This is the Nissan 370Z Nismo

Just as we were almost forgetting about the Nissan 370Z, Nissan has gone and made a new version, this time wearing a Nismo badge. It follows the launch of the Juke Nismo, the first in a new bunch of performance cars based on regular models.
 
Details are thin for now, but we did manage to extract a few facts from Shoichi Miyatani, the boss of Nismo - Nissan's racing department, whose engineers have been working their magic on its road and race cars since the Sixties.
 
The new bodykit, he says, is there for aero more than styling. It'll increase downforce, due mostly we imagine, to that whopping GT3-style rear wing. And - he claims - the chin spoiler will completely eliminate lift at the front end.
 
As for the suspension, and like the Juke Nismo, it'll be stiffer but not by too much. And it's a similar story for power, with the 3.7-litre V6 likely to get a decent boost to around 340bhp from its stock 323bhp.
 
We'll know more when it's officially shown off at the Geneva motor show in March, before going on sale in June this year. And who knows, with those motorbike-spec exhausts, it might even get close to the howling soundtrack of the 350Z, which we've missed since the 370 elbowed it out of showrooms in 2009.

Dan Read