Musashi Review: Test Driving the 350Z.

Lets get right to it. I had been driving for about a half hour from one dealer to the next. Chevy had no Cobalts SS, VW didnt even approach me so I left and after looking at the window sticker on a RSX Type S I was like OMG, FU2! I'll test the RSX later when I stop laughing at $28,000.00 for 220HP! :screwy:

So Nissan was the last on the list but luckily they let me test thier Z and thier Altima SE-R. so lets review thier 350Z.

First Impression:
My opinion is that there are far too many Zs on the road. I cant go out to get milk and not see at least two of them running about. So why would I want a "me-too" car? simple really, it because they are absolutely gorgeous! Standing still the car has a look like its about to take off anyminute. Seriously look at a Z and try standing in front of it, you get apprehensive the car is gonna take off on you and run you down. With its wide stance and its hunge-back leaned over look the Z stands as perhaps the most-easy-to-identify car on the road. Its lines scream out "AERODYNAMIC" "FAST" "SPORTY" all at once. And like a Japanese Samurai Sword the 350Z looks like it was carved out of a single piece of steel. the lines tuck and meld so well that you have to really concentrate to see where one body panel ends and another begins.
its beautiful to say the least.

The Interior is unique but not exactly amazing. The main guage cluster is affixed to the steering colum so raising and lowering the wheel will do the same for the cluster. the steering wheel is small and thick, like a sports car should be. The center council is simplistic. Plain black with a few silver accents. My model did not have the Navigation Package so I had a huge empty center din. the radio is also very simple and unattractive but so what? most stock radios dont last very long anyway and the AC controls are round and easy to mess with on the fly. Overall its not an appealing interior if your a passenger, you get board of it right away, the driver however wont be boared because of all the attention he'll be paying to the road.

The drive:
This car is absolutely fantastic to drive. The sound it makes is phenomenal! Its a unique roar and hum really that excites you. Its not trying to sound like a V8 or a ressonated econobox, no this is a spectacluar sound that makes you feel like you are driving a real exotic sports car. The clutch is really short and the small pedals trick you. I was over cautiously slipping out the clutch when it just launched on me. Reason is that this car has been engineered to be simple. Simple pedals, simple shifting and simple steering. Small pedals means you have to input very little to get it to react, extremely short shifting means you can swap from gear to gear with minimum effort. Its a bare to the bones performance machine. The acceleration pumps at you in an instant. there is no delay, there is no waiting for the power to come on. the horse power rises as you push the pedal. it will rocket you from zero-60 in about 5.8 seconds thanks to its ravage 3.5 litere V6 pumping out a healthy 300 BHP. Standing 1/4 mile is 14.3 @101mph according to "car and driver".
The car is stiff too. Stiff as hell! I mean slip out the cutch too quickly and it will shake the shit out of you, not the engine, YOU! even from a roll you back off the gas then punch it again and it will plant the back of your head into the seat. This is the beauty of N/A engines. Power that comes on faster then you can predict. Your mind tell you to be ready for the accelleration but the car accellerates faster then your mind can comunicate to the rest of you body. The result is power that excites you, impreses you and make you feel glad your driving such a machine.
The engine does level out after about 4000 rpms. this baffled me since Nissan says the car makes 260 ft lbs of torque @ 4800 rpms. But I felt all the power in the world from 0 to 4000RPMs. the engine dosent run out of steam, hell no, its just that the initial accelleration is so strong that not untill 4000rpms do you feel it level out. Even though the car is still pulling strong its not as bruttal as that first go from a stop.

on the corners I took off the traction control and ripped it loose. If you keep control of the gas pedal it will swing from corner to corner with ease. This is the difference between a sports car and a sporty-car. the sporty car may corner well but go left hard then swing the tires for a hard right and it will slug out. the Z changes from sweeping right to sweeping left with ease and if you punch it a bit letting the tail swing out, you'll see just why there are so many Zs on the road! The over steer is fun and never scary. Just back off the gas and the massive rear tires tuck back in line and shake the car viciously left to right. This is thanks to its thicker then life sway bars and factory installed strut bars.
The model I tested was an enthusiast package and the sticker on the window said $28,757.00. which made me wonder even more just what the hell Acura was thinking when they priced the RSX-S accross the street at 28K? how can it ever compete?

