Yahoo Autos Which one would you buy? We test the Toyota GR Supra vs the Nissan Z
PINCKNEY, Mich. — You might hear this a lot these days, but it bears repeating: The glory days of internal combustion performance vehicles are right now. That fact is evident all across the industry, but the pair of shift-your-own, two-seat sports cars before us — the 2023 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 and the 2023 Nissan Z Performance — are shining examples of the current state of affairs.
Six cylinders. Six-speed manuals. Rear-wheel drive. Long hood, short deck. Can’t lose?
Well, somebody has to lose, because somebody’s going to win. Despite us being grateful for their mere presence, both of these cars have their share of controversies. BMW jokes are still freely bandied about regarding the built-in-Austria Supra. That new six-speed manual for 2023? Yeah, it’s from the BMW parts bin, but like the rest of the car, Toyota ripped it apart and re-jiggered it to its own standards. Haters can continue to hate, but they’re missing out on a seminal sports car over a philosophical argument.
Then there’s the Z that, while it looks brand-new, is still built on the ancient 370Z platform and shares way more parts with the old coupe than you might care for. Sure, it’s a Nissan through-and-through, but how dare Nissan try to reduce, reuse and recycle when engineering its “all-new” Z. Once again, shrug.
The bottom line with sports cars like these two should always be how they comport themselves on the road, not the circumstances around how they were born. We can all have a laugh at the Supra’s BMW iDrive infotainment system and the Z’s 2010-spec climate controls, but those factors wouldn’t determine the winner here. These storied nameplates demand that it’s all about the drive, so we drove the wheels off of them and weighted our score sheets to reflect the importance of driver-focused elements: acceleration, braking, steering, handling, gearbox, ride, seats and driving position, fun to drive and value. In the end, it was clear which left a lasting impression as the attainable two-seat Japanese sports car to get.
Second Place: 2023 Nissan Z Performance
It’s painful to say, but the new Z just isn’t the world-beater that its enthusiast darling of a design suggests it might be. The powertrain isn’t the problem. Nor is it the interior styling or tech. Unfortunately, it’s the chassis holding the Z back from greatness. Criticism over its lack of platform development is well warranted, because under that shiny new sheet metal is a sports car that isn’t as sorted as its closest competition.
The Z starts to feel a little uncomfortable as soon as you settle into its well-bolstered bucket. Instead of sitting in the car, it feels much more like you’re sitting on top of it. This sensation follows you around in all of its movements. It takes considerable seat time before we really start to get attuned to the way the Z’s body moves through corners whereas the Supra instantly feels natural. There’s a sense of imposter syndrome from the chassis that starts on initial turn in and continues through corner exit and consecutive corner transitions. Its chassis never seems to settle down, and it’s just plain slower to respond to inputs than the Supra. Sheer grip is present from the Bridgestone Potenza S007 summer tires, but the Z’s softer and bouncier underpinnings don’t inspire confidence in the driver to find it.
Instead of driving like the sports car it looks like, the Z’s character is slanted toward the grand touring side of the equation. The only problem there is that its ride away from winding roads isn’t a beacon of comfort either. The monotube, passive dampers try to do everything well, but they end up being the champion of nothing in particular. Compared to the Supra, the Z bobs up and down on poor pavement and crashes harder over heaves in the road. It’s in search of a greater focus, one that the upcoming Nismo model could provide.
On the upside, the 400-horsepower 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 is violence distilled into engine form. The Z’s 18-horsepower advantage over the Supra feels more like 30 driven back-to-back, and the way this boosted powerplant delivers its shove is unrelenting from the moment peak torque hits at 1,600 rpm. The V6 might be all intake and no exhaust in the noise game, but we could hardly care as the tires screech all the way through first, part of second and chirp once more into third. And while Nissan did improve the Z’s gearbox over the 370Z, it’s still lacking in precision and feel through the gates. The clutch isn’t much better; its long travel, awkward bite point and aforementioned excitable engine making it more difficult to be smooth in both everyday and hard driving in the Z, too. The same can’t be said for the Supra’s superbly modified six-speed gearbox and silky-smooth drivability.
One place you might not have expected a win from the Z is its tech package, but the Supra’s woefully dated iDrive 6 infotainment system leaves Toyota with a big impediment here. While Z owners get to enjoy both wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Supra buyers are limited to only wireless Apple CarPlay in an infotainment system that is now several whole versions out of date (though to be fair, we don’t exactly love the latest systems of Toyota or BMW). Nissan was even able to sort out how to combine adaptive cruise control with a manual transmission. Toyota does pair its whole driver assistance suite (with adaptive cruise) with a manual in the GR Corolla and , but the Supra manual offers no such luxury. Hint: That’s because BMW doesn’t offer adaptive cruise with its manual-equipped cars either.
