2023 Nissan Z | Jay Leno's Garage

you know it's amazing how good modern cars have become because if you drove this and then got into a 240z you go ah yeah it just seems rattly you know i mean yeah i mean i drive old cars all the time so to me it's sort of second nature but of course i have friends that you know hey can i drive you they go oh i don't really like it you gotta press awful hard on the brake well yeah that's not a power brake yeah they're just so used to the modern convenience and just how linear the power is it really just feels very nice it feels good under the foot for sure yeah i mean it's a car i can have a good time by myself oh easy and you get to row your own gears yeah one episode of jay leno's garage the car featuring today 2023 nissan z the successor of course to the great 240z of the early 70s you know i'm so glad to see this car i'm very excited because this is a sports car that's attainable we do an awful lot of p1 mclarens and you know the new ferrari you know those are all great hyper cars are great fun but in terms of just day-to-day driving uh this is is what i like it's got 400 horsepower v6 and as i said it's a real sports car and you know i i credit nissan for building this because let's face it you don't make a lot of money selling two-seater cars if you want to make a four-seater crossover or some kind of suv you'll sell a hundred thousand more than you will of these but the fact that they have the dedication to do this and their uh they've got this heritage now you know it's funny back when i was in high school uh the big thing about uh japanese cars well they have no heritage not like triumph or mg or porsche you know because they were new but now they do now they got 50 60 years of heritage uh to look back on and you see a lot of the original 240z in this car a lot of the queues something that's really cool i'll show you how i'm into this car into this car i am 10 years ago i went to japan and i met with mr nakamura he was the head designer at the time and i wanted to find out are they ever going to build another 240z he's sort of secret there but he took me into the uh into the design studios we met the designer who was sketching a car it looked a lot like this i mean it's fascinating it takes a long time to build the car the gestation period is pretty crazy and plus you've got to sell the idea no it's only got two seats because you know if you're a bean counter a car company you want four seats and you want luggage and you know handling and performance kind of take a step back when you're just trying to sell a lot of automobiles so i love that they remain true to the original idea of the original t240z but before we show that tape i'm going to bring in a gentleman from nissan who is uh knows a lot more about this car than i do jonathan buehler now then come on in good to see you yeah you're the head communications guy yes i am okay and you know all about the car i do see this is because good to have you here thank you thank you very much oh thanks for having me um so this car comes with a nine speed automatic or a proper six-speed workout six-speed manual that's right what do you find because you know whenever i talk to automobile companies they say everybody says they want to stick and it's less than 10 is it more than that with this so we do find that this sku is actually quite probably 40 60 with 40 to manual 60 to automatic and that's really just because of the base of enthusiasts right that are obsessed with z and let's see let's be honest the 9-speed automatic is faster than the 6-speed i mean there was a time when uh nothing was faster than man you know you know whether it was trains or whatever john henry and all that kind of stuff but we need to share now where machines could do it a lot better a lot quicker you lose a lot of the soul of the car i think with it on the back but if you're purely just racing and going fast the you know that that a nine speed is pretty good you probably get better mileage too but it's not as much fun and i see you've very wisely brought me a six-speed today because i didn't really i know what autumn i i know they're great i know they're better than i am okay thank you you know so i i like i like having a proper car that i could just go out and enjoy because you know i don't race people on the street but i race myself you know i i enjoy driving and sometimes people pull up and they want to race like i don't want to go to jail and lose my tv show so i i like a car that i can really have fun in and that's what i enjoyed about this thing it's really really terrific they'll be they're in the deal with showrooms about now uh so yeah here towards the end of this summer of 2022 uh you'll definitely see these out in the dealerships and this is the 23 model okay that's correct was it hard getting this to production was it a hard sell with with dealers because dealers like to sell crossovers and suvs and from a dealer point of view they actually were excited oh good as soon as we announced that we were bringing this car into production and that we were going to have a next generation z they were extremely extremely excited so in our dealer meetings