2003 350Z Convertible Pics
06-03-2003 | 08:29 AM
#41
Wannabe yuppie
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 25,918
Likes: 0
From: Madison, WI
Well I have an article about the 350Z Roadster, but I just wanted to clear up that the STi's DCCD does in fact have an automatic mode where the computer continuously adjusts the torque split.
Anyway.
http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=02103364
(08:30 June 02, 2003)
2004 Nissan 350Z Roadster
Z reloaded: Authentic driving experience for those escaping the virtual world
By KEVIN A. WILSON
What would you do if they handed you the keys to this car for a weekend? Of course you would. First thing would be to fold the top on Nissan’s new Z Roadster and head out for a drive. For one thing, it ain’t all that pretty with the top up. So, down it goes. Even in Michigan, where spring teases with warm sun that switches to blustery, dampish weather in a heartbeat, and a kid sent out to mow the lawn will be discovered in the den spraying grass only by playing Colin McRae Rally on the video game console.
Go out and drop the top and go for a drive, anyway. It’s all about the experience—open air, sunshine if you’re lucky, but a wide-open view of the sky regardless. Even odors. We got whiffs of both lilacs and road-kill skunk—the point is intensity and reality, authenticity of experience. Add sights and sounds. Whether those sounds are the tunes booming from the Z’s audio system, specifically retuned for open-top operation by Bose, or the ripping exhaust note that’s so much better in the drop-top than the hard-roofed version, what it’s about is feeling completely alive.
Market research types, intent as ever on restating the obvious in entirely unastonishing ways, tell us convertible buyers prioritize design and style over the ultimate performance edge. They also tend to be older and richer than buyers of the model most of us call the Coupe but that Nissan insiders tend to refer to as “the hatchback” Z.
Whatever.
Remove the roof, add 230 pounds mostly to compensate for the lost structure, and add about $5,500 to the price so that it’s more a $40,000 machine than the tempting low- to mid-30s of the steel-top model. The combination of “style over performance” and “older, richer” seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn’t it? Call it the midlife-crisis Z if you want. The marketers may not cop to that because they want to keep the door open for a younger, design-oriented buyer, but the only hesitancy this gray-bearded bald guy felt about dropping the top was a passing recognition of what bystanders would be assuming. No buxom, longhaired blonde half my age riding shotgun, but they’d wonder if maybe she wasn’t on the other end of the journey, eh? (No honey, not really.)
Still, the Roadster is not so much about feeling alive by going faster than the other guy, or being competitive with him in the way a hatchback Z owner might approach the world. The Roadster—like all roadsters—is instead about asserting that you are aware and alert and engaged, with all sensory inputs in good operating order. This car will make that possible for you, regardless of age.
Certainly the buyer may be older, but not a stickler for tradition. The marketers would tell you this buyer is “young at heart.” Yeah, yeah. What we’re talking about is that Nissan has named the car the “Roadster,” a term traditional sports car fans associate with side curtains rather than windows.
Folding roof also used to mean just that—when you said “roadster.” Get out, fold it down like breaking camp and stowing a tent. Traditionalist roadsters don’t have power-operated tops via a pushbutton (to the left of the steering column), stowing the top below a hard tonneau cover by magic motors in 20 seconds, or expansive glass rear windows with defrosters, even. And catch this trick: To get the glass window and rear visibility while meeting the low-drag, low-noise targets Nissan set for the top-up configur-ation (minimal vibration at 125 mph), the roof in mid-fold might bump the head of a tall passenger. So, when you power the top down (with the driver bent forward to reach that button), the passenger-side seatback powers forward 10 percent to make sure there’s no collision of either balding pate or big hairdo with the exposed top framework.
Aha! Exposed framework—there’s something the roadster traditionalist might recognize. However, Nissan notes that a fully lined roof is desirable enough from an appearance and noise-reduction standpoint that it’s under consideration for a future model. Exposed structural elements aside, this top looks and feels like a high-quality item, as you might expect from the same supplier that provides the Honda S2000’s roof. Close attention to aerodynamics also makes for less wind buffeting and noise at speed than in the Porsche Boxster, despite a generously sized cabin that readily accommodates those reaching six-foot-four. There is another reason to push that seat forward when the top folds.
As mentioned, with the top up, there aren’t a lot of folks here who loved the look, but then, rare is the roadster that inspires awe in that configuration. Top down? Well, the art department folks—who give design at least equal priority with performance in everything in life—thought the expanse of red metal behind the seats looked out of proportion, and wished for maybe a soft tonneau or a contrasting color (black) on the hard one. Otherwise, you’re looking at the new Z car, only without a roof, and that’s mostly a good thing.
