Short Take Road Test
We usually assess convertibles in terms of structural rigidity, the square root of all vehicle dynamics. Rubbery bones don’t enhance transient response, and there’s the disconcerting phenomenon of dashboard and steering column jiggling to the beat of slightly different sambas.
But that’s not the biggest concern of a team convertibilizing a fastback coupe. They’re wondering whether their baby will be seductive. Makes sense, right? After all, a guy surveying the traffic at a hookup bar isn’t thinking about structural rigidity (other than his own).
When it came along in 2003, the droptop Z car scored well on the rigidity meter. In our August ’03 comparo [“The Blow Dryers”], we noted a “feeling of enduring solidity” and that “nothing flexes.”
But the looks left us lukewarm, particularly with the top up. One pundit was reminded of the USS Monitor, the 1862 warship with a single turret perched on a long, flat deck.
Behold the 370Z convertible. Like the 350Z, it derives from a fastback coupe. But this convertible—which originated at Nissan Design America in San Diego—was more thoroughly baked into the new Z’s development program. The result is a design that’s much more integrated, much less a slab-sided afterthought.
In addition to its good looks, the new convertible is also easier to live with. The seating position is a little higher than before, providing a better view of what’s going on ahead. (Being in the command center in the previous Z-vertible was like sitting in a foxhole.) With the top up, the view straight astern is also improved, though here the distinction is academic, and as with so many convertibles, the rear-quarter sightlines are blind.
As you’d expect, the top is power operated—one switch does it all. It clamps itself to the windshield header with a resounding whack—a little too resounding, maybe, which also goes for the hard tonneau when the top stows itself. On the other hand, it’s at the high end of the cloth-top quality scale: nicely lined and better than many at damping wind noise.
With the top down, the cockpit remains relatively serene up to about 70 mph or so; the standard wind blocker seems to live up to its name; and conversation is possible at decibel levels below the scream threshold.
Which brings us back to structure. Nissan makes some strong claims under this heading—60 percent improved in lateral stiffness at the rear, for example—and after terrorizing our favorite back roads, we’re willing to believe them. Like the coupe, the new ragtop answers its helm with laser-guidance accuracy, grip is sticky at 0.95 g, and braking performance is very strong. Better yet, though the setup
is firm, ride quality suffers little.
However, more structure means more mass. Our test car weighed 3495 pounds, 135 more than the coupe that topped our April 2009 showdown [“SportsCenter”]. This adds a couple of 10ths to the 0-to-60-mph run, but 5.1 seconds is still pretty brisk.
Inevitably, this all adds up to more money. The base price—$37,690—is just $100 more than the outgoing 350Z roadster’s, but our upscale Touring edition starts north of the $40K frontier, edging closer toward Porsche Boxster territory. Then again, the Z roadster will smoke a standard Boxster. And look good doing it.