the round of applause that we got when we showed you know the initial sketches of this was absolutely crazy and that kind of cemented the fact that this was something that we knew was going to be great and we knew we had to do right and it's a halo car exactly but it's an affordable halo car which is a halo car you know for me that terms something that brings people into the showroom you know uh we bought a 64 ford falcon because i took my dad in to see the new mustang i knew he wasn't going to buy the mustang but i just want i thought maybe make a shot so he said well give me that i'll take that one there that's got four doors you know so we so we got a falcon from my mom it was kind of funny so that was the same thing and it makes it makes the lineup exciting it does it really does so this this really plays well with our complete lineup where you have gtr as more of the numbers car you know the the car that really kind of stands out from a performance oriented point of view and then you have the z which really plays to kind of the enthusiast base who's looking for as you were mentioning something fun to drive something to enjoy something to grow your own gears and really you know i'm more excited about this in the gtr because the gtr is so over the top to me i mean it's a great car but in terms of affordability and having fun and using as a regular car you know that's what i like about this i mean the miata became i mean the matter was really a well-built lotus is what it was they they took lotus's idea and built it properly and it became the biggest selling sports car in history and the 240z certainly right behind it plus the other fascinating thing about it it was the first car built i think in japan specifically for the american market i went to toyota and let me borrow the toyota gt the one that sean connery yeah the 2000 gt yeah the convertible it wasn't a convertible but sean county couldn't fit in it so they cut the roof off it and they gave it to sean conner he drive this in the movie you know that's right and they let me drive then it was great it was great i mean i'm in it like this and i i got my shoe off and i'm using my big toe to hit the gas but it was just so tiny you know whereas this plus as i say in this video you're about to see it had rolled up windows i'm like which seems almost silly now but in the early 70s you still got british cars that had the plastic windows you had to stick in and you had to assemble the top with the manual put you know clip a into clip c yeah so it was really really pretty cool pretty cool and this is probably closer to the original 240z than anything oh absolutely between yeah so what's really unique about the z um in front of us is that this was very heavily influenced by the 240 as you mentioned as well as several other generations of zs so you'll notice in the rear very reminiscent of the z32 300 zx from the early to mid 90s especially with the tail lights but of course this front end is just z 100 240z uh you know minus the front bumper you know could essentially be this yeah and you've got so many rules and regulations that didn't even exist in the 70s headline i mean they stopped building the ford gt not because it wasn't popular but because the new regulation said the headlights had to be i think two inches higher exactly okay so you've got safety things and plus this has every reasonably conceivable safety item which is never you've got the you know stepping out of lane yep so lane departure warning blind spot warning forward emergency braking with pedestrian detection so all of the key safety features that you kind of want and honestly blind spot warning is amazing in this considering you know the small three-quarter window right right but uh yeah ultimately you as a driver are completely safe from an active safety point of view okay uh so it's a v6 v6 uh twin turbo is it a new v6 so it's a delineation of what we've had packaged in the infiniti q50 qc60 red sport but more horsepower but well same horsepower as the redsport version oh okay um so 400 horsepower was standard on that but what is different about this is that it's tuned specifically for this packaging we've added a recirculation valve uh on both sides of you know the banks for the turbos uh to again keep the responsiveness up which you will feel uh especially while driving so that cuts down on turbo lag correct yeah so it keeps the uh you know the the turbo spooling uh by recirculating it back into the intake side and then on top of that though we also added a speed sensor and its undesignated gauge so the center pod on the top of the dash indicates the speed that the turbos are working which is really unique because now what that's doing is allowing you to see how effectively those turbos are spooling not only to provide responsiveness but also to provide you know some really cool feedback let me ask you a question about because when turbos first came out and you were driving hard or whatever they would always say idle for a minute to let the oil circulate to cool down the turbos you know because what would happen if you shut off right away the oil will just sit there and cook and just you