The Z Roadster arriving in dealerships this summer is yet another in the wave of products that constitutes the Nissan Revival Plan, a vast number of them based on this platform, known as FM. It underpins the Z cars and the Infiniti G35 coupe and sedan.
If there’s a criticism of this approach that’s applicable to the Z car, it’s that it pays a weight penalty for not having its own dedicated platform, tipping the scales at an official curb weight ranging from 3428 pounds to 3479 pounds depending on trim level and transmission choice. The Chevy Corvette, for one example, weighs less despite having a bigger engine and more power. Other lighter machines include the Boxster and S2000. Sharing a platform that also generates an SUV, though, pays a benefit in structure. Even top-down, the Z Roadster is a solid-feeling piece of work, with negligible cowl shake or vibration even when subjected to the telltale angled railroad-crossing test. That this was accomplished with only 230 pounds additional mass is tribute to the basic chassis design, including the beam connecting the rear strut towers that is so evident in the hatchback but hidden in this roadster.
The topless car was anticipated from the outset of the design process, so it was fairly robust, anyway. Coupes already include structures that anticipate the Roadster, such as an M-shape bar that supports the center tunnel at the rear and an A-shaped bar at the tunnel’s front. A third cross-stay in the middle of the tunnel also appears in the hatchback edition. Reinforcements, then, aim to enhance the experience in the open-top cabin. Roadsters have an exclusive steering column support, a cross-car beam that, with gussets at the top and bottom of the A-pillar, contributes to sharp steering response. There’s no goosh or wait for the chassis to flex when you turn into a corner—the Roadster responds much like the Coupe, with a minor exception.
The side sills are also reinforced, and tied into the rear tunnel support with a V-shaped crossbar. More support goes behind the top stowage bin and the trunk area in the form of a partition panel, and there’s a steel tube crossing the car behind the seats, supporting those little rollover bar affairs. Plus, the doors themselves are made part of the chassis structure, via a “door catcher.” Add dynamic dampers front and rear to cancel vibration, and unique engine mounts for automatic-transmission cars, purpose ditto, and that covers it.
Nissan anticipates this pricier model will constitute about 20 percent of the sales mix for the Z, and that’s the production target. It’s built on the same line as the hatchback, so it wouldn’t be hard to adjust the mix if demand tilts toward the Roadster, though the drop-top edition takes longer to assemble. With eager customers lined up to take every hatchback the company builds, the factory won’t be too eager to expand the number of Roadsters.
The car we drove was a Touring model with the six-speed manual gearbox. There’s also an Enthusiast model, with trim levels akin to the Coupe’s as the entry-level Roadster, and there’s the automatic transmission option. Unlike the steel-top car, there’s no Track model, that being intended for the buyer who prioritizes performance over design and, well, we’ve been there already, right?
Driven back-to-back with our long-term Track model Z Coupe, the Roadster feels softer and more luxurious, and the surprise is more in what hasn’t been done to create that effect rather than in what has. No, the springs aren’t mushy and the shocks aren’t tuned for the Town Car set. Instead, well, the specified tire pressure is lower. Really. Okay, our Track model has the bigger wheel/Brembo brake package with low-profile tires, where the standard for Touring models is the 17-inch wheel with the 18s optional. The hatchback does respond more promptly at turn-in, but it may well be down to tire and pressure more than anything else.
Other options? Color choices include a blue top for some models (black is standard). Those 18-inch wheels are available on the Touring right away and on Enthusiast models later in the production run. Side airbags are standard on Touring, optional on Enthusiast models. You can get the navigation system in the Touring, too, and there’s a burnt-orange leather interior package coming later in the year with ventilated seatbacks; that’s a net-back seat with sporty bolsters, not some flat and wide luxury-car seat with fans in it. Because you want real air on you when you drop this top, not some machine-processed nonsense. Real life is real good, especially if you’ve got the credit line to put yourself behind the wheel of a new Z Roadster.
The only thing I'll say about that is the S2000 feels stiffer than the hardtop Z, and the reason that all Z and G35 variants except the 350Z Track feel underdamped is because their wheels are so freakin heavy that the unsprung weight messes with the shocks (which of course, I figured out after driving a 350Z Track).
