E90 M3 to 370Z picking it up Friday

Cyborg4

Well, I've got 8.5 hours seat time now after driving from Kansas City to Dallas. Lots of curvy back roads to test her out on, until the wife cried uncle a few times.

Impressions: I am very happy with the car. It is nimble and fun to drive and is a much better highway cruiser than I expected. I got lots of compliments and rubberneckers in a very short time, (almost as many in 2 days as I had during the entire time I had the M3). As far as compared to my M3, let's just say the $30K price difference makes any shortcomings of the 370 more than livable (the M really is in another league though).

Now that I have some time in it, I will admit the low end torque isn't better than the M3 but it has a nice mid range punch and moves out nicely when you mat it. I appreciated the simplicity of the Z cockpit, the M was like an airplane with so many ways to adjust it.

That said, the things I missed the most were the seat comfort, the exotic exhaust note, and the extra 77 hp. All of these I believe can be improved substantially with a few mods (G 37 seats?). I also missed the abrupt crispness of the BMW DCT trans, but again, I am sure there are some mapping solutions out there that may help the Z in this dept.

If anyone would like to make some suggestions on the best way to supplement these things, I will add it to my research.

BTW, with lots of spirited driving and 90-100 mph cruise I averaged 22.3 mpg over the entire 600 mi trip, pretty good!

Overall, I can tell already that this will be a fun car to own and I am looking forward to the lower expense and worry associated with my ride (translation-I will track this car ruthlessly).

ps: I got pulled over in Southern MO and the cop was so impressed with the car he let me go with a warning!

The wife calls it "the baby Z" and "baby batmobile" lol. She wants to drive the Z , but was scared of the M3 and never did.