Hard though it is to believe, it was nine long months ago that we all first laid eyes on the Nissan Z Proto. The concept looked quite ripe for production even then, but we‘ve been waiting for a more formal reveal in the interim. And it seems we’ll get exactly that on August 17.
It is then that Nissan will debut “the all-new Z” at an event in New York City. Not 400Z, mind, but just Z — a simpler naming convention that’s been rumored before. We pretty much know what it’s going to look like, both inside and out, and we know Nissan intends to offer it with a twin-turbo V6 and a six-speed manual transmission. So what don’t we know, and what can we expect to find out in August?
Well, we still don’t have power or torque figures on that V6, though many suspect it’ll be the 3.0-liter found in the Infiniti Q60 that produces up to 400 horsepower in Red Sport guise. While the manual is a lock, we know less about the automatic gearbox to be offered — though its shifter made a cameo in one of the leaked photos from Nissan’s Tochigi plant shared to a message board back in March.
Of course we also don’t have pricing information yet. And given some automakers’ penchant not to reveal such details until the last possible minute, we may not get it until after the event, closer to the car’s sale date.
We can dream, though. Another forum post from the spring — full of claims that should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism — said the new Z would start at $34,995. If true, that would make it very competitive with the Supra, which begins at $43,090 but notably for the 2.0-liter, 255-HP model nobody wants. Should Nissan undercut Toyota in price by any margin while offering around 300 HP standard, it’ll have a very compelling sports coupe on its hands.
The next eight weeks or so until reveal will be long, though we’ve already waited almost a year without realizing. What’s another two months?