For the 2023 model year, Nissan brought back its iconic Z car as exactly what it needs to be: an affordable rear-wheel-drive sports car. The Nissan Z isn’t an overpriced exercise in nostalgia. It’s a reasonably priced way to get into a modern sports car with nods to its heritage.
But some buyers want a faster one and don’t care as much about price. For them, there’s the 2024 Nissan Z NISMO. Starting at $64,990, it offers more power and tighter handling than the more pedestrian Zs.
Our Lyn Woodward got time behind the wheel of the hotter Z and reported that Nissan “put their money where their mouth is and turned the Z into much more of a performance-minded car with the NISMO.”
The NISMO uses the same twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 as the base Z Sport, but power is up to 420 horsepower (from 400). “You don’t get a lot of turbo lag,” Woodward says, just “a lot of juicy acceleration.” It comes only with an automatic transmission, but Woodward says that results in “faster lap times than you would ever get using a manual.”
Larger brakes mean more stopping power, and Woodward says she felt no brake fade even after a day of high-performance driving. It’s stiffer than the standard Z but not painfully stiff. “I could easily drive this car every day.”
Chassis improvements mean “significantly less body roll,” she says, and “steering feel is even more precise.”
She notes, however, “no change to the ride feel between Sport and Sport Plus” modes.
Watch the video to see her evaluation on the track.
