Nissan Z

It’s hard to hide the links to the 370Z when you jump inside the new Z.

The steering wheel is still a little on the large side, the seating position is nearly identical to the 370Z (which means it’s not ideal if you’re vertically gifted), and the lack of cabin space and practicality is all carried over.

None of that should really matter to a true enthusiast because the Z has never been about creature comforts and luxury – it’s always been an honest Japanese sports car that’s about thrilling the driver rather than an A-to-B commuter.

In saying that, all Z models come standard with a leather-accented interior, a fully-customisable 12.3-inch TFT digital instrument cluster, and an 8.0-inch infotainment screen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integration. Annoyingly the screen mirroring technology is not wireless.

Even more annoyingly, despite having a USB-C port, the Nissan Z will only support Apple CarPlay using the standard USB port, which means you have the choice of fast charging your phone or using CarPlay.

The Z also misses out on standard satellite navigation (not that you need it with CarPlay), and we were disappointed to learn we miss out on the North American market’s larger 9.0-inch infotainment system that does in fact have wireless CarPlay and built-in navigation.

The 12.3-inch instrument cluster is, however, super clear and easy to read. Nissan says it was designed by one of its race drivers and during out test we found it easy to read for both speed and other performance data.

The 2023 Nissan Z Coupe is basically a heavily revised Nissan 370Z in terms of platform and architecture, but gains Infiniti’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6. It looks fantastic with a modern-retro design that sees the rear heavily resemble a 300ZX while the front paying homage to the 350z and 370z.

There is, in essence, nothing all-new in the new Z except the exterior design, but that’s also how the price has been kept low, and why the Z feels very much as you would expect a Z to feel – rear-biased, playful, and inherently flawed.

For detailed driving impressions, read our full review here.

The 2023 Nissan Z is powered by Infiniti’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo DOHC V6 (VR30DDTT). It’s a fuel-injected, four-valve-per-cylinder alloy engine which produces 298kW (up 22 per cent on 370Z), and 475Nm of torque (up 112Nm on 370Z).

The manual weighs 1600kg (kerb) while the automatic carries a 33kg weight penalty. Put all of those figures together and it adds up to a power-to-weight improvement of around 13 per cent over the Nissan 370Z.

While the nine-speed automatic is borrowed from Nissan vehicles like the Frontier and Pathfinder, the six-speed manual comes from the 370Z but is now equipped with a high-performance clutch supplied by Japanese racing specialist Exedy, and is linked to the rear wheels with a carbon-fibre composite driveshaft.

Rev-matching is available with a press of a button on the centre console, while automatic models feature aluminium paddle shifters and two different drive modes: Standard and Sport.

In Sport, the automatic Z slightly modifies its steering profile while also gaining active sound enhancement (via the speakers), and the traction control gives the driver a little more leeway to play with. In manual cars, the traction control is either on or off.