know i guess do you still recommend that or is that are they pretty much they're so efficient now yeah that yeah you know no need for a turbo timer or uh you know to set an idle for a little bit but it's probably good after you push the turbo oh yeah so just let it let the car cool down let that cool down for sure okay very good uh and of course brakes obviously four wheel discs all the way around correct yeah and so for this particular trim level that we have in front of us jay this is a performance trim so this comes with the akibono brakes which are the four piston caliper front two rear uh designated by the the red uh calipers themselves 14 inch rotors in the front again providing a lot of great braking power for that spirited driving or for just daily usage and for z enthusiasts they'll also notice that these are very similar to the previous generation uh both the 370 and the 370 unismo so these uh with this entire package provide a really great breaking performance yeah it's fun to see the japanese versions of classic european performance names like brembo whatever you know and then rather than go to them and use their brakes they develop their own and it gives it a japanese spin more of a japanese feel to it which i think is really fascinating uh let's see what else have we got um electric power steering or hydraulic so yes we've now moved into the electronic power steering realm with the new z so before it was uh you know just a traditional hydraulic rack but now we've moved to eps and that's really to to do two things first is to provide a lot better driving feel so maybe that's something that you'll be able to find sure it might not give you the the best amount of feedback because obviously as we all know hydraulic is where it's at right but uh this eps was tuned specifically by our engineers to ensure really good feel um and dynamic control but then also allow us to put those safety features that you had mentioned before to ensure that you know not only are we keeping the customer safe but also providing a top-level performance and also electronic doesn't rob horsepower hydraulic horsepower essentially not much maybe five or ten horsepower but yeah it's it's minimal but every little bit counts well let's open the hood yeah please how do we do it am i right am i ready you're right you're in the right spot there okay here we see oh here we go i mean the days of the engine dress-up kit are gone you can't buy the chrome valve covers with the chrome air cleaner now you get the optional giant sheet of plastic that goes over the top but that's okay i love the bracelet well that's a massive looking brace that looks really strong that almost looks like an aftermarket piece it really does but coming from the factory this is actually really key for the structural rigidity additions to the new z over its previous generation so yeah you'll see this adjustable strut tower bar here which is again playing to the strengths of of what we wanted to do for not only the z but for our enthusiasts who own these cars yeah i mean the smart thing about buying a pack you get the whole package you know a lot of times people will find an older car japanese american whatever and they put a bigger engine in it but you just can't strengthen the chassis it's made for 125 horsepower and now it has 500 horsepower exactly and you want you know it's like it's like a a wire coat hanger you do this enough times and and it's got to break you know so you have these massive braces here which really work and this is not a light car this is what about 3 600 yeah right at around 36 in this train okay because you've got to have all the safety features and all those kind of things correct but 400 horsepowers i mean it's funny when the when the nissan when the first 240z came out i don't think you could buy a car with four there was no car with fallen hospital no ferrari no nothing that was like crazy i think the dodge viper of the early night was the first oh my gosh 400 horsepower you never see that again you know what else have we got here oh you got your uh fluids are under here so we've got our access to our our braking and our clutch uh master cylinders there the battery costs over there yep of course but as you mentioned yeah we've got this this engine cover but what it's covering are the two heat exchangers on top of the engine um and then yeah down below obviously the turbos and then they just cycle back through uh you know the bottom side of the car which of course then houses either the six-speed manual right or the nine-speed auto and what's also unique j about this particular vehicle that we have here uh so the performance trim level comes with a clutch type limited slip differential now okay oh it's it's a mechanical pad it is a mechanical okay so before we've had a viscous um but we had some overheating issues as well as some unintended locking so uh we've moved now to uh the mechanical to really give you well i like that you know i've got an old 65 shelby it's got a detroit locker and every time you go around the corner somebody's breaking a chicken leg yeah cracker what was that what was it what's what broke it was literally just like