[Maxim]

The 370z sucks.

It's so under-engineered that people are returning to the 350z for track cars.

The 370z fails due to two catastophic issues, the brakes and the engine cooling.

Nissan has "tried" to address these two issues with updates to the braking system and cooling system but as you can see if you frequent 370z forums, the changes have not been enough.

You can't do more than 2-3 hot laps in a 370z before the engine overheats so much that the computer goes into limp-mode and severely restricts power due to oil temperature. The issue isn't limited to the track either - those living in hot climates are reporting that they will actually overheat during normal spirited driving, and sometimes in stop/go traffic. Nissan has installed a larger radiator for the '12+ 370z, but it's still not enough for light track duty. Installing aftermarket cooling voids the warranty.

The brakes are an even bigger issue. There are two problems that work together to make the vehicle unsafe to track in stock form. One, the brakes do not have nearly enough air-flow, and the brake fluid will literally boil. There is very little fade up to that point, but once the brake fluid boils, you don't have braking ability. Compound that with the other issue, the "panic stop" programming that is part of the 370z ABS programming, which, when it senses abnormally abrupt brake actuation, will lessen the brake pressure to avoid damaging the rotors.

What happens is this: the brakes overheat and brake pressure is lost due to boiling. If the customer attempts to address this by installing higher performance brake fluid and pads to mitigate the heat issue, braking performance increases, and less pressure is needed to activate the "emergency ABS" feature. So if you don't replace the pads and brake fluid, it overheats, sometimes catastrophically (as Car and Driver found out when they put a brand new 370z Nismo into a wall at over 100mph). If you replace the pads and brake fluid, you still have a lot of brake fade due to the heat issue, but the increased grabbiness of the brakes easily activates the emergency feature, which releases brake pressure.

If those two things happen at the same time....boil the brake fluid and panic by slamming on the brakes, you will have extreme brake fade, PLUS the ABS feature activates at the same time and releases the brakes. That's what caused Car and Driver's crash during testing of the 370z Nismo. It had higher performance pads and fluids, provided by Nismo for Car and Driver's Lightning Lap testing, but it still boiled the fluid, and then the ABS released brake pressure when they panicked and slammed the brake pedal to the floor.

A performance car that attempts to kill the driver in multiple ways during spirited driving is not a performance car, it's a rolling coffin. I would never consider a 370z. I know I would drive it enthusiastically and the cooling and brake issues just completely kill my desire to do that.

Other than those two things it's a great car...it's just...those two things....