Nissan Z News

Nissan’s snappy sports car has been updated and will now be available in sought-after Nismo form with a six-speed manual transmission in Australia.The Nissan Z Nismo is the higher-performance grade of the brand's rear-wheel drive coupe.The new manual Z Nismo will be priced from $95,000, before on-road costs, making it a near $20,000 jump over the standard Z manual.Nissan’s announcement also confirms the automatic Z Nismo is just less than a $1000 more expensive as part of this update, starting at the same $95,000 price tag.Meanwhile, the standard Z coupe starts from $76,800, which is $640 more than it was before. The updated Z range will be available for order from this month, with deliveries beginning in September.It competes in the hotly contested sports car segment against the likes of the Ford Mustang (from $72,990).The Mustang remains the dominant player of the segment, with the Nissan Z trailing its competitors currently.The Z Nismo continues to be powered by a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, producing 309kW and 520Nm, representing an 11kW and 45Nm increase over the standard car. The Z has also received some tweaks as part of the updated range.There are new two-piece front brake rotors, resulting in a 9kg weight reduction. A redesigned front bumper adds 30mm to the car’s length to reduce front lift by 3.3 per cent and drag by 1.0 per cent. There is also a new wireless phone charger standard across all variants, along with a frameless auto-dimming rear view mirror.The new Z range was first revealed at the start of January as part of global preview even at the 2026 Toyota Auto Salon.The car went on sale in Japan recently, ahead of its arrival on Aussie shores. 2027 Nissan Z pricing (before on-road costs - manual a no-cost option)

Recently, a realisation from behind the wheel of the current generation of a widely beloved rear-drive two-door coupe raised a question for me.Are sports cars doomed? The question came as I realised that because of the development of the car I was driving, the 2026 Nissan Z (specifically the Heritage Edition), underneath was essentially a Nissan 350Z that had been given enough surgery to be relevant in two decades later.But the last of the ancient platforms won’t be around for much longer, surely, and the cars built on them are, at least in two cases, some of the most-loved sports cars around.The other is the Ford Mustang, which rides on a platform closely related to one older than you might think.Back to the Z for a moment, because the platform it rides on comes from so far back that I was just getting into primary school when it debuted. The 2002 Nissan 350Z was released when I was in grade 2, about a decade and a half ago, when I was only allowed behind the wheel of one if it was on Need for Speed: Underground 2.Nissan recently celebrated 35 years of its Infiniti sub-brand, which kicked off with the G35 Coupe - a sibling car to the V35 Nissan Skyline - and gave the Front Midship (FM) Platform its flowers.The aim was to get a V6 nestled in just behind the front axle, which resulted in a 52:48 front/rear weight distribution. Slightly more weight over the front was a deliberate choice, according to the engineers.The FM platform would go on to carry the Z33 350Z to cultural relevance in the aforementioned Underground 2 and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, before the Z34 370Z came along with a heavily updated version of the platform in 2009 and hung around for 12 years. The FM was just about old enough to vote in Australia when the 370Z was discontinued.The RZ34 is already coming up on four years old, and its platform is 20 years older than that.Even though its chassis feels heavy for something carrying a two-door coupe, it’s not alone in the world of heavy hybrid and electric ‘sports cars’, but it retains a level of engagement and trust in the driver that doesn’t rely on tricks and electronics.If Nissan built another platform for the Z, not only would it have possibly sent the company bankrupt, it might have lost some of its magic.Nissan’s FM platform is not alone in this. In fact, even though Ford probably could afford to create a new Mustang platform, you could argue the platform it rides on is even older than the Z’s. Depends who you ask. While Ford says the S550 Mustang is built on a ‘ground-up’ platform developed just for the Mustang in 2015, it’s to some extent based on the existing D2C platform that the Mustang rode on since 2004, itself an evolution of the DEW98 platform used from the late 1990s.While the Mustang’s platform is now different in a few key areas, including the addition of independent rear suspension for the S550 generation onwards, it’s still related to that of the early 2000s.And it’s still quite capable and really, really fun, just like the Nissan Z.I point all of this out because I’m a little worried about what happens to the other, even more affordable sports cars when it’s time for their next generations. Will the Mazda MX-5 or Toyota GR86 (and Subaru BRZ) hold onto their platforms until it’s no longer possible to release a car on them?We’re going to be waiting until after 2030 for a new Nissan Z according to Nissan Americas’ Senior Vice President Chief Product & Planning Officer Ponz Pandikuthira, though given he says the next GT-R will ride on a new platform the FM Platform might also be outta here.A new Ford Mustang won’t be around until a similar time, though Ford CEO Jim Farley has notably said the V8 would stick around “as long as God and the politicians let us”. The platform might need some more work by then if the brand intends to electrify the pony car, though it won’t go full-EV if Ford can avoid it.If you’re anything like me, you’d probably be okay with the next generations of each of these cars riding on a very similar platform to their predecessors.Of course evolution needs to take place, otherwise the Mustang would still have a solid rear axle and the likes of ANCAP would have thoughts about that.The current Mazda MX-5 and Toyota GR86 are two properly affordable sports cars, and if keeping them within reach of most people means a new generation on the same highly acclaimed platforms as before, I’d be all for it.

