The Ride from the Passenger Side

[SteveJ]

NOW I can talk about riding in the new Nissan Z. 

During the Mitty, I reached out to Rick Goolsby from HSR to see if I could get a ride in the Nissan Z pace car for parade laps. He said that Sunday was available, but I had to be in the gathering area at 10:45. I think I was there at least 15 minutes early. Jason, the driver, showed up with the pace car, and several of us looked around the car. The Nissan Z looks great in blue, and I have a feeling it will be a popular color. 

The car was a nine-speed automatic Performance model.  A big motivation for me to get a ride was to see how tolerable the car might be for a daily driver. Even with my less than svelte figure and knees that barely function, I didn't have much of any issue getting into and out of the car. Since we were doing parade laps and not pacing the start of one of the races, the speed was probably slower, but we did five laps around Road Atlanta. 

What I really appreciated was how quiet the car is. My current daily driver is a 2012 Mustang V6 Premium. The interior sound level to me was closer to a Camry than the Mustang. If you are wanting to hear a rip-roaring exhaust note, you might be disappointed. I have a 260Z with a loud exhaust note when I want to experience that. If you're looking for a sporty, quiet daily driver that you can rip around the track or mountain roads, I think this will fit the bill. I enjoyed going through the Esses at Road Atlanta, and Jason was driving in a spirited enough manner that the gimbal on my camera was frequently trying to adapt to the G loads. 

We topped out at freeway speeds on the back stretch of the track. The ride was good, and I could see taking the new Z on a long drive without feeling like I was turned into a pretzel by the end.

It wasn't going to take a lot to convince me that I really wanted the new Z. I think the styling is a significant improvement over the 370Z. The ergonomics of the car felt good when I sat behind the wheel of the manual transmission version. The only things that could keep me from buying one in the next couple of years would be ridiculous dealer markups or quality issues with the car.

I still need to edit the video I took inside the car. I just have to make the time to do the editing.

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by SteveJ