Anyway.
http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=02103364
(08:30 June 02, 2003)
2004 Nissan 350Z Roadster
Z reloaded: Authentic driving experience for those escaping the virtual world
By KEVIN A. WILSON
What would you do if they handed you the keys to this car for a weekend? Of course you would. First thing would be to fold the top on Nissan’s new Z Roadster and head out for a drive. For one thing, it ain’t all that pretty with the top up. So, down it goes. Even in Michigan, where spring teases with warm sun that switches to blustery, dampish weather in a heartbeat, and a kid sent out to mow the lawn will be discovered in the den spraying grass only by playing Colin McRae Rally on the video game console.
Go out and drop the top and go for a drive, anyway. It’s all about the experience—open air, sunshine if you’re lucky, but a wide-open view of the sky regardless. Even odors. We got whiffs of both lilacs and road-kill skunk—the point is intensity and reality, authenticity of experience. Add sights and sounds. Whether those sounds are the tunes booming from the Z’s audio system, specifically retuned for open-top operation by Bose, or the ripping exhaust note that’s so much better in the drop-top than the hard-roofed version, what it’s about is feeling completely alive.
Market research types, intent as ever on restating the obvious in entirely unastonishing ways, tell us convertible buyers prioritize design and style over the ultimate performance edge. They also tend to be older and richer than buyers of the model most of us call the Coupe but that Nissan insiders tend to refer to as “the hatchback” Z.
Whatever.
Remove the roof, add 230 pounds mostly to compensate for the lost structure, and add about $5,500 to the price so that it’s more a $40,000 machine than the tempting low- to mid-30s of the steel-top model. The combination of “style over performance” and “older, richer” seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn’t it? Call it the midlife-crisis Z if you want. The marketers may not cop to that because they want to keep the door open for a younger, design-oriented buyer, but the only hesitancy this gray-bearded bald guy felt about dropping the top was a passing recognition of what bystanders would be assuming. No buxom, longhaired blonde half my age riding shotgun, but they’d wonder if maybe she wasn’t on the other end of the journey, eh? (No honey, not really.)
Still, the Roadster is not so much about feeling alive by going faster than the other guy, or being competitive with him in the way a hatchback Z owner might approach the world. The Roadster—like all roadsters—is instead about asserting that you are aware and alert and engaged, with all sensory inputs in good operating order. This car will make that possible for you, regardless of age.
Certainly the buyer may be older, but not a stickler for tradition. The marketers would tell you this buyer is “young at heart.” Yeah, yeah. What we’re talking about is that Nissan has named the car the “Roadster,” a term traditional sports car fans associate with side curtains rather than windows.
Folding roof also used to mean just that—when you said “roadster.” Get out, fold it down like breaking camp and stowing a tent. Traditionalist roadsters don’t have power-operated tops via a pushbutton (to the left of the steering column), stowing the top below a hard tonneau cover by magic motors in 20 seconds, or expansive glass rear windows with defrosters, even. And catch this trick: To get the glass window and rear visibility while meeting the low-drag, low-noise targets Nissan set for the top-up configur-ation (minimal vibration at 125 mph), the roof in mid-fold might bump the head of a tall passenger. So, when you power the top down (with the driver bent forward to reach that button), the passenger-side seatback powers forward 10 percent to make sure there’s no collision of either balding pate or big hairdo with the exposed top framework.
Aha! Exposed framework—there’s something the roadster traditionalist might recognize. However, Nissan notes that a fully lined roof is desirable enough from an appearance and noise-reduction standpoint that it’s under consideration for a future model. Exposed structural elements aside, this top looks and feels like a high-quality item, as you might expect from the same supplier that provides the Honda S2000’s roof. Close attention to aerodynamics also makes for less wind buffeting and noise at speed than in the Porsche Boxster, despite a generously sized cabin that readily accommodates those reaching six-foot-four. There is another reason to push that seat forward when the top folds.
As mentioned, with the top up, there aren’t a lot of folks here who loved the look, but then, rare is the roadster that inspires awe in that configuration. Top down? Well, the art department folks—who give design at least equal priority with performance in everything in life—thought the expanse of red metal behind the seats looked out of proportion, and wished for maybe a soft tonneau or a contrasting color (black) on the hard one. Otherwise, you’re looking at the new Z car, only without a roof, and that’s mostly a good thing.
The Z Roadster arriving in dealerships this summer is yet another in the wave of products that constitutes the Nissan Revival Plan, a vast number of them based on this platform, known as FM. It underpins the Z cars and the Infiniti G35 coupe and sedan.
