I had been following the development pictures of the next generation Nissan Z for years, and finally official information was released.  The car looked promising in pictures, but I wasn’t 100% sure…I had to see it in person.  Luckily, Nissan’s Follow The Z Tour came by my neck of the hoods and gave me the opportunity to see the car in person.  Like the new Maxima, when pictures were released I was somewhat weary about how it would look in person.  When I finally saw it, I thought it was drop dead gorgeous, 100 times better than the media circulating around.  I was hoping the new Z would be the same.

After seeing the new 370Z, I can honestly say that I’m not dissapointed.  I didn’t get the same “oh my god” reaction I got with the Maxima, but it does look much better in person than in pictures.  It gives off a much more aggressive look with it’s edgier lines than previous models, something I really love about it.  The new headlights are to die for, and the car just looks all around cleaner.  The interior has been hugely improved, and there is a lot more cargo space due to no more rear strut bar in the way.

There were two models at the event, a blue and yellow.  I obvioulsy was only able to look at the cars, but I’d be dying to drive one around for a bit and see how it has improved (hint hint Nissan )

Nissan did a really nice job with the car, it has already grown on me tenfold from first seeing it.  I look forward to getting behind the wheel of one in the near future and giving my opinion of that as well.  Here’s a little video I did from the event, also, to see all the pictures (including in high-res) see the flickr set here.

Once upon a time, two Vipers and Corvette ago, I had a 2004 Nissan 350Z which was my garage queen project car. This car was my pride and joy, I put a lot of time, effort, and money into that car to make it the way I wanted. I thought it’d be interesting to go back and see all of the things I had done to the car to turn it from this:

To this:

My initial idea was that I wanted to make the car nice overall from all aspects…from performance, to suspension, to audio. Looking back now, the one aspect I didn’t really do enough was suspension, but that would have required dumping in a lot more money. So let’s take a look at what was done:

To start off, I went with some little modifications like a smaller antenna, removing emblems, and intake, etc. The original plan was keep the car naturally aspirated (meaning all-motor with no sort of forced induction like a turbo or a supercharger), which is why I got the intake. That changed over time, but we’ll get to that later.

I also wanted to have a carbon fiber/orange theme, I always thought that the orange matched a gunmetal sort of color really well. To kick that theme off, I installed a JIC front strut tower brace for tighter handling and a nice look under the hood. I also installed 15% tint all-around to give it a more refined orange/black look.

Next, I installed RS*R springs. This lowered the car slightly to give it a more aggressive stance, and help improve handling slightly. You can see the height difference in the springs here:

In the meantime, I was prepping for a show quality audio system installation by starting to amass parts for that:

We can see here I went with Polk/Momo amplifiers, and Inifity Kappa Perfect speakers/subs, along with a Pioneer Elite headunit which isn’t shown.

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I’m a big fan of the Nissan Z, it’s a great performing and looking car for a great price. In fact, I had a 2004 Nissan 350Z that I put a lot of work into before getting into the Viper (See progression of vehicles):

For 2009, Nissan is redesigning the Z, putting a 3.7 liter V6, hence the 370Z instead of the 350Z. Nissan fans have all been waiting to see what the new look be released as. Nissan has finally released official pictures of the car, and even shown it at a couple meets:

As you can see there are a lot of changes that were made to the car, although it is visibly still a 350Z. We can see some resemblance to other Nissan vehicles such as the new Maxima in the headlighs and taillights, as well as the new GT-R in the window/hatch shape. I love the large opening at the front of the car, it makes everything look so agressive. Even though I like it, I saw a lot of complaints about it looking like a fish, which I can see. What I don’t like are the wheels, but who doesn’t change those anyway

The integrated spoiler looks clean, it melds well with the wider fenders. Looks aren’t the only thing changed on the new Z. As mentioned earlier, the 370Z now features the VQ37, a 3.7 liter 332hp V6. On top of the improved power, the car also weighs less than its previous generation, which I would imagine will make quite the difference.

Don’t forget about the interior, which looks much improved. This is probably one of the most talked about improvements so far because it used to be one of the most complained about aspects. The Z is a budget sports car, but the new interior looks great in the pictures. I’m looking forward to see it in person, I’d like to see it in person

Take a look at the following pictures and video for a better idea of how the new Z looks. Jalopnik also did an excellent design dissection that you should gander.

(Pictures from Autoblog)

For those of you that have not yet heard of the new Nissan GT-R, it’s time to take a look:

This is the first time that the GT-R has ever been brought to the US, and there are a lot of enthusiasts that are unbelievably excited about it. Only 2,500 will be brought in the first year (2009), and with a base price of only $69,850, you can bet that dealers will be marking them up beyond belief. What is there to get so excited about? The $70,000 Nissan will beat a Porsche 911 on the track. A 911 can easily cost of 2-3 times the price of the GT-R!

The GT-R has a 3.8L V6 with a pair of turbos boosting the car to 473hp and 433 ft-lb tq. Did I mention it is all wheel drive, does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, runs the quarter mile in 11.7 seconds and gets 21mpg? That’s something to get excited about.

Autocar did a comparison video between the new e92 BMW m3, the Porsche 911 GT3 (which they believe is the best Porsche 911 ever made), and the 2009 Nissan GT-R. What did they find? I think the title to this post gives it away. Check out the videos:

I have two good friends that are planning to pick up 1 of the 1600 being brought to the US…I’m crossing my fingers that they get one so I can get a test drive. You can bet I’ll make a post on that if they do!