bit better.
03:04 Takes a little while to get going,
03:07 but once it is up there
03:08 and I think once we're going to speed, it'll be okay.
03:11 Suspension actually feels nice.
03:14 It feels like it loads up a bit,
03:15 like I said, with the brake pedal,
03:17 it rolls over, but then builds support.
03:19 So some of these other cars have support there
03:22 and then when they hit something, they fall through.
03:24 And so when you get aggressive and you get on the track
03:26 and you get up on the curb here and you hit that,
03:28 they fall over, where this actually feels
03:31 nice and stable.
03:34 Roll gives you some traction, gives you some rotation,
03:37 but then support as well,
03:39 so then you can carry the speed through the corner.
03:42 All right, so I've turned traction control off.
03:44 There's basically just one button for that.
03:46 So switch that off.
03:48 That's basically all I can do.
03:49 I crossed into manual mode,
03:50 so I'll use the paddles
03:51 and see what sort of time the 370Z does.
03:55 Yeah, I've already noticed that I'm reaching
03:59 for that gear shift, which isn't great,
04:01 but anyway, let's focus on the lap.
04:03 (car engine roaring)
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05:04 (car engine roaring)
05:08 So there you go, Nissan 370Z.
05:22 That took a bit more out of me than I thought it would.
05:24 Some issues there,
05:25 but so much potential with this car as well.
05:28 And just want to be clear on this,
05:30 the best time we did was a 101.0,
05:32 and we actually achieved that in the morning.
05:34 We knew we were going to film a few cars today,
05:36 so to be fair to this car with the heat going up,
05:38 I got a quick lap time in early,
05:40 and I tried to match it on camera a bit later in the day,
05:43 and the closest I got was a 101.5.
05:44 And it shows you what heat does to a car,
05:48 the tyre, the track.
05:49 And 101.0 actually fits in pretty well.
05:52 I think Nissan should be pretty happy with that time-wise.
05:56 A lot of positives about this car as well.
05:57 Suspension is fantastic.
06:00 I really like it.
06:01 The way it loads.
06:02 It's not too soft,
06:03 but it's soft enough in the right areas,
06:05 but it builds support.
06:06 And that connects really well to the brakes as well.
06:08 So the brakes has that feeling of loading,
06:11 able to modulate that.
06:13 And the suspension goes with it.
06:14 It connects together with it.
06:15 So really like that.
06:18 Didn't have a big issue with the paddles
06:19 like I thought it was at the end of the day.
06:21 Just something I noticed driving the car around slowly,
06:24 but I was still able to get them, no problem at all.
06:27 The engine is good.
06:29 Obviously there's lots of power there,
06:31 but the power band is so focused to the top end.
06:34 And I really like a bit more torque down low
06:36 to get the car moving off the corners a little bit quicker.
06:40 Just everything happens up above
06:43 sort of six and a half thousand RPM.
06:45 And you don't spend a lot of time up there.
06:47 That's the thing you got to think about.
06:48 In a car on a track,
06:49 you spend a lot of your time accelerating,
06:51 say from four up to seven.
06:53 And that last little bit's only a fraction of the time.
06:56 So now this wasn't bad at all.
06:58 I'm not complaining.
06:58 But I think it could have just flowed
07:01 a little bit freer throughout.
07:02 Transmission is what I expected.
07:05 The gear shifts were a bit slow.
07:07 Downshifts were okay.
07:08 Didn't really have a big problem there,
07:10 but the upshifts you obviously noticed
07:11 that it just takes time to engage the gear.
07:14 And so you just lose a bit of performance there.
07:17 The issue I had,
07:18 actually let's focus on one more positive.
07:21 I love this little knee pad here.
07:23 They put into it to brace yourself.
07:25 That works really well.
07:26 I can lean my knee against that in the corner.
07:28 Nice soft cushion.
07:30 But back to the issue.
07:31 My issue comes that I've got traction control off,
07:34 but the car's still doing things that aren't consistent.
07:37 Basically the first time I fired it into turn one,
07:40 it tried to straighten me up.
07:41 It thought that I was in an accident
07:43 and I'm trying to rotate the car around.
07:45 And the car grabbed a brake and turned it left.
07:47 Now the strange thing is that later in the laps,
07:50 I found that it actually let it slide a bit
07:52 and occasionally would do it and occasionally wouldn't.
07:55 So mentally, as I'm trying to go in
07:58 and push the limits of this car,
07:59 I couldn't quite trust what it was gonna do.
08:01 And if you're gonna turn everything off,
08:03 turn everything off.
08:04 Let me have the car, let me control it.
08:06 If I know it's gonna be controlled,
08:07 I know it's gonna be trolling.
08:08 If I'm not sure what it's gonna do,
08:10 it's hard to push it to the limit.
08:12 And that should be an option.
08:13 Maybe there is a way to do it.
08:15 I did a quick search in between runs
08:16 to see if I could figure it out.
08:18 Let me know if you guys know anything about it
08:20 or had any issues with it.
08:22 So not a bad overall package.
08:24 A lot of good things, but just missing out
08:27 because of that restrictive control.
08:29 So there you go guys, the Nissan 370Z.
08:34 This was a really interesting one
08:36 because the car was actually trying to control me
08:38 even though I had the traction control off.
08:40 So I struggled to get the lap time that I wanted.
08:43 That being said, the lap time that actually achieved
08:45 was really solid, a 101.0 for this level of car,
08:48 I think is a pretty good number.
08:50 So hats off to that.
08:51 To get the most out of this car,
08:53 it's got great suspension and brakes.
08:55 So use that to your advantage.
08:57 You're gonna lean on the car a lot.
08:58 You can trust the brake slot.
08:59 So really do that well.
09:01 But the risk is when you push to the limit,
09:03 the car wants to intervene and control what you're doing.
09:06 So you have to be a little bit careful
09:08 and I couldn't actually drive to the absolute limit
09:10 of what I wanted to do with this car.
09:12 That being said, it is actually a fun car to drive,
09:15 just missing a few of the details
09:16 that could make this an amazing car on the track.
09:18 If you guys enjoyed the video, hit the like button
09:21 and don't forget to subscribe to the channel as well.
09:23 Lots more content to come and we'd love to hear
09:25 what other cars you'd like to see on the track.
09:27 So thanks for watching.
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