2010 Nissan 370Z

When we reviewed the new Nissan 370Z Coupe last year, we applauded the company for doing a sports car model update right. Rather than bloating out the car, Nissan reduced size and weight, at the same time putting in a bigger engine. But the roadster version was still the 350Z, until now. The 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster lets soft-top buyers get the same excellent sports car experience as coupe owners.
The 370Z, whether in roadster or coupe form, is a dedicated sports car, its two seats limiting passenger room. The short wheelbase makes for excellent rotation in the corners, aided by a tight suspension that keeps the body flat. With the Sport package, included on the 2010 370Z Roadster we tested, the car gets a feature called SynchroRev Match on its six-speed manual, along with 19-inch Rays alloy wheels and bigger brakes.

Easy interface
The car we reviewed lacked the optional navigation system, but we have seen this optional cabin tech in a different 370Z Roadster. The navigation system stores its maps on a hard drive, and features integrated live traffic and weather. There's a basic Bluetooth phone system, and integrated audio sources include Bluetooth streaming and iPod connectivity. CDs can be ripped to the hard drive, which has 9.3 gigabytes reserved for what Nissan calls the Jukebox.

The available cabin tech is the same gear we've seen in the latest Nissan Maxima, and in Infiniti models. The interface is easy to use and makes it quick to select letters and numbers from a virtual keyboard. What's most impressive is that Nissan makes the whole tech suite available in a small sports car.

As our car had the Touring trim, it came standard with a Bluetooth phone system and an eight-speaker Bose audio system, which includes two subwoofers. Audio sources were limited to an in-dash six-disc changer which reads MP3 CDs, an auxiliary input, and satellite radio. The Bose system puts out a strong sound but lacks refinement. It sounded especially dull with satellite radio and MP3 tracks, but there was an improvement with standard audio CDs.

The plastics over the dashboard may look slightly cheap, but the suede lining on the doors and other interior surfaces adds a touch of quality to the overall cabin feeling. The gauges are the same as in the coupe, with three pods on the dashboard facing the driver, showing oil temperature, voltage, and the time. The trip computer display sits to the left of the tachometer, with a fuel gauge above it. This fuel gauge is kind of annoying, as its simple line of amber lights gets washed out and unreadable in bright sunlight. Fortunately, the trip computer flashes a warning when range drops under 50 miles.

Cloth top
The 370Z Roadster uses a soft top, defying the rest of the industry's move toward retractable hard tops in an effort to keep the weight down. At up to 3 mph, the top can be raised or lowered with the touch of a button. Well, a long touch on that button, as it needs to be held down throughout the entire process. But it works easily, locking itself into position when put up, or stowing itself away when put down. Unlike the outgoing 350Z Roadster, which operated electrically, this one uses hydraulic power to do its disappearing trick.

But the 370Z Roadster has it all over its predecessor in style. First, the new top is cloth, which always looks good, and the rear window is glass. Then there's the profile; the rear makes a nice rake toward the back, rather than a quick drop-off, somewhat replicating the profile of the 370Z Coupe. Nissan mounted a rear wind deflector behind the seats, which limits turbulence in the cabin. However, at 60 or 70 mph, cabin noise makes conversation difficult. To account for more extreme weather conditions in the cabin, Nissan makes ventilated seats, with heating and cooling, available in the 370Z Roadster, a nicety not offered for the 370Z Coupe.

Sports car
The 370Z Roadster gets a direct-injection 3.7-liter V-6 under the hood, similar to that found in the bigger Infiniti G37. Putting out 332 horsepower, that engine makes the smallish 370Z Roadster really fly, getting to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, according to other publications. Torque is 270 pound-feet, delivered to the rear wheels through a carbon fiber composite driveshaft, a nice component at the price of this car.

Fuel economy, according to EPA tests, is 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. With a mix of city, freeway, and mountain driving, we achieved 20.5 mpg, not a spectacular number, but not surprising for the size of this engine.

