East-West Streetfight

From the U.S., the new Ford Mustang GT. From Japan, the new Nissan 370Z. We drag and drift them through the streets of Detroit to determine which is the best sports car for under $30,000.

by Eddie Alterman

I am sliding the new Nissan 370Z across a frosty and winding Detroit road, breaking the speed limit and doing it sideways, when 6,000 pounds of Ford F-150 ambles around the corner. The barely frozen lake to my right doesn’t seem like a plausible escape route. My only option, really, is to keep my foot on it and pray.

Had we time for more meaningful conversation than the pickup driver’s single-finger communiqué, I would have told him that I am drifting the new 370Z on a heavily trafficked public road for a scientific reason: to find out if the best $30,000 sports car is made by Japan or the U.S.

Why 30 large? Because it’s ­affordable, and above that the law of diminishing returns comes into full effect. The segment has always forced a decision: You could have brute power or delicate handling, but not both. In one corner sat V-8 knuckle draggers like the Mustang and Camaro, punching their own foreheads to get pumped up. In the other corner, wearing pink trunks, were dainty sports cars — originally British Triumphs and MGs until the U.K. auto industry died and Japan stepped in with the Nissan Z-Series and Mazda Miata. A man made his choices and took his lumps.

But like our political parties, the two extremes are moving ­toward a middle ground. The 2010 Mustang exhibits real polish, with a smoother-riding chassis, a curvier exterior that looks sexier and results in less wind noise, and an upgraded interior that replaces the dollar-store plastics of the last model with soft-touch surfaces and high-quality switch gear. Meanwhile, the Nissan 370Z’s testicles have descended, its new 332-hp V-6 outmuscling the Ford by 17 ponies. Inspired by the robot revolution in Japan, its brooding, anime-influenced design masks a car that is shorter, lighter, and lower to the ground than the previous version of the Z.

Cane-shaking purists may be wistful for the days when a muscle car cornered like a tugboat and a sports car hit 60 in the time required to boil water, but this is automotive evolution. The Nissan Z and Ford Mustang, in production for 39 and 45 years, respectively, aren’t losing their edge; they’re adding more skills to the repertoire.

To test their newfound talents, I’ll put them through two challenges, picked to represent each country’s indigenous form of motor­sport. From the treacherous switchbacks of Japan’s Mount Fuji comes the drifting challenge, ­allowing me to gauge the cars’ grip, reflexes, and at-the-limit handling. And I’ll drag down the burger grease–streaked corridors of Detroit’s Woodward Avenue to find out how well each ride delivers its power. I have with me as co-tester Jim Hall, of 2953 Analytics. Before he was an auto analyst Hall wrote for Motor Trend and developed experimental cars for General Motors. I have seen him drift a Bentley Arnage through a crowded intersection, use an English roundabout as his personal skid pad, and get air in a Mini. That unique skill set is going to come in handy today.

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Round 1: Drifting
Hall and I point both cars toward the lakes of suburban Detroit, where the roads break free from the grid to follow curving shorelines. They’re also narrow and frost-heaved, with no guardrail separating a man from an inky oblivion. This is why we waited until Sunday, when traffic would be lightest.

I’m in the Mustang, letting it sniff out the first set of turns like a truffle pig, when I spy the perfect curve and yank up on the e-brake. The back end swings out of its tracks smoothly. I goose the V-8, letting the stallion slide its way around the entire corner as I feed in minute adjustments via the steering wheel and throttle.

In my rearview I see Hall in the Z, struggling to get it sideways, and I take a moment to gloat over my clearly superior abilities. Until I get in the Nissan. It’s a yipping Chihuahua, kinetic and easily excitable but quick to bite back and requiring too much attention to keep it in line. I’ll get the car ready to drift only to have its rear end whip around faster than I expect. On the infrequent occasions I do it right, the Nissan feels glorious, its steering smooth and the rear wheels always communicating their exact vector to my assometer.

And then suddenly I’m face-to-grille with the aforementioned F-150, drifting through a rising left-hand sweeper with the 370Z nosing into his lane. As the truck shoots by, the Nissan’s ass tries to flip around and smack the truck on its gas tank. I narrowly catch it, and my heart narrowly misses exploding. After strafing a few more turns, including one where I almost get to third base with a snowbank, I call an end to our first competition.

