2007 Nissan 350Z 525i

Five years since its rebirth, the Nissan 350Z remains one of the world's great performance bargains. But it isn't pretty. It isn't subtle. And it doesn't care whether you think the cabin is stylish or not. This is all part of the hard-core image Nissan has built for the Z. And rather than back away from it as the end of the Z-car's model cycle nears, Nissan is pushing this car's character right to the edge of reason. So here is the 2007 Nissan Nismo 350Z, a Z-car so hard-core you'd have to be slightly insane to drive it. Nissan figures only a few of you qualify, as only 1,500 examples of this limited-production car will come to the U.S. this year. A Nismo in Name Alone Although Nissan is marketing it under the Nismo name, this 350Z is not, in fact, a product of its in-house tuning division. As we reported in our First Drive, it's the work of Autech, a Japanese company with a long history of modifying Nissans for commercial and mobility applications that has recently expanded into motorsports. Autech builds and prepares the Z-car that competes in the Japan Super GT racing series. That goes a long way toward explaining the appearance of the 2007 Nissan Nismo 350Z. With a front splitter so big it gives the car an underbite, exhaust outlets large enough to swallow a kitten and a rear wing only an Evo could love, this Z's racing-derived bodywork undoubtedly earns admiration in Tokyo. Around Los Angeles, however, the Nismo Z inspires the scorn of motorists who don't realize this garish body art exists for functional reasons. Purpose-Built for the Track Since the Nismo 350Z has been purpose-built to drive on roads that nobody else is using, it's probably understandable that it doesn't look right in California traffic. The Nismo Z replaces the 2003-'06 Track model at the top of the Nissan 350Z line, yet it's a more advanced instrument and takes its track-day responsibilities seriously. Autech begins by taking the Z-car's chassis off the assembly line and welding the seams of the unit body by hand, a common practice in racing. This labor-intensive technique gives this car an added measure of structural rigidity compared to the customary spot-welded chassis of the other Zs that simply roll off the assembly line. In addition, Autech has installed special Yamaha-designed mass dampers between the left and right frame rails of the unibody structure (one near the radiator core support and the other beneath the rear cargo area) to help counter the additional vibration that naturally accompanies a chassis stiffened not just by seam welding but also by the strut braces that are already a part of every 350Z chassis. Autech also revised the Z's suspension, which has been subtly softened over the years in response to Z-car drivers who kept asking for improved ride quality. The Nismo Z's spring and damper calibration is on par with that of a first-year 350Z Track, Nissan engineers tell us. In Japan, the Nismo Z wears 245/40R18 front and 265/35R19 rear Bridgestone Potenza RE01R tires, but the U.S. car wears less exotic RE050As, apparently a measure to accommodate our colder winters. A VQ That Lives to Spin While chassis upgrades define the 2007 Nissan Nismo 350Z, it's useful to remember that the whole point is to harness the VQ-Series V6, the centerpiece of the Z-car's personality. For 2007, all 350Zs have a new, higher-revving version of the 3.5-liter V6 known within Nissan as the VQ35HR. It's rated for 306 horsepower at 6,800 rpm and 268 pound-feet of torque at 4,800 rpm. This doesn't look like much progress over the 300-hp motor in manual-shift 2006 350Zs, but keep in mind that the new V6 has been rated under the new, more-demanding SAE standards. More important, the new VQ has a flatter, broader torque curve, with 90 percent of peak torque available from 2,000-7,000 rpm. Redline is up to 7,500 rpm compared to last year's 7,000 rpm (or 6,600 rpm for the V6 matched with the Z's automatic transmissi