A seven-speed automatic is available, but we tested the six-speed manual, with its quick, short-throw shifter. Nissan throws a bit of unique tech into the mix here, SynchroRev Match, a feature that blips the throttle automatically between shifts, making sure the engine speed matches the new gear. In moderate driving, it effectively eliminates lurching, and in sport and track driving, it keeps the wheel speed even so the car maintains composure during crucial cornering. For those that don't want the help, SynchroRev Match is easily turned off at the push of a button.

Although the engine makes the 370Z Roadster fast in a straight line, it really excels in the corners. It feels as rigid as its coupe sibling, the suspension is screwed down tight, and the steering is precise. Through turn after turn, the 370Z Roadster showed tremendous grip and such ease of control that it absolutely encourages enthusiastic driving. When we pushed it beyond its grip, traction control let the back come out, but with the short wheel-base, the car felt as if it was pivoting on a single point, no long nose or tail hanging out to muscle around.

Third gear has a fairly wide power band, letting us push it through tight turns, and speed up on the ensuing straightaway without shifting. But as the rpms hit around 6,000, the engine makes a nasty racket, encouraging a shift up to fourth. Approaching a hairpin required a shift down to second, and the SynchroRev Match made the whole process smooth and eliminating torque drop as we put power to the wheels.

In sum
The 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster stands out as a particularly good sports car, the drop top adding to the price but making for some nice open-air cruising. Impressively, it compares well with its hard-top sibling, providing similar performance. The power train and suspension tech isn't anything innovative, but Nissan does an excellent job refining it. A few features, such as the SynchroRev Match, push it up on the tech scale.

The available cabin tech in the 370Z Roadster is an impressive suite, providing many useful functions, such as traffic avoidance and iPod integration. For design, the 370Z Roadster really impresses. When equipped with the navigation system, the cabin tech interface is one of the best available, with a smartly built controller making inputs intuitive and easy. The convertible top doesn't look like a hack job on the original 370Z Coupe, and there's no mistaking the look. We're also impressed that the top doesn't compromise trunk space. Credit by:Wayne Cunningham

Toyota FT-86 Concept : Tokyo Motor Show 2009

Toyota presented at the Tokyo Motor Show, including a compact sports car study, which could fill the emotional gap with their design to the model range of the Japanese. fill. The 2 +2- seater with rear-wheel drive, there is a classic coupe with an elongated hood and a flat passenger cabin, which one is already used by athletes in Japan.

For a similar appearance of the athlete make angry-looking headlights and a large grille-throat. Takes care of the drive in the FT-86 Concept is a 200-hp, 2.0-liter boxer engine from Subaru.

When the Japanese will go exactly in this series is not known, but the end of 2011 is expected. With the Audi TT and Nissan 370Z have the FT-86, two worthy competitors in the race for market share in the compact sports.

Source: worldcarfans

Lotus Heads Back To F1

With teams dropping out of F1 faster than we can keep track of, the future of the sport isn’t looking too bright. Er, make that wasn’t looking too bright. Lotus has decided to jump back into the fray for the first time in 16 years.

Supposedly, the team will slide into BMW-Sauber’s vacant spot. Lotus says details on the company’s design and powerplant will be released in the coming days, but if any manufacturer can crank out a Brawn-GP toppling program in a hurry, our favorite Brits can do it.

Keep your ears on for more specs soon. [Source: Lotus]

Jaguar Working On A Diesel Hatch?

Huh. Didn’t see this one coming. There’s a pesky little rumor swirling around the Web saying Jaguar’s hard at work on a new creation.

A creation with three doors and an oil-burner under the hood. Now, we tend to put about as much faith in web-born rumors as we do promises of more horsepower from eBay trinkets like the intake vortex generator, but these particular whispers come straight from Edmunds.

