RED LETTER DAY

A new Z shows there are signs of life at Nissan.

- Dan Edmunds

For a car named after the last letter of the alphabet, the Z-car got off to an incredibly strong start. An instant hit when it landed on our shores in 1970, the first-generation Datsun 240Z wore a graceful long hood, a sloping fastback roofline, a squared-off Kamm tail, and a powerful overhead-cam inline-six engine driving the rear wheels.

A starting price of just $3526, about $26,000 in today's money, led to an amazing rookie year. Eventually, the 240Z became the 260Z and then the 280Z, and Datsun became Nissan. But the car's 53-year history has been a bit of a roller coaster. Strong sales, accolades, and racing success met rising prices, a shrinking sports-car market, and eight model years of no Z at all.

With the new 2023 Z, Nissan hopes to bring back the thrills. It starts with the name itself. Until now, the adjacent number has always represented the engine's metric displacement in three-digit shorthand. The 2023 Z is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6, and past convention demands it be called a 300Z or 300ZX. A marketing meeting likely deemed that a number lower than the last 370Z could be considered a step backward. But the engine displacement doesn't define Nissan's sports car; it's the Z-ness of the thing.

On that front, the new Z is on point. It adheres to the classic formula that all predecessors have shared: two doors, rear-wheel drive, and a primo six-cylinder engine. It also maintains the nod toward affordable performance that the 350Z and 370Z reestablished. This Z comes in just two grades: a Sport priced at $41,015 and the Performance going for $51,015. There is also a special-paint-and-trim launch edition called the Proto for $54,015, but it's capped at 240 units.

Those prices remain unchanged whether you choose the six-speed manual or the nine-speed automatic, and there are no options apart from exterior paint and interior color schemes.