Drive Happy

 The Nissan 370Z
By BILL PRYOR

Ever since I first learned to read, I began collecting magazines about cars. And I still have them all.
        
It was about 1945 when World War II calmed down enough for car manufacturers to get back to work. Every 10-year old boy I knew could identify every new car on the market. Hudson cars were particularly interesting. It had a 4168 cubic centimeter straight eight, and the speedometer read all the way up to 120 miles per hour.
All of us boys knew that didn’t mean the car would go that fast, you could put that speedometer on a bicycle. Still, that Hudson was about the fastest car on the road and it had another unique feature, when you got in the car, you had to step down. The floor was really low.
        
Today a collector who can find a late 1940s Hudson (or a Packard, Auburn, Cord, DeSoto, Kaiser or Willis) still in recognizable condition, hidden in a barn in South Dakota, will go wild.
        
Not many of us remember there was a Great Depression in the 1930s, but it finally went away. Now another Great Depression has made a comeback, but we all know it, too, will go away some day.
        
But right now, just down the street from where you live, Nissan is making a car that is awesome.
        
Yes, these are the same people who brought us the Altima, Centra, Murano, Rogue, Titan, Frontier, Armada, Pathfinder, Exterra and Quest, in case you haven’t been keeping up. But…these are the guys who gave us the legendary Datson 240Z, which Paul Newman drove in races everywhere.
        
(A side note:  In my racing days, I sometimes drove a British Morgan. We were racing in Fernandina Beech, Florida when my late friend, Jim Fitzgerald in a Datson 240Z was about to lap me. Jim’s car was a right-hand-drive. My Morgan was a left-hand-drive. As a joke, I stuck my hand out for Jim to give me a tow. He did! He and I crossed the finish line holding hands. I hated that damn 240Z. Somewhere today, there is one hidden in a garage.)
        
Things have changed a lot. Today’s Nissan 370Z is the first full re-design since the 2003 Nissan Z. This car uses lightweight materials. It has a larger engine, with 26 more horsepower, and get this…a seven-speed automatic transmission, and the first-in-the-world synchronized downshift six-speed manual transmission with a rev-matching system.
        
All right, I could keep on praising this new Nissan 370Z, but you may not be ready to buy a new car. So see if your dad’s 55-year-old Packard Convertible with the rotten top is still in the barn. Take it to an antique car auction and spend the money on this new 332-horsepower Nissan 370Z.

At lease, go look at one at the Nissan dealer near you. Those guys are dying to sell you one at a bargain price. Take good care of it and keep it in your barn. Someday, it might put your kids through college.