Final Verdict:
The Z is a true sports car in every way. room only for you and your biatch! Power that slaps you in the face, Corners that will swap the left hemisphere of your brain with the right one. And it is soo stiff! which to me is a good thing. leave the comfy soft riding pillow suspension cars for the weak at heart, for the "oh my back hurts" crowd. The Z is a young mans car, a Stud machine, a chick magnet. The whole time I was riding it I had a huge smile on my face. Under hard acceleration and hard cornering I had a vision of a Lion inside a cage roaring and striking angrily demanding to be let loose. the power of a caged lion shaking that cage, jump inside that cage and thats what the Z feels like!

yes... that's it, come to the darkside musashi... I'm predicting that I'll be seeing you on the z forums in about 6 or 7 months :D

i havent driven one, but im 6'0" and i sat in one at the autoshow and was no way shape or form comfortable. Way to small of a drivers seat. I hit my leg on the door and it made a cut while i was getting into it. You feel really cramped in that car, atletast i did.

My dad is thinking about getting a 350z. I hope he does :)

That RSX-S must've had every single option humanly possible because they normally start at about $23k

...not that it matters, because i'd pick the Z over the RSX anyway.

Go drive the S2000. You'll say the same thing as you did about the Z, except that it's even more of a raw sports car. At least that's how they felt to me.

Wow, good review. I don't like the tepid performance of them (They seem to be quite a bit slower then my current car). I've heard that they have impeccable fit and finish, and that the handling is insane though. This makes me want to test drive one.

Wow, good review. I don't like the tepid performance of them (They seem to be quite a bit slower then my current car). I've heard that they have impeccable fit and finish, and that the handling is insane though. This makes me want to test drive one.
well you do have an LS1! :uhoh:
Its the difference between a Muscle car and a Sports Car.

i like this whole review thing you guys are doin. sounds like the car made a fan outa you. i would also like to test drive one of those, and i probably wouldnt mind owning one either

I drove one a while back, didn't care for it at all.

Hated the way the stock clutch felt. Was too silly, has all that travel (like 5-6 inches), but only uses 2 inches of it for the clutch engagement... so trying to drive smoothly was a pain in the ass.

Also, what's with the reverse gear? You have to push the gear shifter DOWN, then right and back. What the shit?

I'm just not a fan of them much anymore... and the sound gets old. I'm tired of them hearing them. Same with the G35. Although, I think the Z would be a much more attractive car if they put the G35 coupe rearend on the Z.

I don't like those big ol wrap around tail lights.

Oh, and I didn't find the seats all that comfortable. But that's just me.


I'm a big Z enthusiast as some of you all know, but the biggest thing that turns me off about the 350z is the drivers. They buy the car without caring of the heritage or history of the Z. They don't even pay any attention to you on the road, you try to give them a thumbs up and they just look at you funny. Or they don't look at you at all. Even at the Z car shows, all the 350z people park with the 350z people and pretty much hang out with the 350z people.

Which is why I took great pride in my old 240z being able to out run most of them. That go their attention.

Yet another good review.
I've wanted a 350Z ever since they came out, even was planning on buying a 03 in 07, but school really takes a big chunk of my money, so I don't know anymore. Are you gonna do the 350's cousin, the G35 coupe. I got to drive one before but it was the sedan and an automatic :( I'm pretty sure the interior will be nicer than the 350Z's, I really liked the center consol and the ride felt really good, but not sporty, which was something that I had expected, guess thats where the stiff suspension of the 350Z comes in. But the coupe's backseat might be big enough for Gotian to fit, i don't know though, you'd have to inform us of that. I know my friends 2+2 300ZX backseat couldn't fit anyone over 10 unless they were laying sideways.
Anyway, keep it up, this review just made me want a 350Z even more, I've always loved Nissan's V6, one of my personal favorites ever since the VG30 in the maximas and 300ZX, they just make a wonderful sound.

Well I hadnt planned on testing the G35 but I saw you mention it on another thread so yeah why not. I'll check it out.

As far as what Matt said I do agree the clutch is silly in that you use so very little of it. It fooled me too but thats what i was trying to explain about the simplicity of the car. It so very easy to drive and easy to abuse. the clutch reacts quickly and there really is not getting used to it, you just hammer and go.
I did like the fact that reverse is safe guarded so you dont accidently slam into R instead of 6th. besides most modern cars have that now where you have to push on the shifter or pull a tab or push a button for reverse.

I do like the car, I guess Im the opposite of Redneck. I started out by not liking them at all to being absolutely floored by them.
Its an excellent buy at 28K. If you got deeper pockets they can go up all the way to 40K though.

Hmm, well I don't drive very many new cars that are stick... I just thought that safe guard was kinda dumb.

