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Tom1200
Tom1200 UberDork
8/31/22 9:57 p.m.

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That's pretty much how the throttle pedal on my sports racer was.  It was more user friendly especially under low traction.

AMT Motorsport
AMT Motorsport New Reader
9/1/22 8:25 a.m.

Very strange the cornering speeds are about the same as the BRZ, but the speeds in the straights aren't significantly higher in the Z. Wonder if there was some power problem on track that wasn't present in the Dyno.

calteg
calteg SuperDork
9/1/22 8:46 a.m.

Just watched this, pretty disappointing. 

Spoiler alert: Nissan gets walked, badly, by the Mustang and the Charger, both of which are ancient platforms...come to think of it, so is the 400z

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEI0NPvzxE0

Tyler H
Tyler H UberDork
9/1/22 8:52 a.m.

The description of the DBW implementation reminds of a 996, which I find to have a very lazy throttle tip-in, then the rest of the pedal is like an on/off switch.  

I read this not as an indictment of the Z, but further confirmation that GR86, Si, and Supra got things very right, right out of the box. 

Driver confidence is everything. 

adam525i
adam525i Dork
9/1/22 8:55 a.m.
yupididit said:

Disappointing in its market? I figured it wouldn't of been as fast as the gr86 at the track tbh. If I was to buy the new Z, I'd never track it. This is certainly more of a street oriented car to me just like the Supra.

The Supra that was 3.5 seconds faster around the same track?

There's no reason why a car like this can't be great on the street and competent on the track as well at the press of a button on the dash, many other manufacturers have figured that out.

j_tso
j_tso HalfDork
9/1/22 9:05 a.m.

In reply to calteg :

It does better on the rolling start, but more worrisome is both times the reviewer said the Z was nervous when braking.

yupididit
yupididit PowerDork
9/1/22 9:05 a.m.

In reply to adam525i :

This 3.5 seconds faster on the track means nothing to me. I'd solely drive it on the street and probably wouldn't ever notice that difference in performance for my use. And 95% of the buyers of these cars will most likely be the same way. So, quoting that performance gap in reply to what I posted earlier just doesn't work. 

pres589 (djronnebaum)
pres589 (djronnebaum) UltimaDork
9/1/22 9:27 a.m.

I know they're not quite in the same ballpark but if I could find $53k for the Z I might try to find another $12k for a C8.  Or spend a lot less on a used C6.

On paper it seemed like the 400Z would be an awesome all-around package but this doesn't make it sound like that's quite the case.

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard Director of Marketing & Digital Assets
9/1/22 9:41 a.m.

I drove the 400Z around on the street a bit and thought it was scary. I've driven plenty of high-horsepower cars, but doing a 0-60mph run in this car in the rain made me nervous. I didn't drive it long enough to tease out the fine details of what was wrong, but it just wasn't confidence inspiring. Something about the wonky chassis and dead steering made me feel like I'd be the last person to know the car was spinning as it took me with it into a ditch.

Oh, and it also felt slow. I texted JG after my time with it: "I'm betting 320 horsepower."

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
9/1/22 10:26 a.m.
Tom Suddard said:

I drove the 400Z around on the street a bit and thought it was scary. I've driven plenty of high-horsepower cars, but doing a 0-60mph run in this car in the rain made me nervous. I didn't drive it long enough to tease out the fine details of what was wrong, but it just wasn't confidence inspiring. Something about the wonky chassis and dead steering made me feel like I'd be the last person to know the car was spinning as it took me with it into a ditch.

Oh, and it also felt slow. I texted JG after my time with it: "I'm betting 320 horsepower."

Thank you for making me feel better about not waiting for this car vs ordering the BRZ I did. 

BA5
BA5 Reader
9/1/22 10:55 a.m.

Ouch.  This is pretty bad.

Granted, I feel like the Supra punches way above it's weight on track, but I was expecting this to be closer to the Supra than a BRZ.  

racerfink
racerfink UberDork
9/1/22 11:22 a.m.
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

I know they're not quite in the same ballpark but if I could find $53k for the Z I might try to find another $12k for a C8.  Or spend a lot less on a used C6.

On paper it seemed like the 400Z would be an awesome all-around package but this doesn't make it sound like that's quite the case.

Or, just spend a little less and get a Camaro 1LE or Mustang PP new, and in the case of the Camaro, get a track day car with a warranty.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
9/1/22 11:31 a.m.

So, the 370z was stretched to be the Infiniti G37 coupe

The G37 coupe has become the Q60 coupe which can be had with the 3.0tt/400hp

Is the new 400z just a shortened Q60 coupe?  (auto trans only for Q60.)

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
9/1/22 11:51 a.m.

Having just driven a Supra (with a 6MT) on tack yesterday, I can not overstate how different the experience of these two cars is. The Supra is like a GTP car, the Z is like a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Sorry I'm not buying all the excuses of "Well that's not what the Z was meant to be." On paper, these cars should be direct competitors and match up well. In the real world, they absolutely do not.

 

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
9/1/22 11:54 a.m.
racerfink said:
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

I know they're not quite in the same ballpark but if I could find $53k for the Z I might try to find another $12k for a C8.  Or spend a lot less on a used C6.

On paper it seemed like the 400Z would be an awesome all-around package but this doesn't make it sound like that's quite the case.

