Autoweek February 6, 1989

8/12/2019 Autoweek February 6, 1989

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Using supercomputer and ultrasophisticated engineeringNissan gets its 300ZX in good enough shape to take on Porsche

his is not your doctor's 300W.The name of the car picturedhere is th same as Nissan's cw-rent topline spa coupe, th onethat in the past few years hast ken lumps for being less of a spats car andmore of a personal semiluxury coupe.And that's being nice. l k r e re worsethings beine said about the Nissan Z that is

currently available. What we've heard fromsome enthusiasts is that the present 300ZXis the car you get stuck with afler you losethe Porsche in a divorce settlement.This kind of savaging of the car's imageby the public was foreseen by a few keyfolks at Nissan back in 1985 when the 1989Zc ar was proposed. Its spom car attrih-ules had become diluted. savs Naruvuki

IM-hp nonorrbo nd 2Whp tuk 3m W swere sold; in '88 only 19 000 were sold. loew car is expecled to sell at a rate evenlower than that for its mt full yew. 1990.But for Nissan, changing the image of the300ZX is more imponant than profit rightnow. Respect is the priority.Nissan should get that respect by thetankerload for the new 300ZX. It is mores ~ a m a o i a ,product than fast, it is very good at being fast-it's a

planning and mar- real '90s spons car.ketina manaEer for Gone is the Z-car's digital dashboard with~ i s s a n . Peoplewho had remem-bered the 2402 werenot enthusiastic

three odomelen and ~ ~ - L C Dompass. A bs nt is th spongylstiff variable shock a bsorber system. and resulting strange behav-ior of the car on bumpy roads. Arriving herethis April will be a car that is aimed atPorsche 944, Corvette and Mazda RX-7with better than deadly accuracy.The new Z-car, ( Zeeker as it's pro-nounced by Nissan insiders), is a greatoackaee: Its 3.0-liter four-valve V makes

about the (current)300ZX.W h i l e t h e300ZX's s ta tusshriveled among carmole. s les of the~ ~ Z Xave plum- i h i a turbo version due in October willmeted in the past make about 300 Its front suspension is swfour years (as have phisticated multilink A-anns, like that pi*those of many other neered in this counuy by Honda's Accordtwodoor couces). In nd Prelude. and in back is a state-of-the-an1984, about '73,000 five-link arrangementakin to Mcrcedes' 300

AUMWEEK FEBRU RY 6.1989


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trdatu.TbeMmullyespilatcd~isex-p C d d t o E d f m f a S 2 5 , 0 0 0 m d t h c1.rbovenmfcmlasmm 30,000(Niiqcels~dfiwoevZcsrssddin1990villbelabq).W l m t N i i h s s h i s a s p a r s c a r w i ~~ p o a a Q n P o m c W s 9 4 4 o r 9 1 1 , a tapica S1480DS17.000 kss hanPaacbe sa. PQfQrmmQe isw~ , , d d o s t b c n a ~ w c i g l t s e v -LradRdpomKbmo~eman thcPar s .JB l a s rLEb6Qmpb inar cwmnmaUy~ & W & D t a r i r 7 . S r c e ~ 9 4 4 S Z w i up o t h $ B . 9 .The new t w b Z. at just over 3300poaada, ispioedh(ir~eNlgcurthc~ y b a v y C m e a e . b m ~ m x c~ I P d D e r l y a ~ m g u c , p h r rbma rmm*n. Thc s iccs, how-sva are bwd on ammt exchange ntcs,~ r m l d ~ b y I . n w b s D ( b e h n h ,udcboa.The nsv cu is a 90s lookor. too,~ t b c ~ l i k e w a c i s a M l m a o bd i spbP lns to s~mca lNi i .T6eoompnyIshqpLrvlL~rr ofmcCar,mefiDalM s i o n o f r l 6 c b v p ~ ~ N ~ sTokyo studio. The company s studios in

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Shotai, lapan, ( w h m Zcm are made) andSouthm California also submitted theirmndcsignsfathcncwCar,audthcnrulth a Mmd of what thc company s designs b e l i m is a '90s ar look: longwhealbase. with mini body overhang.rbanhood, lo tsofawes.BytbisJulya2+2vcnioaofthcZCPisu p s t e d h , a u d ~ i t l o o L s ~ t o

thc lwc-seater, it aaoaUy area only itafront clip. Ibe Qon oof, M uarterpncls , fmlBl lalomioadrur~aredi nn, m o u g b M a d i s u n a it's tollght o t c U t h c t w o v ~ ~ ~ l p P R . T b e 2 + 2 i sactually 8.5 inches longer aud ridw on4.7-inch-longer w h e e l k . We tried get-tiDgiDtothcbrkofoae--misarcaifno(hncadedforsdults . lbs l is thccp.eforaPorschc944~weUBoth two-scat nd 2 2 versions amw m p b d psmues 6vm any previouscma. thmgh thc name has bem held overf r o m Z c a r ~ o n ~ b s a u s c t h c a c wc r gemmtb four) shsna a 3.0-liter m-gin0 configuration wi th Z number ttorcThe n w cu a mow a Ust-ima 60-de-gc eV6Wre thcddac ar ' s ( imo i s u s c dto keep costa down, says the company),