If there’s a criticism of this approach that’s applicable to the Z car, it’s that it pays a weight penalty for not having its own dedicated platform, tipping the scales at an official curb weight ranging from 3428 pounds to 3479 pounds depending on trim level and transmission choice. The Chevy Corvette, for one example, weighs less despite having a bigger engine and more power. Other lighter machines include the Boxster and S2000. Sharing a platform that also generates an SUV, though, pays a benefit in structure. Even top-down, the Z Roadster is a solid-feeling piece of work, with negligible cowl shake or vibration even when subjected to the telltale angled railroad-crossing test. That this was accomplished with only 230 pounds additional mass is tribute to the basic chassis design, including the beam connecting the rear strut towers that is so evident in the hatchback but hidden in this roadster.
The topless car was anticipated from the outset of the design process, so it was fairly robust, anyway. Coupes already include structures that anticipate the Roadster, such as an M-shape bar that supports the center tunnel at the rear and an A-shaped bar at the tunnel’s front. A third cross-stay in the middle of the tunnel also appears in the hatchback edition. Reinforcements, then, aim to enhance the experience in the open-top cabin. Roadsters have an exclusive steering column support, a cross-car beam that, with gussets at the top and bottom of the A-pillar, contributes to sharp steering response. There’s no goosh or wait for the chassis to flex when you turn into a corner—the Roadster responds much like the Coupe, with a minor exception.
The side sills are also reinforced, and tied into the rear tunnel support with a V-shaped crossbar. More support goes behind the top stowage bin and the trunk area in the form of a partition panel, and there’s a steel tube crossing the car behind the seats, supporting those little rollover bar affairs. Plus, the doors themselves are made part of the chassis structure, via a “door catcher.” Add dynamic dampers front and rear to cancel vibration, and unique engine mounts for automatic-transmission cars, purpose ditto, and that covers it.
Nissan anticipates this pricier model will constitute about 20 percent of the sales mix for the Z, and that’s the production target. It’s built on the same line as the hatchback, so it wouldn’t be hard to adjust the mix if demand tilts toward the Roadster, though the drop-top edition takes longer to assemble. With eager customers lined up to take every hatchback the company builds, the factory won’t be too eager to expand the number of Roadsters.
The car we drove was a Touring model with the six-speed manual gearbox. There’s also an Enthusiast model, with trim levels akin to the Coupe’s as the entry-level Roadster, and there’s the automatic transmission option. Unlike the steel-top car, there’s no Track model, that being intended for the buyer who prioritizes performance over design and, well, we’ve been there already, right?
Driven back-to-back with our long-term Track model Z Coupe, the Roadster feels softer and more luxurious, and the surprise is more in what hasn’t been done to create that effect rather than in what has. No, the springs aren’t mushy and the shocks aren’t tuned for the Town Car set. Instead, well, the specified tire pressure is lower. Really. Okay, our Track model has the bigger wheel/Brembo brake package with low-profile tires, where the standard for Touring models is the 17-inch wheel with the 18s optional. The hatchback does respond more promptly at turn-in, but it may well be down to tire and pressure more than anything else.
Other options? Color choices include a blue top for some models (black is standard). Those 18-inch wheels are available on the Touring right away and on Enthusiast models later in the production run. Side airbags are standard on Touring, optional on Enthusiast models. You can get the navigation system in the Touring, too, and there’s a burnt-orange leather interior package coming later in the year with ventilated seatbacks; that’s a net-back seat with sporty bolsters, not some flat and wide luxury-car seat with fans in it. Because you want real air on you when you drop this top, not some machine-processed nonsense. Real life is real good, especially if you’ve got the credit line to put yourself behind the wheel of a new Z Roadster.
The only thing I'll say about that is the S2000 feels stiffer than the hardtop Z, and the reason that all Z and G35 variants except the 350Z Track feel underdamped is because their wheels are so freakin heavy that the unsprung weight messes with the shocks (which of course, I figured out after driving a 350Z Track).
06-22-2003 | 11:44 PM
#44
Senior Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 311
Likes: 0
Originally posted by OLDZ
Hot damn!!! That thing looks sweet. But I bet that it weighs more than the top of the line coupe version. If that is the case I hope that they up the HP on this one.
Hot damn!!! That thing looks sweet. But I bet that it weighs more than the top of the line coupe version. If that is the case I hope that they up the HP on this one.
