Nissan 370Z Nismo

Better late than never for sizzling Japanese muscle coupe

- Louis Cordony

‘NISMO’. Skyline enthusiasts revere the word like a deity. The company’s been tuning road cars for years while running Nissan’s global race operations.

But while early examples were only limited runs (think Skyline GT-R 400R) the outfit only became Nissan’s answer to M or AMG outfits in the late noughties, offering tasty top-of-the-line R35 GT-Rs and 370Zs since birth.

Yes, they’re both eight-year-old cars, but Australia’s had to watch the rest of the world enjoy them for almost a decade. Apparently due to “ADRs, timing, and capacity”, Richard Emery, the brand’s the local CEO, told us last year.

But Emery made the right noises and convinced Japan to greenlight Nismo models for Aussie tarmac. And the 370Z is the latest result. Thankfully, Nismo’s done better than paste the 370Z with a stickerpack, and instead tweaked it like you would with five-minutes on Forza Motorsport.