The Nissan Z has always been a sporty, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer since its inception in 1969. Effortless, compliant, and meant to soak up countless miles while doing it in style.
Of course, the Z-car has also been dabbling in various forms of motorsports ever since, with Nissan’s own motorsports arm called Nismo transforming the Z into a formidable race car. As with motorsports, technology and knowledge trickle down onto consumer cars.
The first-ever official Nismo-fied Z was released back in 2007 with the Nismo 350Z (arguably, the 2005 S-Tune GT is, but a Japan-only model), with improvements inspired by learnings from its Super GT race car.
With the current RZ34 Z Nismo, the formula continues as the vanilla Z’s easy-going personality is turned into something that wants to be whipped around the racetrack at higher speeds.
For Php 4,688,000, it’s a Php 700,000 difference compared to the standard model. But like previous Nismo Z’s, the changes are more than skin deep.
It has an exclusive body kit that is functionally aerodynamic.
The revised front bumper (which brings back the sloped G-Nose) redirects more air into the engine bay. The reshaped splitter, canards, side skirts, longer rear spoiler, and GT-R-inspired rear bumper all generate additional downforce and reduce lift.
It also comes with red accents all around the body, an exclusive Stealth Pearl Gray color, and wider 19-inch forged RAYS wheels.
The interior layout is still the same, so the dashboard, the eight-inch infotainment, signature three-pod gauges, mechanical handbrake and puck-style shifter, and the center console are carried over, with a few notable changes.
The 12-inch digital gauge cluster gets Nismo touches (the logo and red colors in Sport), the steering wheel gets Alcantara and a red centering stripe, and the ignition and drive mode switches are also finished in red.
Fitted are Recaro bucket seats, which are incredibly supportive and comfortable, especially during long drives. However, you lose seat heating and power adjustments.
The same eight-speaker Bose sound system, Nissan Intelligent Mobility advanced driver assistance systems, and 241L trunk capacity with a few storage spaces around the cabin are also still here.
Apart from that, the interior doesn’t feel as special as when you sit in a GT-R Nismo, but that hasn’t been the focus of the Z Nismo ever since its inception. According to Nissan, the Z Nismo is a “track-ready car from the factory”.
It has the same 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V6 (VR30DDTT), but power output is boosted to 420 horsepower and 520Nm. This is made possible by improved engine and oil cooling, a turbo with better wastegate control, and spark timing, and it now requires 98-octane fuels, which can burn a hole in your pocket.
You can feel the additional torque and horsepower across a wider rev range, making it feel more linear instead of a bigger surge of power towards the top end. This plus the additional cooling makes it perfect for longer and more consistent track-driving stints.
You can only get it with the nine-speed automatic transmission, but it has been retuned to give faster downshifts, more aggressive upshifts, and an overall faster response time, which is very noticeable when driven back to back with the standard Z.
The exhaust is still the same muted note as the non-Nismo Z, but the piped-in engine noises now come with a few pops and crackles sprinkled in, especially in the newly added Sport+ driving mode that amps up other aspects of the car such as transmission, steering, and throttle response to make it come alive.
The brakes are now bigger up front and back (15-inch front and 13.8-inch rear rotors) and have six-piston Akebono calipers. They are grabby, a bit noisy, and have a lot of stopping power.
The improved, stiffer suspension setup and more rigid chassis eliminate body roll and make the car feel more planted and confident. The tweaked electric power steering is satisfyingly heavy and very responsive, and the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 tires are very sticky, hence a lot of mechanical grip.
Though, this translates to a very loud and firm ride. It’s not racecar harsh, but this is one car where you’ll want to avoid less-than-ideal road conditions.
You could bring the regular Z to the track and enjoy it, but the Z Nismo is for those who want a tool to help extract every second with every passing lap.
Yes, the all-wheel drive Nissan GT-R is a logical option for being significantly faster everywhere. The difference is that while the GT-R makes it almost video game-like, the Z Nismo still provides the traditional, rear-wheel-driven feel of a sports car with the analog charm coming from the platform it rides on.
It might not look like a huge upgrade compared to the previous Nismo models, but the motorsports arm has done well with extracting as much performance as they can out of the Z, which is already pretty quick to begin with.
