One of the first sports cars I rode shotgun in as a kid was the 1970 Datsun 240Z. On a race track. Red. Fat tires. Manual shifter. Inline 6-cylinder engine. Bubble headlights. Two-door fastback. Hood that went on forever. Ooooh, I loved that car. No generation of Z has measured up since.
Until now.
The redesigned seventh-generation Z sitting in my driveway is a stunner. Perhaps because it’s inspired by the original ’70. Red. Fat tires. Manual shifter. V-6 engine. Bubble headlights. Two-door fastback. Long hood. Like Mustang returning to its design roots with the fifth-gen 2005 pony car, the Z updates the original 240Z design for the 21st century. Since photos of the sleek “Z Proto” concept car first appeared in 2020, anticipation has run high, and the production car doesn’t disappoint. When I drove it north to Lake Charlevoix for a weekend, it turned heads wherever it went.
