2003 Nissan 350Z - Thinking Outside of the Box
Have you ever driven a first generation 240, 260 or 280Z? Not the awkward looking 2+2 version but the pure and true 2-seater. It's an awesome experienced, raw and uninhibited compared to today's cultured sports cars. Nissan has drawn a lot of parallels between the classic Z and its new 350, but how does the legend's progeny measure up?
Well, other than a few styling cues here and there the new 350Z is nothing like the 240. It's much, much better. Not that I would want to knock the original. It was superb for its time and is still a blast to run through the slalom, capable of keeping up with many of today's sporting cars. Still that was then, this is now. Nissan, like most automakers, has learned a great deal over the last thirty or so years. The 350Z puts all of that knowledge to gratifying use.
Slide into the supportive leather driver's seat and the world becomes a more intriguing place. Mechanical artistry takes shape in the form of cylindrical headlight and wiper stalks, offering as much pleasure to the eye as their precise incremental clicks satisfy tactile sensory mechanisms. Their look is metallic, tying in well with the dash and console, while aluminum accents add to the sophisticated ambience. The leather clad steering wheel moves up and down with the motorcycle-style instrument pod, optimizing ergonomics. A row of ancillary gauges on top of the center stack cant toward the driver, one of those 240Z styling cues mentioned previously. Of course housing a trip computer among the oil pressure and voltmeter gauges is hardly a retro touch.