First of all, we’re very, very sorry Nissan SA about those big, sticky 19″ Bridgestones….

We’re sure that you understand however that we absolutely had to. Everyone’s been focussing on how well the new Z does replacing the 350 on the road, as a pure blooded sportscar. But it isn’t really the road where the 350Z achieved truly legendary status, is it?

No, it’s here, on the Drift circuit. Nissan is easily the most-represented brand in drifting, with its SXs, Skylines, and Zs, and the 350 always gave so charismatically of its shapely curves and sonorous V6 that you couldn’t help but love it sideways with smoke pouring off its rear tires. It was like it was built for this.

We had to make sure the 370 could live up to this rep. So we took it out to The Rock Raceway on the East Rand and, well, converted plenty of rubber into acrid, billowing smoke. As you can see.

Was it any good? Oh yes, it felt like it had great potential, although at first the monster grip from that huge footprint of sticky black stuff was a bit tricky to overcome. Once you had it sliding though it remained very balanced and nicely responsive to your inputs. Sure the suspension is road-biased and the engine tended to starve itself of fuel when circling to the right, but these could be easily tended to without huge investment. Then dump the 19s for some 18s, lock up the LSD and apply GReddy logos and you’ll have a drift car so lovely both sexes will be swooning for it.

There is one, huge failing however. It’s something I didn’t expect, as none of the other reviews local or international have really mentioned it…

But for full details, comments from the Pros and the full road and track test of the Nissan 370Z Manual, watch for next month’s issue of Drive Magazine.

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