a huge crack yeah i actually get used to it i'm actually kind of nice well i i like the fact that they've made it a performance car not a luxury tour i mean it's a true sports car but it's got air conditioning and the safety features and all that kind of stuff exactly and like you say you don't make a lot of money selling these cars the real money's in the suvs i mean porsche showed that you could sell maybe 60 000 cars a year and that's it how many people really want to or can use a two-seater car right when you come out with the panamera and all the other ones okay that's where you make your money right and i love the fact that nissan uses its suv money to build on this one i mean you know but you have to talk about a product if you're trying to make money what's going to sell well i'm sorry that's going to sell more than the other i like the fact that nissan has the enthusiast in mind and takes the effort to develop and build it very cool absolutely yeah it was it was key for us as you mentioned like heritage earlier you know it's something that we really want to to focus on and ensure that we deliver so it was it had to be done i mean you cannot have i got you cannot have a you know a lineup without the z and so it was imperative for us to ensure that we delivered this to our and here's something i when i buy a car i was looking i just like the shut lines here i mean they're all equal it doesn't get wide you know a lot of customers will get a little wider here and it it changes it you know it's it's it's pretty amazing i love the gauge pack i love the the hooded covers that's always something i thought was kind of cool that just harkens back to the original z exactly yeah those three gauge pods have been nrz since the inception of the z it is it is so hard to make a modern version of an of a vintage car or you know an iconic car because you can't there's things you can't do anymore you can't have doors that open this way you can't have you know just all those things so pretty pretty amazing uh very nice and where is the how do you open the bag you need the fob or you have it no so it's really unique uh it's right underneath the nissan badge so you just uh you know open it from there so it's hidden but it's still there okay bug pretty good cargo room especially for a sports car yeah i'd say so yeah ample cargo room you can fit two golf bags in here if you so inclined yeah yeah i mean that was that was what i loved about that the c corvettes the i guess c5 through through seven yeah yeah you had that huge area you could put two by fours in there you know it's pretty good nice go to the store yeah you know as i said ten years ago in the video you're about to see they asked me my favorite part of for the design and it's always right here oh you and me both this is my favorite part you know when you wash a car this is the most sensuous part right i know i sound creepy but that's okay no absolutely i hope i hope they keep that so mr nakamura was taking notes as i spoke um we're going to take this ride in just a second but first i thought you might get a kick out of this video i i did in japan 10 years ago i am wearing the exact same clothes i am now who knows we're here at the nissan technical center this is one of those kind of top secret rooms you really can't get in unless you know somebody well i happen to know the chief creative officer shishiro he's been to my garage and an excellent musician by the way excellent bass player you got to hear him play he's creative guys they do a lot of stuff now the rumor is to celebrate the 80th anniversary of nissan the 240z might be coming back is that a possibility yeah next year is 80th anniversary we would like to bring something celebrating our heritage well this is the first generation fair lady and the one you saw me drive it had those wheel arches tacked onto it and a few other things this is a car in its purest form as it left the factory and boy it's a really timeless good looking design and i'm surprised about what a such a big car you know most of the japanese cars that i've driven from the period the honda 600 and some of the little they're almost toy cars they're very small this is a real car designed with american roads in mind wasn't it right at that time it's a 2.4 2.4 liter right six cylinder is a big car right japanese standard you know to me the first generation as well as the purest this is my favorite this one not so much these two didn't do much me like this like this and this is possibly the future this one this is closer to this than any of these are to that so it's fun to go back to the original sort of style and shape with obviously modern well here are some more interpretations here yeah this is uh some of the sketch we use for today's v and even you know this has already the spirit of 240z when your designers design do they just design then you go back later and go or do you tell them all the rules and regulations before they start they are doing sketches without any restriction okay just pure imaging and after this stage we have to ask them to create all the package right okay so which means the safety regulation the size of the engine how much