The results:

A. 350Z places 8th of 9 cars test when considering price as an issue. The 350Z placed last if price of car was no object.
B. 350Z had slowest lap time of all cars tested. Steve Millen was driving thus experienced race car driver makes track test valid.
C. The 35th anniv. Edition was used for test. They mentioned it pulled .2 seconds better than 287hp version.
D. The lateral G testing was conducted at Big Willows track. The lateral G’s were measured in 6 sections of the 9 sections of the track. Here are the results:

Section 1: 350Z place 9th
Section 2: 350Z place 8th
Section 3: 350Z place 6th
Section 5: 350Z place 9th
Section 6: 350Z place 9th
Section 8: 350Z place 5th

Ranking of cars overall were:
1. Chevy Corvette ($53,545)
2. Porsche Boxster ($67,520)
3. Porsche Carrera S ($91,560)
4. Lotus Elise ($44,460)
5. Honda S2000 ($33,465)
6. Dodge Viper SRT-10 ($84,495)
7. BMW Z4 3.0i ($48,620)
8. Nissan 350Z 35th Anniv. ($38,640)
9. MB SLK350 ($50,150)

Quickest lap times on the track:
1. Corvette
2. Viper
3. Porsche Carrera
4. Porsche Boxster S
5. Lotus Elise
6. MB SLK350
7. Honda S2000
8. BMW Z4 3.0i
9. Nissan 350Z 35th Edition

The interesting part of this article was the fact that they had a skilled driver running all the cars. The 350Z was competing against some awesome Sport Cars. The performance of all of these cars is outstanding. One way of looking at it is it is an honor to be considered of merit to even be compared to some of these cars costing twice as much.

Nissan outsells all of the cars compared. Some could say the 350Z has brought the sports car back into the automotive spotlight. The question must be asked; Is Nissan willing to improve the 350Z to out perform these cars or simply put that effort into developing the GT-R to do the job. All cars tested were under $100,000 thus cost was considered as a criteria.

Can a $38,000 350Z be compared fairly to a $84,000 Viper or $91,000 Porsche? Maybe not but it is nice they put the 350Z in the test to see how it performs against them.

Hats off to Road and Track Magazine for an informative article.

Jeff

 

Now, modify the Z with the amount of money saved (especially with new suspension) and see who wins.

 

The 350Z was not the cheapest car tested thus S2000 owners would surely say the same thing.

The arguement of modifying a cheaper to out perform a stock car that cost more is often used. I am sure Neon owners say the same when comparing their car to our 350Z's. My bet is a Porsche owner does not like his car compared to a 350Z much like we dont like being compared to a Neon. If you draw your logic to its final conclusion, we should all go out and buy a motocycle which will give you the greatest bang for the buck.

I will say this, replacing the stock rubber and adding stiffer sway bars on the Z would do wonders for track tests as previous tests have shown were a 350Z pulled up to .94 lateral G's.

I posted this to give credit to Road and Track for a fine article and to provide some basic data. All of us purchased 350Z's so I think most of you know that I for one, love a Z. The data is just that, you can draw your own conclusions from it.

 

.

 

good stuff, very informative... btw, when you say the 35th pulled 0.2 seconds faster than the 287hp version, are you referring to track times? surely not 1/4 mile (or 0-60 )

 

Hmm, maybe it was the extra weight of the 35th -- but this article from R&T finds the car to be a good match against a 911 Targa and an M3 SMG.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....&page_number=1

 

Strife350z: I am referring to 0-60 times they posted and quoted in their magazine.

Skrill: Yep, that older article inspired me on how well the Z performed. In fact, it had the 2nd best lap time of the 4 cars tested. Vette was 1st, 350Z 2nd, followed by Porsche and M3.

This new test is comparing the 350Z to a newer Vette (C6), Z4 instead of M3, new Porsche as well as other cars not in old R&T article. Maybe the biggest difference is it is not the same track. Another issue maybe is Millen is an experienced driver. The 350Z is commonly referred to as being a forgiving car on the track thus with non-professional drivers, maybe the Z has the advantage over other, less forgiving cars. When you get a professional driver behind the wheel of all cars, the 350Z's ease to drive might not be a critical in track performance.

 

i don't mind being the worst of the best. besides, i would take my z over a number of those other, more expensive cars.

 

Weren't both tests run at Big Willow. And a 1:40 at Big Willow for the stock Track Z from the first R&T test tells me the Z was driven by a very experienced and qualified driver.

 

Skrill:

I stand corrected, new test was at ButtonWillows not at Big Willows as I posted before. Thanks for making me look at the article again.

BTW, the times for all cars in recent test at BUTTONWILLOWS with Millen driving are:

1. 66.32 Vette
2. 66.60 Viper
3. 66.71 Carrera
4. 67.27 Boxster
5. 68.65 Elise
6. 68.91 SLK
7. 69.88 S2000
8. 70.71 Z4
9. 70.86 350Z

 

I'm impressed how well the new SLK performed. MB has come a long way since the last generation SLKs. But going by the price, the S2000 sure is a great bargain.

 

Not to sound like an azz, but I really don't care either way. The keys in my pocket fit a 350Z and I am extremely pleased with it's performance.

 

Hmm -- they must have been driving only a loop of the course. The full course takes me about 2:16 to drive.

 

I'm not sure if you had price involved as a factor in your thinking... But I sure as hell would give up my Z for a new Carrera.

 

Me 2 -- or the Elise.

 

They state they "choose configuration No 24 of the track.

 

They posted a 5.6 sec 0-60 time for 35th Anniv. model and also said it was .2 seconds quicker than the Track model. What they dont say is when they tested the Track model. My feeling is it might be on a different day or test site and if that is true, those variations made the data less accurate.

 

I agree in that the 5.6 is not the fastest time posted for a 350Z and without knowing what day they tested the track model, the .2 difference in time does really tell us anything.