Nissan 370Z? On track? In the rain? Are you mad?

Pic by Justin Couture
Dan Trent writes:
I’ve always considered the Nissan Z cars to be fun but rather blunt tools. All macho posturing but perhaps lacking that final bit of finesse you’d find in a Cayman or Boxster.

I was dead wrong as it turns out! Nothing shows up a car’s class – or lack of it – like a wet track and a visit to a sodden Brands Hatch yesterday in a 370Z to do my ARDS race licence test had me eyeing the black clouds nervously.

After all, Zs can be a tad skiddy in the dry. But with Paddock Hill Bend looking more like a white water course than a race track I was expecting to see an awful lot of the ESP light and/or slithering about.

Nothing of the sort as it turned out. Bizarrely after all that chest beating on the road – the Z’s diff is grabby at low speeds and the controls seemingly deliberately ‘it’s not for girls’ heavy – it actually mellows when you start going for it and showing surprising composure.

To the point I could happily punt it along a soaking wet track for lap after lap and not see a glimpse of the ESP light flashing – always an indicator of a well sorted car. And no, I wasn’t nursing it either. The fact the Z could be hustled around in those conditions without calling on the black boxes to keep it out of the Armco is seriously impressive, to the point where I was so confident I even switched the stability control off. Sure, I had a couple of slithers but nothing like the riot of oversteer I was expecting. If I’d had the guts that was there for the taking of course. But I didn’t. And the marshals were very quick to black flag any sideways antics, giving me a handy excuse for being a bit of a wuss.

Pic by Justin Couture
A Cayman is, by some way, still the sharper tool. But it’s a whole £10K more expensive (before options) and compared with, say, a BMW Z4 the Nissan is much more feelsome and honest in its responses. I came away from Brands seriously impressed. And the race licence? That’s another story…