A sporty Nissan and updated Land Rover
By William McCartney

Nissan 370Z
There seem to be certain things that car makers presently feel obliged to incorporate into their sports cars. Those things are Start Buttons, Steering Wheel Paddles for changing gear, and Appalling Rear Visibility. 

The last of those is probably a bit difficult to solve if you want to keep your roofline low, which is reasonably necessary if you want to build a truly fast car, and yet not build something that looks like a Jensen Interceptor. Although now that I think about that argument, it doesn’t work, because the Jensen Interceptor was a pretty cool looking car. Not to mention having a pretty cool name.

Working backward along the list, we come to the flappy transmission paddles. Sure, they use them in F1, but in road-going cars they are a waste of plastic. Firstly, they are found only with automatic transmissions, and anyone who buys an automatic sports car is not quite the Possum Bourne he thinks he is, so flipping up and down the auto with paddles is all a bit Playstation. 

Secondly, the autos to which the paddles are attached are mostly of the Extremely Good At Doing Their Job If Left Alone variety. Certainly, the seven-speed number in the 370Z is of that ilk. And that just makes the flappys effectively non-functional parts of the car. Thirdly (and this is related to the Firstly), changing gears yourself with a real clutch and gearstick is much more satisfying.

That leaves start buttons. They’re okay. But remember you still need to put your key somewhere, and the old key start ignition was quite a good place for it. You always knew where it was, and when you stopped the car, you had to turn the key, so you were more likely to leave the car with the key still in your hand. It all made a bit of sense really.

And yes, the 370Z has those three apparent necessities, and IMHO would be a no worse car without them. It is far from a bad car though. Nissan has made it lower and wider than its 350Z predecessor, but also shorter. The engine is bigger, there is more power, but no more weight. All of which give a more aggressive stance, and, one would have to think, a definite dynamic edge over the 350.

It has taken on proportions that are not a million miles removed from that of a 911, which I doubt is purely coincidental. There is even a blatant hint of Veyron, if you can spot the centre rear isosceles trapezium (look up that one in Wikipedia if you have forgotten your quadrilateral definitions).

Marketing department aside, little if anything has been overlooked in the performance department. The engine is good for 245kW, the tyres are enormous, and to stop the car changing shape under the influence of seriously high cornering forces, there is a big cross member bolted right across the cabin, just behind the seats. That particular feature won’t make the Z a great dog carrier, but if you have a sufficiently compact dog, you could move it very quickly indeed. $74,000. 

Defender Update (for those who are interested)
The Land Rover Defender is the only model still true to Land Rover’s roots. It was all very well making a Range Rover, but now the marquee is brimming with vehicles at the luxury end of the scale. The Discovery and Range Rover Sport are built on the same chassis, and are arguably different versions of the same car. The Freelander has gone upmarket and upsized. And there is yet another comfortable Land Rover called the LRX due to hit the world.

Only the Defender remains tough, slow, noisy, and uncomfortable. Despite (or possibly because of) its many faults, Top Gear (known for its ruthless objectivity) rated it “the coolest car in the world bar none”.

Another thing the Defender allegedly remains is unsafe. It has not been able to be sold in the US for many years due to having no airbags, and no compromise when running into people or other vehicles. Probably other reasons as well. That hasn’t helped sales volumes. Nor has the fact that even those who have a genuine need for a real off-road vehicle still like a little bit of comfort when they have to pop into town to pick up their ale and cabin bread.

So the Defender as we know it is on the way out. Which is a pity, because there is nothing else that would fit in your driveway which has as much ground clearance or off-road load-carrying ability. Or squareness.

The good news is that Land Rover Jaguar, now owned by Tata of Mumbai, has sworn that it will be replaced with something deserving of the Defender’s heritage, and that work is underway as we speak. To reinforce the point, the show has been named Project Icon. Due 2014.

Reports to date suggest that the new vehicle will still be built on a steel rail chassis, despite the rest of the Land Rover crowd moving to aluminium chassis; that it will still have at least the option of steel spring suspension, instead of electronic air suspension; that it will still have the bolt-together quality that allows production of the different body styles currently available.

Expect it to be equipped with either the Freelander’s new 2.2 four-cylinder diesel or the Discovery’s old 2.7 litre six-cylinder diesel.

Nevertheless, Defender fans should be nervous. It is likely to be wider, because the steel chassis will probably come from the Discovery, and because Land Rover will probably want to resolve the Defender’s reverse Tardis effect. So the classic exterior proportions are at risk.

There will be a push to make it lighter, for fuel economy purposes, which will conflict with the aim of keeping it tough. There has even been a suggestion that an electrically driven rear axle would improve both weight and fuel efficiency. Horrors.

If you think you might be in the market for a Defender, get one soon. If the new one is brilliant, you can always upgrade. If the new one is rubbish, it will be too late to buy an old one.