uscs four-valve hcDQ with four camsmu@ the valves. Ibe intake valw cmnnhaveh y M c a U y v a ria bk d riv e g em whichvary valve timing depending on en*spet me dea is to boat toque at lowm g k apesds without wrn k-lmclm-iogathighrevs.A i d c d b y d u d c x h a ~ ~ ~ a u d d u d ~systems. thc new 3.0-liter V6 makes 57~ w aae than the 1 6 o r s C mr-mallyaspintedZmmonthcmad.P ow a i a a e r r tm a v i s c o u s c a r p l e d ~di ranial(whichlurbecomusconIapa-nese market 300Ws for the past year)tbmugh heavily refined version of thcna-rent cu s fivbspeed trsnsmission. Aboyta third of the new 2 s buyers am ex-peeced to waut .utomrtics, so222-bpZcrswill barow c-ully aaholled fourspeed units from N i i s UOSX, nd 300-hp Z c m will use four-speed Nis-san s Pa m l wililymckn x ~ w Z e a r s ~ i s ~ s e c n t o fPorsche s 928: Ihe igan(tc Iigbar is in thccenter console whae your radar detcetormrdwi l lncvunrb i t .Tbeemsdc i sm-g k d u p t o ( h c ~ , w 4 m e t b c n i s asurprise. No gimmicks. No soda can


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All-new en g l nrlom) 8h.mdlrplacament wtthold; 3.0.IHw V6 hasfour cams, 24valves, pmduc*r272 hp In nonturboform. T-top* blowrlght) am mtandard,addA g M butbody sas wold Zwas wlthwtthem. Interior,.b.leh-rd,

through complicated computer analysis: Anengineer taped fishing sinkers of variousweights to a shifter equipped with a 100ram knob, and found a 130 gram shiftknob was the answerOnce uo to s d he car feels slowerI han it s htuall; m ov in g- a sure sign of awell-sorted chassis. Low levels of windnoise also contribute to this feeling. Thebody has had much wind tunnel tuning (thetnole-lio front end is claimed to be hiehlvf h c i e in terms of noise, drag and of-ing). The power-assisted rack and pinionsteerine is vehicle-swed-sensitive. and upto lCQ mph actually fee istoo lieht. It isn t withoutholders, no change bins. The message isclear inside that this is a car whose primarypurpose is to be driven like a s p m car, notto do utilitarian duties such as commuting.Serious road-trippers will add their owncan-holders and radar detector wiring.Amateurs will buy something else.But what really separates the new Z-carfrom the old is its chassis. Front and rearsuspensions were designed with the help ofNissan s Cray supercomputer. The bene fitgained here was the ability to son Ulrwghabout 100 different designs before threefinal designs were Vied on prototypes. Nor-mally, the company says, it only has thecapacity to test four or five different suspen-sions on each car it designs. The new Zsuspensions are similar to those found onHonda and Mercedes cars.The structure of the chassis. however,was alm tuned on the computer, and is s u bstantially stiffer than previous gene ration Z-cars. This may be for naught, though, sincenearly all of the new Zs planned for thU.S. will be equipped with glass T-toproofs. which add about 50 pounds to the topof the car and limit total body stiffness(U.S. dealer urgings have made it this way).Still, the new Z with T-top is as stiff asthe old 30 0 W with a steel roof.

The cornpuler also suggested reinforcingsteel channels be used in key structuralp in ts on the body. and the resulting car isone stiff enough to make use of the verysophisticated suspension design s.

SPECIFICATIONS

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This work pays off on the mad: The newZ-car is tauter than Corvette, plus there is arefined feel that is very Porscbe-like. Thenew Z does not feel like any other c o u pfrom Japan. Details in the Z-car s drivetrainhave been refined further than anything elsethe company has built, with the possibleexception of Infiniti s Q45 V sedan WhatNissan has proven is even though there is nosubstitute for the kind of tuning experiencePorsche draws on for its sports cars. ashortcut exists via the computer screen .Once you get rolling in the new Z-car younotice v isibility is t o p n o t c a cowl islow enough that you see the road just a fewfeet in front of the car. he engine revs likea rotary-watch out. M a z d H o its WOrpm redline, where a fuel cutoff makes youshift. Shifting is not as notchy as in previousZ-cars, but Lhat s not because of fixes found

feedbick, though, whichleads us to wonder if thiswill be a trend duplicatedinthe 90s.Body roll in comers atfirst feels excessive inthe wnturbo Z, but youfind that the suspensionis not compromised bylean. You can alm nearlyi g n o r e p o t h o l e s a n dbumps in corners-sus-pens ion con t ro l andtravel is that good. Over-a l l , the nonturbo carwants to understeer, butit is easy to change thatattitude with verv finesteering inputs or a sloppy Uyonle fdot. Attimes, the viscous limited-slip c n contrib-

ute to the car s desire O understeer, thoughwe noticed that nai l only at the car s rela-tively high limits.The turbo car is different. The prototypewe drove was equip ped w ith N issan sHICAS rear-steering system. It shows itselfoff k t uring high-speed lane changes byneatly stabilizing the car. In fact, it workswhether or not you return the wheel to cen-ter yourself or just let go of the wheel--notunlike a Citroen. The turbo car is alsostiffer, and is more neutrally balanced. Thisdifference in tuning between the nonturboand turbo Z-cars is deliberatbNissan ex-pects buyers of the S5MW)-more-expensiveturbo 30 0 M to know what they re doing.We feel the new 3 0 0 M is a digital ren-dering of a spom car , whm the 944 can belikened to an analog version. We expectvery few people will perceive a qualitativedifference in manners between the twomakes, much ih way i t s tough to tell agood compact disc recording from a studiomaster album or tape. The Nissan is the CD.the 944 the master.Right now th 3 0 0 M , at its birth, is anequal to the 944. If it stays in th market forits planned five-year life, and is r e f i andimproved each year, it wuld be a majorplayer in our sports car fuhm At the veryleast. the new Z-car is not likely to gamerthe p r mage the last 30 0 M seems tohave accumulated.

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Autoweek February 6, 1989