Nissan has previewed an update to its Z sports car at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon ahead of its launch in Japan around the middle of 2026.A lot of the stylistic cues of this updated Nissan Z have been inspired by the original S30-generation of the Nissan Fairlady Z, known as the Datsun 240Z and 260Z in Australia.This includes the new Unryu Green exterior paint colour which is inspired by the original Grand Prix Green paint from the Fairlady Z, plus the machine-finished alloy wheel design.Highlighting this update is a revised front bumper which now features a body-colour bar across the grille and a ‘Z’ front badge replacing the standard Nissan badge.Other subtle changes to the front bumper add 30mm to the overall vehicle length, while they are also claimed to reduce front lift by 3.3 per cent and drag by 1.0 per cent.Under the skin there are larger pistons for the shock absorbers which are claimed to improve comfort and stability.It’s worth noting no changes have been made to the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine which continues to produce 298kW and 475Nm, and is mated to either a six-speed manual or nine-speed automatic transmission.Inside the changes are minimal. Nissan has introduced a new tan upholstery colourway on the seats, as well as the lower portion of the dash and door cards.In addition to this updated Nissan Z, the Japanese carmaker revealed a manual version of the Z Nismo at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. To date it has only been offered with the nine-speed automatic transmission.The Z Nismo manual gets a unique engine torque profile aimed to improve the throttle response, as well as a short-throw six-speed manual gear shifter.At this stage it’s unclear if or when this updated Nissan Z or the Z Nismo manual will be coming to Australia. We’ve reached out to Nissan and will update this story once we hear back.

Nissan is giving petrol-heads what they want.

The interior of the eagerly awaited next-gen Honda Prelude has been revealed thanks to a Japanese YouTuber who has given us a glimpse into the cabin.When the Prelude concept made its debut in 2023 at the Tokyo mobility show it had blacked-out windows so the interior remained a mystery. It’s also highly unlikely it even had a finished interior at that point.Now thanks to Japanese YouTuber Unadon we’ve been given a guided tour inside the two-door 2+2 seater sports car and it's not quite as groundbreaking as we hoped.If anything the cabin, dashboard, controls and instruments are much the same as the cockpit in the current Honda Civic.Sure the new Prelude’s cabin is sporty and the two-tone sports seats with embossed Prelude headrests look modern and luxurious, but the climate control dials, honeycomb mesh air vents and steering wheel will all be familiar to anybody who has bought a Honda in the past few years.The rear seat is more or less a hard grey-coloured featureless bench without any form of obvious lateral support or even moulding for rear passengers.It’s unlikely the back seats will ever house the two people they’re designed to accommodate given the lack of space back there with the heavily sloped roofline and limited legroom. Unadon discovered how cramped it is when we ventured back there. There are also two ISOFIX points if child seats need to be installed.Unadon also gives us a look at the boot under the Prelude's liftback tailgate, revealing a small but deep area behind the rear seats that appears to be about 200 litres in capacity. He also folds the rear seats down to open up even more load carrying space.The Prelude, which is expected to make its European launch by the middle of 2025, will be hybrid only and use a petrol-electric system similar to the unit in the Civic. A manual transmission won't be available either.It's still not been confirmed for Australia, but our fingers are crossed.

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