thought goes into even something as simple as a gear shift lever all the different interpretations i gotta go with uh which one i just i'm just kind of old school just i think actually the ball fits in the palm of your hand that seems so well look at some far out concepts you have up here i see a lot of original 240z in there and this here obviously using modern what 21 inch wheels or 22s those are pretty big this is interesting and this one too i was talking before i thought a split window would look cool and it's kind of like a split window i don't i don't review everything i knew the school teacher no no no no once a month and i don't come too often i give them more you know time to think about gotcha gotcha okay you you love 240z right which party do you like best i love this curve i mean to me this this part when you wash the car this is the coolest part right i love this right all up in here this is i think and i think the front end is really good too i love the practicality of that i mean this was there was no sports car in the day except maybe corvette where you could do this and you can actually go on a trip and carry something more than a pair of gloves i mean that was the great thing about it i always like that and i like this window here you don't realize how well this window is designed until you see one that's done poorly you go oh my god looks horrible but something as simple as a window you think how much thought can go into but they're just that little shape jay thank you very much for your insight for 240z i will give you our young designer to help work together for 10 minutes except designer 240 in 10 minutes how hard can that be hi i'm jay hi and my name is hello how are you nice to see you my favorite part on that car there the rear haunches the way give me something with a high coming off that roof uh okay oh yeah okay right yeah yeah well i like having the the rear come up and flow you know i like having like sort of rear haunches you know where the where the rear is higher than obviously the front yeah that looks pretty good it looks nice that looks nice not that i have anything to do with it but it looks good and i like the rear deck treatment yeah here lot of cars don't feel it fill out the wheel well perfectly and that always looks bad with this that pet yeah it's kind of cool isn't that yeah wow look at that i could never draw that it takes an artist to draw that it's like buying a suit you tell them what you want it seems like if you're going to have a retro kind of shape it should have exciting new things on it led lights you know something the basic shape is so pleasing you know very cool yeah roof's probably a little high in it but yeah but you're the artist but thank you thank you very much that's pretty cool very exciting thank you very much i see why i'm not a car designer thank you very cool well you see how it's done and if the new 240z looks anything like that i should be getting a royalty check is that correct yes and we're going to have the big mirrors on the fender yes if you want very cool very cool well i hope you enjoyed that video on how automotive fashion has not changed in the last decade yeah so we're gonna take this for right jonathan and i come on i'm anxious to get it on the road got the bob that's it [Music] i mean i like a car where you can use all the power all the time all the time you know i mean i've got some supercars and i enjoy them yeah but sometimes you're going i'm in jail what happened why are the cops around me right you know uh i won't say we'll keep you away from the cops but uh i will say though that this does have a very linear power band that you can utilize well i enjoy this one i said a million times it's what i love about i've got a 63 porsche carrera 2. yeah yeah and i enjoy watching the attack make its journey to 7 000. can put your foot in right yeah i get on my p one o'clock i'm going 130 what happened yeah exactly it's so quick boy it almost sounds like an aftermarket exhaust system well so this is actually a prototype nismo exhaust that we've got on it oh okay um but this would be optional this is something that you could go to the dealership and buy right off the shelf okay and have fit it to your car it's still uh epa legal or anything yeah it would be carb approved yeah this thing just loves to to rev out so it's uh especially um you know when you get into the boost and you really let it rip it's a good time it's so funny because back in the day there was nothing smoother than a straight six i think bmw led to charge with those the big cl coupes and i mean and they were turbine like just amazing and i guess they always say like a six is better balanced and all other kind of stuff sure i think yano was the first guy to make a v6 the first kind of ever v6 was valencia aurelia that was the first v6 that's right yep and you know and then everybody kind of jumped on the bandwagon but i guess just with modern technology all those old kind of sort of rules don't really apply anymore you know no they don't and you know as an enthusiast myself you know and having once owned you know a 240z uh um and my wife has one as well though what's really