Nissan 350Z

Ignore Clarkson: this is the ultimate Z-car

Model: Nissan 350Z;
Price: £24,000 (on sale October);
Engine: 3,498cc, V6 cylinders, 24 valves, 280bhp at 6,200rpm;
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox, rear-wheel drive;
Performance: 155mph, 0-60 in 5.7sec, 25 mpg approx average;
CO2: Not yet quoted.

Do you watch Top Gear? I try to avoid it, so I did not see its leading man lambaste Nissan's new 350Z. Those who did, and who have driven the car, were shocked. It is a worry when the motoring opinions of so many TV viewers can be moulded on a basis no stronger than the side of the bed out of which Jeremy Clarkson emerged that morning, but such is the power of celebrity today.

Clarkson based his report on a US-specification car which differs in many vital details from the one that will be available here from October. Those details include interior trim materials, the quality ambience and the settings of the suspension. Nor does the Nissan have a Renault engine, despite what your television told you. The truth is a kind of opposite: some Renaults have a version of the Nissan's 3.5-litre V6.

So, in case your opinion has been tainted by Top Gear, here is a test of the new Nissan 350Z in its definitive European-specification form. People must like the idea of the 350Z, because the initial UK allocation of 450 cars was sold out within an hour of the order book's opening on 23 March. And the idea is? Nissan builds a new and hard-edged sports coupé in the spirit of the old 240Z, the company's biggest image-builder in the 1970s and the car that spelt the end of Britain's Stateside sports-car reign.

Subsequent Zs and ZXs were progressively flabbier and less focused, although the early-Nineties twin-turbo 300ZX marked a return to form until emissions legislation killed it. Now, a decade on, the Z-car is back to its original brief and is again America's best-selling sports car. I have driven a US one; it was fast, sounded deep and growly with its V6 engine, had a cheap and plasticky interior and a loud, chunky ride. It was fun and good value, but a little crude. Not so the Euro-version.

This much is clear as soon as you pull the (overstyled) door handle and slide into the cabin, whose seats, part of the steering wheel, handbrake and gear lever can for an extra £350 be trimmed in "Alezan Orange" leather. This is worth doing. (The rest of the pack's £2,500 goes on heating and electrical adjustment for the seats, cruise control and a 240-watt, seven-speaker Bose sound system.) The orange lifts the interior, whose textures are pleasing and whose design is angularly, metallically high-tech, but a little gloomy.

Now your £24,000 Nissan has climbed to £26,850 and is looking less of a bargain. You can spend a further £1,000 on RAYS forged wheels, but they are the same 18in diameter as the standard six-spoke alloys so there may be little point. There again, the rear ones are slightly wider (not so the tyres mounted on them, which with both wheel options are wider than the fronts), and they weigh less. But All is not well inside. The door pockets are minuscule, and to use other storage space is to fumble around in the bins behind the seats where rear passengers would sit were this the Nissan's chief rival, the Audi TT Coupé. The vista afforded by the interior mirror is incomplete, too; the fastback-but-hatchback tail includes a rear window which looks much bigger than it is, so you can see little more of a following car than its front bumper.

This is not the most cultured of V6s. Nissan's engineers have designed-in a "yowl" when the accelerator is blipped, and it always sounds busy, but with 280bhp on tap it is a muscular one.

The most impressive part about driving the Z is the way it feels so solidly planted on the road. The bodyshell is rigid, helped by crossbraces between the forged aluminium suspension units, which means the firm suspension does not shudder and squeak. Softer damping explains why the ride is so much better than the US version's, though the springs are stiffer, and the steering is quick-witted and eager to respond.

So, for Audi TT money you can have a fat V6 engine, more visceral driving thrills and almost, if not quite, the same quality ambience. But there is one threat to both cars: the new, rotary-engined Mazda RX-8. Read about it here, very soon.

THE RIVALS

Audi TT 1.8T 225: £26,800
Still looks good after several years, and we buy more of them than any other country. Driving experience is inert, but the imminent V6 has a terrific sequential-shift transmission.

Chrysler Crossfire: £27,260
American-designed, German-built, Mercedes SLK-based coupé has radically straked styling but feels less sporting than the Nissan. It is actually the most exciting Chrysler in ages.

Porsche Boxster: £31,630
Latest rivals are making the Boxster seem expensive, but its mid-engine design makes for delightfully sensitive handling. It is a convertible, but a hardtop is optional.