Z Car Club Queensland

Member Rides - Tony Hooker

My new 370 Z or how I ended up with a two seater.

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I always wanted a two seat car ever since I was a child growing up in the City of Chichester in southern England, I had an Uncle Jim who used to drive down from London in a MG TC to visit our family and when I was about 7 years old he took me for a ride, I was enthralled made my eyes water and my ears ring, I loved it! You must remember that this was in the late 1940s and my Father rode an old black sit up and beg Raleigh push bike and I walked everywhere, incidentally I lived only 2 miles from what was Goodwood motor racing circuit.

When I was older my mate and I used to walk to Goodwood motor racing circuit and crawl through the fence at Fordwater and walk to St Mary’s corner to watch the racing, days of yore with C and D-Type Jags, DBR1 Astons and I remember seeing the Ferrari Testa Rossa team when they came over for the 9 hour race, it was magic for a kid.

Then I started my apprenticeship and bought a push bike, I had wheels at last, you know what that means? I could cycle to the circuit and leave the bike hidden in a hedge and watch the racing, oh the bravado of it all, and I never got caught.

I finished my apprenticeship and went to work in London, bought a CB72 250cc Honda motorcycle; I had motorized wheels at last, this bike started my admiration for the way the Japanese build their engines. I had scorn poured on me by British bike owners but Hey! Mine started every time by pushing a button without having to leap up and down on a kick start looking like an idiot, and it did not leak oil on the concrete path overnight. I used to ride down to Chichester for the motor racing at Goodwood and I was at St Mary’s corner 1962 when Stirling had his crash in the Lotus Climax during the Glover Trophy race, he was racing closely with Graham Hill at the time when he speared off the track, I stood outside the Royal West Sussex Hospital along with many other fans waiting for a bulletin on his condition we didn’t get one that night; as they transferred him to Wimbledon hospital in London where he recovered.

I immigrated to Australia in 1965 and over the next 44 years I owned a number of different types of cars and motor cycles, and until I bought the 370Z all the cars had four seats or more. Those that stood out were a Mini Cooper S, Mazda RX4 coupe, Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo, Holden VL Commodore Turbo with the Nissan engine and a Mazda RX8.

So we come to the Nissan 370Z, it’s quite a big car and it really is too large and heavy to be considered a true sportscar, the title GT more fitting. I have a few minor complaints so I will get them out of the way. The steering is quite direct and very accurate but is prone to bump steer when braking hard into a corner, so care needs to be taken when driving on narrow bumpy back roads. The brakes seem to be very effective but slightly wooden, there is very little brake dust showing on the wheels after a run so it seems the pads must be fairly hard.

There is only one thing that really needs addressing when Nissan produce the next version, the A pillar and the driver side rear view mirror obscure your vision when making a really sharp right hand turn, like a small roundabout. So as you can see there are no major problems, and you can soon adapt to those minor ones listed, all in all I am very pleased with it.

On the positive side, some of the car magazines complained about the noise of the motor and I must admit it can be raucous when under fierce acceleration, but this is a performance car and should not sound like a sewing machine.

I put the 19 inch wheels and the wider rubber on, the levels of grip are higher than I can explore on the roads without me driving beyond my comfort zone. Over Mt Glorious I found that if I stayed within the posted speed limits the car was so stable and gripped so well that to generate real excitement you have to break the speed limit, this is really not a very good idea if you want to keep your licence intact. Gee whiz this thing grips, you can have plenty of entertainment if you feel so inclined, I find at no time am I unsure in which direction the wheels are pointing and there is plenty of feed back from the steering wheel, handling at sane speeds is pretty neutral. The car is smooth and comfortable on the highways, with a good stereo sound and a brilliant navigation system; there is enough space in the boot to take a good sized suit case plus some soft luggage.

As far as massaging your ego this is some car, I find kids wave at it when you drive past and when driving on a motorway cars draw level with you and passengers are staring and taking pictures with their mobile phones, so you see a yellow coupe does make you feel good!

A long sixty years waiting to get a two seater and now I have done it, maybe I never grew up, you know what? It is as bigger thrill now as it was as a seven year old kid in his uncles MG, I LOVE IT!!