unique about those is yeah i mean we've had generation after generation but we've kept with the six cylinders regardless of whether it's an inline six or a v6 so that consistency across the you know the entire generation span of z has always had a six cylinder well it's fine because the va thing is uniquely american very true in europe the six was the big engine true yes and the four was the base engine and you know i've got that maserati um 3500 gti there that's the twin plug head three from half liter six and it's funny when you read the road tests from 1962 was what mine is and the road tester says why anybody needs a car with 220 horsepower is beyond me but i'm glad they did it because it's great you know yeah and you realize you know now you've got double that you've got 400 400 yep boy turbo kicks doesn't it it really does yeah it's really nice you know the fun thing about a great car is it appeals to everybody from all walks of life you know it's like when the mini came out the beatles twiggy rich people the royal family and laborers they wanted a mini just because it was so cool it really had no the class wasn't based on how much it cost exactly and that's what's fun about this you know i mean i like paganis and all those kind of cars they're very nice but nobody can afford them really so yeah you're not really moving the bar forward this you raise the level of everybody up in terms of performance and handling and what you can do with the car you know exactly the whole gallon carrying nature of the whole thing yeah it's definitely accessible and that's always been a key for z i mean it's always been the accessible sports car so from its inception with the 240 all the way through each generation it's always been something that could be attainable it wasn't something that was out of reach you know miata z corvette it's a car if you work hard you might not be a gazillionaire but boy you can aspire to have something really nice absolutely exactly that's what you know you know it's amazing how good modern cars have become because if you drove this and then got into a 240z you go uh-huh yeah it just seems rattly you know what i mean yeah i mean i drive old cars all the time so to me it's sort of second nature but of course i have friends that you know hey can i drive you i think oh i don't really like it you gotta press awful hard on the brake well yeah that's not a power break yeah they're just so used to the modern convenience and just how linear the power is it really just feels very nice yeah it feels good under the foot for sure yeah i mean it's a car i can have a good time by myself oh easily and you get to row your own gears yeah it's funny that you mentioned you know getting out of something modern into something you know that is of the past right and you really get kind of a more visceral experience just because of all the sounds and everything yeah this though is very tame and quiet but then the exhaust and but ammo is amazed at how foreign vintage cars are to younger generations you know having grown up with it it's interesting but i hear young enthusiasts say stuff like that kind of seems kind of dangerous i never anybody say dangerous when you're driving an old cobra or something they're not thinking about you know you know car guys are pretty much you know they have to think i'm never going to get an accident yeah that's you know but then you have a generation now who sort of grew up with all that true does this have air bags yeah yeah oh okay you know i never asked her no uh i was in the same position uh i i heated all of that out the window and i learned that i could uh uh you know obtain my dad's 240z and when we restored it together you know we had to make sure that it had harnesses and that it had a you know a half cage in it did dad buy it no so he uh he actually got it from the second own or for the from the first owner so he was the second owner right in ojai california so he was stationed uh at the naval base there in port magoo and so he uh he picked it up up there in the hills of ojai and then drove it 380 000 miles and then parked it wow north of atlanta uh when i was eight and then when i turned 15 we started the restoration together and uh that solidified the love of z for me wow pretty cool yeah and then now uh you know i'm living out the dream talking to you about the new z here uh still with us yeah he is yeah that's great yeah so he's uh he's still a big car enthusiast as well and he's tickled pink that uh you know we get to bring home a new z for him to try out happy to like it oh he loves this yeah so it's yeah it's just a fantastic full circle experience um but um yeah this this newsy is just something special which i'm extremely honored to be able to bring it to you and does the nine speed have paddles up here sure does yep uh and then uh fun note on that those paddles on the the nine-speed automatic are the same as you get on the gtr oh okay so uh so for any gtr owners who pick up a z yeah they'll have the same paddles something you never had in the old car where mirrors weren't vibrating the cars were funny you'd always see this you couldn't read a license plate you couldn't