Introduction

Nissan 350Z NISMO – 2007 Review: Life is all about marketing. From dowries to humanitarian causes, everything has its buyers and sellers, all of them brought together by a creative campaign. It’s a concept well understood by car companies such as Nissan, which uses high energy and engaging imagery to define its 350Z, or more appropriately, that car’s future owners. The showcase for the lineup is the new 2007 NISMO model, done up as a track-ready performer showcasing Nissan’s line of tuner parts. But does it live up to the marketing hype? Not when the outstanding 350Z Enthusiast can be had for $8,000 less.

What We Drove
Nissan sells the 350Z coupe in a variety of configurations including Base, Enthusiast, Touring, and Grand Touring; the last three are also offered in convertible form. Reserved for hard-core sports car fans is the NISMO coupe with a base price of $38,695 including a $625 destination charge. That was the price of our tester, provided by Nissan, which we put through 700 miles of paces in city traffic and along deserted mountain roads outside Los Angeles. Among the standard features we enjoyed were an aero kit, a tuned exhaust system, a reinforced body, upgraded suspension, lightweight wheels and extra-grippy rubber, Brembo brakes, and unique interior accents.

Performance
Nissan’s NISMO treatment adds visual and handling tweaks to the 350Z, but under the hood remains a stock 306-horspower V-6. That’s not a bad thing, as we were reminded of the 3.5-liter engine’s ability to pull hard throughout the rev range. The short-throw shifter allowed us to ram through the gears on twisty roads, though the heavy clutch took some getting used to. After a week of play, we recorded 18.8 mpg and considered the 350’s powertrain to be right on target. And then we experienced the related 330-horse Infiniti G37 – those extra 24 ponies would be perfect in this sportiest of Zs.