I mean, I'm not a tool... so I probably won't be shifting into reverse while on the freeway reaching for 6th. The T56 has Reverse up and to the right, next to 5th gear. I never once, hit Reverse while shifting to 5th gear. My old Datsun 240z, the 5 speed tranny had Reverse next to 4th gear, or below 5th gear. Same with the SR20DET tranny... The 4 speed tranny in the new Datsun 240z has Reverse next to 4th gear... but you have to go way out to get to it.

I mean... seriously, you have to try really really hard to throw a car into reverse while moving forward. Obviously there must be people out there who haven't a clue how to drive, cause they wouldn't need these safeguards if people weren't grenading the trannys from being a Craftsman Product.

Overall the 350z is a cool car... I'll admit it. I may dislike them, and I may sound hypocritical to my previous post. But they do handle well, and they'll pull to 130mph easily enough. Done it a few times with my old friend in his 350z. Highly stable at those speeds too... I would of felt more comfortable in the car at those speeds if I had confidence in the drivers abilities... but I didn't. Needless to say, I didn't drive with him much after those highspeed runs.

Z Good car...

I drove one a while back, didn't care for it at all.

Hated the way the stock clutch felt. Was too silly, has all that travel (like 5-6 inches), but only uses 2 inches of it for the clutch engagement... so trying to drive smoothly was a pain in the ass.

Also, what's with the reverse gear? You have to push the gear shifter DOWN, then right and back. What the shit?

I'm just not a fan of them much anymore... and the sound gets old. I'm tired of them hearing them. Same with the G35. Although, I think the Z would be a much more attractive car if they put the G35 coupe rearend on the Z.

I don't like those big ol wrap around tail lights.

Oh, and I didn't find the seats all that comfortable. But that's just me.


I'm a big Z enthusiast as some of you all know, but the biggest thing that turns me off about the 350z is the drivers. They buy the car without caring of the heritage or history of the Z. They don't even pay any attention to you on the road, you try to give them a thumbs up and they just look at you funny. Or they don't look at you at all. Even at the Z car shows, all the 350z people park with the 350z people and pretty much hang out with the 350z people.

Which is why I took great pride in my old 240z being able to out run most of them. That go their attention.


uggh I"m with you 100% on this one man, I've seen three on the highway, and when I got to talk to one of them, he asked me what I was driving, after I know he'd seen my rear bumper which blatenly said "300zx turbo" on the back of it... after I told him he kinda looked smugged and goes ohh, aren't those the slower models... I swear, if I had my boost turned up to 8 or 9 PSI, I would've gunned it right there. The other two refused to give me a thumbs up or even a nod...

Is that reverse saftey button nessecary? When I was first learning to drive a stick I accidntaly shifted to where the reverse was and it simply wouldn't let it shift into it. Quite frankly I think the shifter would break before going into revers while going any faster than 20mph. Just my two cents.

I like this review, especially since ive driven our friends numerous times, cant wait to drive the competetor though, the RX-8.

my car doesnt have one of those reverse things, and im glad. im kinda old fashioned, i hate when cars do things for you... idk, like when they lock the doors when you start moving. stuff like that drives me crazy. if i want the doors locked ill do it. i dont need a frickin reverse safety switch.

my car doesnt have one of those reverse things, and im glad. im kinda old fashioned, i hate when cars do things for you... idk, like when they lock the doors when you start moving. stuff like that drives me crazy. if i want the doors locked ill do it. i dont need a frickin reverse safety switch.

I agree with you but I have to say I do like the fact that you cant lock my car when the keys are in the ignition. I dont know why but I'm a complete idiot when it comes to locking keys in cars. Thank God for AAA.

lol...my car wont lock if the front door is open with keys in it...its just one of those things...i've gotten used to the new car go past "R" in auto to get to drive and the doors lock...its a great feature if ur tryin to lock someone out from jumpin in ur car id say. i used to want a 350z, but i guess im more of a 300zx kinda guy or 240...new cars are good, till they start puttin in things like car wont go into0 drive w/o seat belt on and stupid stuff...my moms new corrolla 06 wont shut up if u dont have ur seat belt on....i turned the radio up, it got louder as well....whats gonna be next? if u dont swipe ur drivers lisence in the thing, then the car wont start?????

...my moms new corrolla 06

its spelled "corolla" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only one "r" !!! http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/images/icons/icon8.gif

its spelled "corolla" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only one "r" !!! http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/images/icons/icon8.gif


kerola