see anything yeah especially with the uh some sort of blur you know yeah it's just a little figment back there just scooting around because cars have always been fast it's just handling stopping and reliability that's where that's where all the changes are i mean even in 1900 people going 60 miles an hour of course you know it's like yeah but you're absolutely right but the more speed you know brakes is uh definitely very important it's fresh to have a car you don't rip the splitter off every time you pull on the gas station or driveway that's a great point as well it's amazing how turbo lag has almost been virtually eliminated yeah agreed for all intent supervision it pretty much is yeah especially with this that was a key goal was to eliminate that lag you know we didn't want it you know really catching you know at 3 000 rpms so go ahead with it yeah yeah so yeah you don't want it to catch you know at 3 000 and then take you up to redline you know you really want that responsiveness down low which you know that recirculation valve as well as you know really played a key role in this package it's funny you know when the a porsche turbo come out in 79 it had 240 horse and they wanted to ban it there was talk that it was too much power people couldn't handle it oh wow i mean it was peaky the way it came on i was gonna say like as soon as it hit a hit right yeah and then you just do a little bit of a fishtail then you you straighten out again but right didn't that car have a nickname the widowmaker the widowmaker yeah yeah because uh throw you sideways i would just go to spin well you know what's unique about a manual though is that you know you've got those those two pedals down there the go and the clutch you let out the clutch and you go and uh this will and it is the greatest anti-theft device ever i mean most carjackers just run away you know yeah yeah it's uh it's definitely a good one uh to have as a theft deterrent but uh it's funny though i've you know with some research that we've been looking at it's it's funny though you know the younger generation is starting to realize that you know this is something that's kind of special and it's unique and kind of seeking after cars with this that's why you've seen you know from a used car market perspective you know miatas are very popular and the brz frs and now the gt86 and the gr86 so i mean yeah there's there's kind of that growing sense of you know manuals are pretty cool yeah and i love the rug matching yeah it's it's really good so that's something that we launched with the the previous generation 370 and although if you didn't want to heal toe you can't turn it off but you do need that halo car i have to admit i didn't have much interest in the nissan until the gtr came out it just seemed sort of like nice cars sure you know but there was nothing that that grabbed you you know but then that gtr kind of gtr and then i got it so it's well over 200 grand the last generation wasn't it well so we start just over 100 for the the kind of entry level sort of premium gtr but yeah if you're looking for the nismo or uh you know a t-spec those those will run you in the mid-150s up to 210 215. you know i'm one of those people i i like to if the gauges that i like to read them all you know i know my temp my differential temperature is not that important but i just want to know what it is right now and now i have to go yeah you know i hate that i have to check i like that there you go you got them all all your telemetry on your sports garage i mean it's amazing how few two-seater cars actually get sold percentage-wise oh yeah you know i mean it's what i love but i realize i'm not you know i remember when the delorean fell but always they were afraid it would you know general motors in florida chrysler that opened no they don't care they don't sell enough cars to make any difference yeah yeah the segment is is kind of niche it's you know it's definitely a neat buyer who goes in and pursues one of these and it's usually as a second car it's never normally a primary but right of course it's always the second car and it's all like when uh alpha mayo introduces julia yeah i loved it they let me drive one with the with the six-speed manual this is fabulous and they we're not bringing that in here what well that's the only reason i'm here i like alpha's always so they just did the america they just did the automatic yeah oh the 6b would have been terrific in that it's a gorgeous sedan nice handling car art's impressed with it but yeah we're we're starting to see a little bit of a resurgence you know obviously that is dictated with the market you know and used car and new car values have skyrocketed but um we've definitely since the the initiation of the pandemic seeing you know folks wanting to get back out and enjoying their drive instead of you know just having you know a commuter car that gets them to point a to point b and so having something special like this is definitely starting to become top of mind for a lot of drivers and that's a really cool thing to see i don't even think you can hold a kid's scene i mean yeah yeah in in most cases so you wouldn't want to let me