A Sub-£10k Nissan 370Z Is A Japanese Oddball You'll Love

The Japanese have made some deeply fantastic cars over the years. Many have either been exquisitely high-revving animals with chassis so sharp you could cut a slice in reality, or brutish turbocharged beasts whose solid gold scene reputations long outlived the cars themselves.

Occasionally, though, Japan threw out a ball so curved that if you threw one it would come back to you. The Nissan 370Z was one of them. Built to succeed the beautiful 350Z, it had the same basic DNA but was better built and had a large squeeze more torque from the extra 200cc of its 3.7-litre V6 mounted under the long bonnet.

It was unusual because it didn’t drive like anything Japan had made before. Its long-nosed sports cars were lightweight, dainty, relatively low-powered things after the fashion of mid-20th Century British sports cars. The 350Z laid the foundations and the 370Z took things onwards.

It was – and is – a bit of a monster; a slow-in, fast-out miniature muscle car that was always left trailing for outright dynamic ability by the Porsche Cayman, but the Zed was cheaper, and much faster, as Nissan’s advertising at the time pointed out.

There’s a huge amount of joy in this car. Its pedals are heavy, the steering is a little blunt and the engine has always felt like it needed a little something extra (like a lightened flywheel) to get the best from it, but to find the Zed’s rhythm on a great road is to enjoy what has become a totally unique experience.

The news this week that Nissan is going to directly replace the 370Z, whose future has been in doubt for years, is music to our ears. Much like its old-school V6 is. The story sent our whimsical fingers clicking their way to the classifieds, where we found this little peach.

It’s a tidy-looking 103,000-miler from 2010, for sale with Stephen Robinson Ltd of Hillsborough in Northern Ireland. The 326-horse example is said to have an extensive service and maintenance history, which is never a bad thing, and the spec sheet is loaded to the gunwales.

Inside this surprisingly civilised hooligan is sat-nav, heated and powered leather and Alcantara seats, Bluetooth, a 6CD changer attached to a Bose stereo system, cruise and climate control, parking sensors and bi-xenon headlights. It’s a manual, natch.

It might not have the lite-exotica image of the Cayman, and it couldn’t match it on a circuit without mods, but on the road the Zed is every bit as much fun once you get to know it. The deal-clincher could be the price: a low-looking £9,990.

The same buys you a four-year-older Cayman with identical miles but a whole litre less capacity and a deficit of almost 80bhp. You pays your money and takes your choice, but the 370Z makes a strong case for itself.