nokidz

Pulled in to Carlitos in Santa Barbara at lunch today and could not believe my eyes. Not 1, but 3 Zs in the parking lot. The first was the Daytona Blue Track model / 5 speed California license 562 (32L), The second was the Silverstone Touring / 5 speed License 562 (38J) and the third a Chrome Silver Enthusiast / 5 speed license 562 (21S). We found the Nissan crew inside Carlitos and R. S. from Nissan North America was cool enough to give us a tour of the track model. Got to sit inside, start it up and look under the hood. The car sounds great. The interior has a very direct look. Detailing is clean and simple but not plain. The nav unit had a 3D perspective view of the city instead of just a boring straight down map view. I am 6'-0' / 185 and the driver's seat fits just right . Guages are all in the right place easy to read. The car is bigger than I remembered from the LA auto show in January. We were driving my friend's BMW 330CI and the Z parked next to it was almost the same size and stature. The Z however looked like it is moving while the bimmer just looked, well, parked.

Two pieces of new information. First, the cars were in town to show to ALG, which is the company that sets leasing rates for the US. ALG is based in Santa Barbara. ALG gets to drive a Z for a week to help them establish the residual value of the car which ultimately sets the lease payments for all of us. Let's hope they have a great time with the car! Second, I was informed that the convertable model will probably not be available until Spring or Summer '03. Nissan is still working out the final details of how the top retracts. It was explained to me that the rear deck will raise up, the top will retract and store below the rear cross strut, and the rear deck will close to conceal the top. Should be very cool, if somewhat complicated. We all joked about how goofy it is to buy a car sight unseen, but I can now assure all of you that we are all soon going to be one happy bunch. It will be harder than ever to wait for my Silverstone Touring / 5 speed due later this year.

NissaNZ

I thought the Track model only came with the 6-speed Manual, are you sure it was a 5-speed auto??

nokidz

My bad, all three cars were 6 speed manual transmission.