The Nissan Z is already one of the most exciting performance cars a vaguely real-world amount of money can buy, but prepare to want one even more because Nissan has just dropped news that a Nismo variant is coming this summer.
The automaker hasn’t released any price, power, or performance details for the 2024 Nismo coupe, instead opting to let the car, and three-time Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg do the talking. A short 44-second video released to YouTube shows Forsberg throwing the uprated Z into some huge oversteer slides on a closed course with plumes of smoke billowing from its rear wheel arches.
“A new chapter of thrill is coming for the worldwide Nissan Z fan base later this summer,” Nissan says in its release. “With track-tuned performance, bold styling and a dynamic design, Z NISMO is the next exciting milestone in the 50-plus year journey of Nissan‘s iconic sports car.”
That doesn’t tell us much about the specific content of the Nismo package, but fortunately, there are plenty of details visible in the video that help us fill in the blanks, including a much more attractive front bumper that gets rid of the ugly square grille seen on base cars.
Review: New Nissan Z Is Exactly What We Were Hoping For
That huge, boxy grille has come in for widespread criticism, so it’s possible that the new bumper might be adopted across the Z range, but the other features visible in the video, including the red trim on the lower bodywork, the front splitter, side skirts, and more aggressive rear bumper will all be unique to the Nismo.
We can also see multiple Nismo badges, a wraparound ducktail spoiler, and fat nine-spoke wheels wrapped in Dunlop track tires on the exterior shots, while the interior camera angles reveal track-style bucket seats, a red starter button on the console and Nismo branding on the seatbacks and digital gauge cluster.
We don’t spot anything new from the engine shot (the brace is fitted to the regular Z) and we’ve no way of knowing if Nissan has uprated the 400 hp (406 PS) 3.0-liter V6 to 500 hp (507 PS) as some sources have claimed. Another big question is whether the Nismo will be available with a manual transmission as the base Z is, because the car in the video is an auto.
So there’s plenty to still learn about the Z Nismo, but we like what we see so far. Toyota, whose Supra already looks like poor value next to the Z, is likely to be less enthusiastic.