Those Fiends say the big cat’s looking to get a piece of the premium compact segment, and as a result, the company is working on a successor to the R-D6 Concept called, fittingly enough, the RD7. Expect a chopped up version of the XF platform with power from a 2.7-liter oil-burning V6. Chances of seeing this thing in the states? Absolutely zero. [Source: Edmunds]

Volkswagen Golf R

As you probably know, we’re fans of the Volkswagen Golf—ill-advisedly called the Rabbit in its most recent generation here in the U.S.—for its fun-to-drive character, practical packaging, and high level of refinement. As you also probably know, we’re huge fans of the extreme Golf, the GTI, which takes the fun factor and cranks it to 10Best Cars–winning levels.

Well, meet the über-Golf, the new Golf R, unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show. It picks up where the old R32 left off. But instead of a 250-hp VR6, as in the R32, the Golf R packs an upgraded version of the popular 2.0-liter, turbocharged direct-injection four-cylinder that powers the GTI and a number of other VW Group cars. It is tuned to 270 hp in the Golf R, just a few ponies more than it makes in the Audi TTS, which is sold in the U.S., and in the Audi S3 and the front-wheel-drive Scirocco R, which aren’t available here.

The Golf R will again be all-wheel-drive, like both R32 models. The turbo four is lighter than the VR6—hopefully meaning this one will feel less nose-heavy—and the extra 20 hp likely will go a long way toward helping this Golf R justify its higher price point. Zero to 62 mph takes a claimed 5.7 seconds with the standard six-speed manual and just 5.5 seconds with the optional six-speed, dual-clutch gearbox. (Don’t expect U.S.-bound cars to be available with the manual; the last R32 left its stick behind in Europe and was automatic-only, as is also the case with the TTS.) But we saw the R32 run to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, so we’d expect this more powerful Golf R to probably top that time. Top speed is a governed 155 mph. Average fuel consumption is rated at 27.6 mpg in the European cycle, which, while an optimistic figure by U.S. EPA standards, likely means a significant jump over the 19 mpg we observed when testing the previous-gen R32. The Golf R makes 258 lb-ft of torque from 2500 to 5000 rpm.

Stylistically, the Golf R doesn’t really go for modesty. Huge air intakes in the front exhibit a somewhat Audi-inspired style and set the car apart visibly from lesser Golf models, including the GTI. The rear is dominated by two large exhaust pipes placed close to the vehicle center, like on the R32. The taillights are styled with LED elements similar to those found on the new Polo and some of VW's recent concept cars. Clearly, VW is aiming to have its cars be as recognizable at night as they are in daylight. The interior is distinguished by sporty accents specific to the R as well.

The Golf R is available with two or four doors; in Europe, it costs around €10,000 more than the GTI, which seems about right considering it offers all-wheel drive and a considerable performance advantage. The best news is that we’ll get it, too. Expect a similar price gap in dollars when it comes to America, with the car likely falling in the $32,000 to $35,000 range. We can’t wait.

Design of vehicles Singer has taken the classic Porsche 911

Singer Vehicle Design has taken the classic Porsche 911 and given it the bleeding guts out of a newer Stuttgart creation.

The team keeps the car’s roof line and everything from the windshield forward, but the engine bay goes through a little surgery to accommodate a few modifications. Singer says the company provides reinforcements all over, including stitch-welding all of the vehicle’s seams and adding a rigid backbone for support.

As cool as all that is, the new air-cooled 3.8-liter flat six with 425 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque makes this and old-school ride with new-school teeth. How expensive? Who knows, but we’d take one of these suckers over a new 911 any day of the week.

[Source: Autoblog]

Honda EV-N Concept !

It’s no secret I’m more of a fan of diesels than EVs when it comes to the green fight. Anyone’s who’s had some time behind the wheel of a newer oil-burner knows these things are heads and shoulders above the driving death featured in hybrids everywhere.

Then Honda goes and shows off this little sucker – the EV-N Concept. Swiping design cues straight from the ever lovable N600, this pint-size eco-fighter packs a battery-powered electric motor and storage for the somewhat confusing U3-X electric unicycle. Honda’s not saying a word about any of the important stuff – price, range, time to charge, etc – but we can expect more details as we get closer to the Tokyo Motor Show.

An EV with some soul? I’m sold.

[Source: Honda]