Or, just spend a little less and get a Camaro 1LE or Mustang PP new, and in the case of the Camaro, get a track day car with a warranty.

Yep, if you want the 1SS with no options other than the 1LE package, the MSRP is $46k. And it's going to wipe the floor with everything around that price. 

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
9/1/22 11:55 a.m.
JG Pasterjak said:

Having just driven a Supra (with a 6MT) on tack yesterday, I can not overstate how different the experience of these two cars is. The Supra is like a GTP car, the Z is like a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Sorry I'm not buying all the excuses of "Well that's not what the Z was meant to be." On paper, these cars should be direct competitors and match up well. In the real world, they absolutely do not.

 

Don't give away too much and get yourself in trouble!

fatallightning
fatallightning HalfDork
9/1/22 12:39 p.m.
JG Pasterjak said:

Having just driven a Supra (with a 6MT) on tack yesterday, I can not overstate how different the experience of these two cars is. The Supra is like a GTP car, the Z is like a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Sorry I'm not buying all the excuses of "Well that's not what the Z was meant to be." On paper, these cars should be direct competitors and match up well. In the real world, they absolutely do not.

 

Oof. That's brutal.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
9/1/22 12:44 p.m.

In reply to tremm :

Tires on our test car–the stock Bridgestone Potenza S007–were very fresh and measured 9/32 all around after our visit to the FIRM.

tuna55
tuna55 MegaDork
9/1/22 12:58 p.m.
JG Pasterjak said:

Having just driven a Supra (with a 6MT) on tack yesterday, I can not overstate how different the experience of these two cars is. The Supra is like a GTP car, the Z is like a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Sorry I'm not buying all the excuses of "Well that's not what the Z was meant to be." On paper, these cars should be direct competitors and match up well. In the real world, they absolutely do not.

 

Wow.

 

I wonder if Nissan is ever going to lend you guys anything ever again, but I really appreciate that fresh and obviously real feedback.

 

Also. Wow.

WonkoTheSane
WonkoTheSane UltraDork
9/1/22 12:58 p.m.
David S. Wallens said:

In reply to tremm :

Tires on our test car–the stock Bridgestone Potenza S007–were very fresh and measured 9/32 all around after our visit to the FIRM.

I know you guys intentionally test as delivered, but any chance you checked to make sure toe and camber weren't visibly off?

yupididit
yupididit PowerDork
9/1/22 1:01 p.m.

So will this car make people like the Supra more? 

yupididit
yupididit PowerDork
9/1/22 1:02 p.m.
Tom Suddard said:

I drove the 400Z around on the street a bit and thought it was scary. I've driven plenty of high-horsepower cars, but doing a 0-60mph run in this car in the rain made me nervous. I didn't drive it long enough to tease out the fine details of what was wrong, but it just wasn't confidence inspiring. Something about the wonky chassis and dead steering made me feel like I'd be the last person to know the car was spinning as it took me with it into a ditch.

Oh, and it also felt slow. I texted JG after my time with it: "I'm betting 320 horsepower."

 

Now this means a lot to me. This has a bigger impact on my sense for the car than it being 3.5 seconds slower than the Supra. 

gumby
gumby Dork
9/1/22 1:02 p.m.

Did anyone check the alignment on this car?

I have experienced more than a handful of brand new cars off the hauler that came back with poor driving characteristics under warranty. On the rack they were "all greens" but not necessarily aligned well.

I see scales and a dyno, but no baseline on the alignment.

 

edit - Tree'd by Wonko!

aw614
aw614 Reader
9/1/22 1:34 p.m.
yupididit said:
Tom Suddard said:

I drove the 400Z around on the street a bit and thought it was scary. I've driven plenty of high-horsepower cars, but doing a 0-60mph run in this car in the rain made me nervous. I didn't drive it long enough to tease out the fine details of what was wrong, but it just wasn't confidence inspiring. Something about the wonky chassis and dead steering made me feel like I'd be the last person to know the car was spinning as it took me with it into a ditch.

Oh, and it also felt slow. I texted JG after my time with it: "I'm betting 320 horsepower."

 

Now this means a lot to me. This has a bigger impact on my sense for the car than it being 35. seconds slower than the Supra. 

JG mentioned that in the review too, cue: 400z leaves car meet and hits a pole meme...

First thing a friend thought when we were talking about the review and the throttle mapping how dangerous that can be.

You really have to match the timing between the chassis finally taking a set and the engine delivering the forward thrust. So there’s this moment when the rear is finally taking a set, you’re finally applying full throttle, and you’re getting way more engine than you want–way more engine than the chassis can handle.

Now you’re trying to fight the rear end from breaking away, and there’s this unfortunate lack of balance between the throttle and the chassis.

dps214
dps214 Dork
9/1/22 1:45 p.m.
gumby said:

Did anyone check the alignment on this car?

I have experienced more than a handful of brand new cars off the hauler that came back with poor driving characteristics under warranty. On the rack they were "all greens" but not necessarily aligned well.

I see scales and a dyno, but no baseline on the alignment.

 

edit - Tree'd by Wonko!

We actually had that problem with our GR86. Everything was in spec but the rear toe settings were at opposite ends of the tolerance band. On the street it drove fine especially with a passenger in the car. But at the limit on an autocross course it was much more prone to snap oversteer when turning left than when turning right.

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