The Nissan’s fast gearing, its twitchy suspension, and on/off clutch pedal were no match for the soft, slow pendulum of the Ford. “I didn’t expect the Mustang to be this docile by comparison,” says Hall. “Older ’Stangs have been such handfuls.” On the other hand, I never felt fully in control in the Z. What we have here is a role reversal, my friends. Winner: Ford Mustang GT.

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Round 2: Dragging
Going in I’m thinking the Mustang’s got to win. First of all, Japan doesn’t have streets straight and empty enough for drag racing, whereas in Detroit there’s nothing but straight, empty streets. The Z’s set up for carving canyons, not smoky burnouts. The Mustang’s Ben Hur–era live rear axle, by contrast, is designed to kick butt on quarter-mile-long asphalt.

That said, both have been timed doing the 0–60 sprint in less than five seconds, which is nuts. (That’s nearly as fast as a 2000 Ferrari 360 Modena, give or take a tick.) With the timing on record, I’m not here to find out how fast they drag but how artfully they put the power down. It’s excessive in relation to real-world use, but it’s a great indicator of how well a sports car has been engineered. Getting an engine to make 300-plus hp is easy; translating that grunt into traction instead of burnt radials is much harder.

Hall and I line up next to each other on Woodward, but because we can’t afford to lose our licenses if we want to keep our jobs, we decide to take turns ripping from light to light. I’m in the Mustang first, and, as I expect, it hooks up like a high school quarterback at a keg party. At 3,000 rpm I dump the clutch, and after a bit of shuddering from the back axle, the car launches with the ferocity of an uncaged rodeo bull. The V-8’s roar is ear-splitting, piped into the cabin through a little sound-
enhancing tube. An old couple in a Mercury Grand Marquis flash by just slowly enough for me to catch their synchronized look of horror. Goddamn this is fun.

After a few more runs it’s my turn in the 370Z, and I’m lost. The back end is wiggling and bouncing and doing everything but creating forward motion. I finally realize that I’m revving the engine too high, which is when the clouds part and the angels begin to sing. The wide-haunched rear end squats, and the car rockets forward. Sickeningly. Quick gearing — second on the Nissan runs out before first does on the Mustang — means I have to shift more often and brings to light my biggest beef with the car: the clutch. It has the dubious distinction of being both too quick and too imprecise.

If you get the 370Z with the $3,000 Sport package, its six-speed manual transmission will automatically blip the throttle for you on downshifts, the first-ever time a conventional manual has matched engine speed to wheel speed for smoother gear engagement. That optional transmission is a fitting metaphor for the entire car: At first, you think it’s going to do all the work for you, but then you realize that the car only starts off requiring a higher baseline of talent, forcing you to drive better and pay more attention, or look worse for it. That’s more pressure than I want from my sports car. Winner: the Mustang GT again.

Final Verdict:
Having won both challenges, the Mustang GT would seem the obvious victor in our intercontinental battle to determine the best sports car under $30,000. But the reality is a little more complicated than that, especially if you’re cross-shopping the two. The 370Z is a much more involving ride than the Ford, with lightning- quick reflexes. Qualitatively it may have lost both our tests, but that’s only because it’s harder to conquer, with the reward for doing so a proportionally bigger thrill. Like its Far East forebears, the Nissan is the car you have to master, the tester of your kung fu. Spend some time under its tutelage, and you’ll emerge a better driver, young Grasshopper.

The Ford, on the other hand, is more predictable and stable — a far cry from loose and indolent Mustangs of yore. That’s what makes it such fun. You can get in, drive hard, and, unlike with the Nissan, not have to hose off the seat afterward. I’ll concede that the Mustang is more of a grand tourer than a true sports car, but away from the racetrack (that you never visit), a relaxed highway ride and a backseat are good things. As a lazy American, I give it my vote.

Watch Ford’s debut video for the new Mustang GT:

Watch Edmunds.com track-test the Nissan 370Z:

This article originally appeared in the May 2009 issue of Men’s Journal