rephrase that but um but again though you know again to have as a second car or to have something you know that you can go and take on a drive on your own right to really kind of get out and be free so to speak this is a perfect car to do that and i don't think the original 240z was ever available with air conditioning was it so that was actually um yeah it was a dealer option so you could get it with air conditioning and so they would give you the compressor and the switch and the big box it was like one-third the price of the car yeah i specifically remember seeing it not being very cheap yeah well i remember back in the 60s the air conditioning was like a 700 option so if the car was 3 000 yeah that's almost a third yeah yeah it puts it in perspective uh but you know if you really wanted it you'd have to shell out for it yeah otherwise you know the the 240z had the pull vents down at the bottom so you pulled the little trigger and you'd have uh you know air flowing down into the floorboards which would then essentially keep that part of you cool and then you could just turn the fan on and have hot air blow on you but you could do my method of stick your hand out the window and cup it to try it we've come a long way from the early 240z but this is still very much in its dna well i remember when it came out how excited everybody was it was like had a little bit of xke and a little bit of corvette in it you know multiple multiple carburetors you know yeah with 151 horsepower yeah on the four speed with independent rear suspension and you weighed under three thousand pounds oh yeah yeah with the original forward this it drums at the back again those drums in the rear drums in the river disc up front but honestly for its weight and its power it's pretty sufficient but yeah i will say you know spirited driving rear discs is a must of course of course you know young people millennials don't even understand what great fate is it it doesn't what you know yeah what does that mean they kind of get it but they never experience it i mean i i have a 56 i got a couple of 56 packers that's got like eight inch drums on it oh wow you know and one day i'm just going down mulholland and i pokemon it goes right i just sail right through the stoplight i go geez i might pull over and pop it and let it cool okay there it goes now we got some pedal pressure yeah really frightening yeah yeah brake fade is is something that is very very scary downstream to you know use the engine speed to bring the car yeah versus uh your brakes especially on you know some steep downhills and whatnot definitely using the engine to slow you yeah the importance of brakes cannot be understated yeah boy i really like this thing it is really a really enjoyable car to drive it's exactly what it should be it's the right amount of horsepower i love you uh i'd love to hear you say that yeah we're just excited about this product man that you know the ze has just been a staple for us for over 15 years it took so long to bring it back yeah with you know the automotive industry the way it is you know obviously we would have loved to have this next generation come out sooner but you know we have to you know play due course and then just understand how best to it's always amazing to me how the business changes yeah i mean the corvair was a failure because they only sold 1.8 million yeah i mean yeah but just to have a two-seat rear-wheel drive twin turbo six-speed car in today's ages it's a good time to be an automotive enthusiast yeah especially with this being you know an ice versus you know eevee jonathan thank you very much thanks for bringing this by i really appreciate it i'm real excited for sports cars because this you know the high-end stuff is great but it doesn't move this moves the ball forward for the average guy yeah and that's really what i think is really cool absolutely attainable sports car and a lot of fun to drive and it feels like just the right amount of horsepower you know everybody's in the 600 club now but that's you know that's hundreds of thousands of dollars more money yeah you know it's a good balance right yeah it's a really good balance for approximately 50 grand with all the performance options sure oh i know i don't think you can beat it it's really impressive yeah yeah no thank you for having us and this has been an absolute pleasure yeah i'm glad you were able to get behind the wheel and experience it firsthand so thanks so much let's stop by the heritage center next time we're in nashville yeah come by is that open to the public unfortunately no oh okay but uh you know we uh we do facilitate tours yeah so um well thank you very much no problem thank you so much hey see you guys next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 692,725

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus, Nissan, 400, Shiro Nakamura, sports car, Japanese car, Japan, performance, Nissan Technical Center, design, design studio, designer, Brie Larson, car porn, car enthusiast, gearhead, SoCal, cars and coffee, coupe, roadster, spyder, Nissan Z

Id: m4AiIl67eT8

Length: 43min 37sec (2617 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022