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The latest photos of the Z look better to me than it initially did. The styling seems more subtle, curvaceous, sinuous, and in general, very appealing. It has a timeless aspect to it, less contrived than the previous 370Z (and without over-wrought styling gimmicks like atomic rocket bunny exaggerated side sills or goiter-size rear lip).
It's almost certainly the last "Z" sports car Nissan will build (at least one that's a true, internal combustion, manual transmission car and not some Ford Mach-E Mustang SUV abomination usurping the name), and a fitting one to the heritage.
I especially like that they will offer some color in the interior. The shots slathered in blue are fun, as well as the limited 'Proto' edition yellow. Almost all car interiors these days are just uniform seas of black on black trimmed in black with black accents. It's like descending into a deep, dark cave. I know it's a lot cheaper to adopt Henry Ford's policy on the original Model T ("You can have it in any color as long as it's black"), and all the money saved by offering only a single color. But, really?!?! A sports car is supposed to be light-hearted and fun. Colors go a long way (don't get me started on the 26 exterior shades of gray and silver instead of bright, saturated, primary colors). It gets tiring looking at the same old same old endless black interiors everywhere. I'd pay extra for some color inside (FWIW, I just traded in my WRX daily driver for a Kia Stinger, and the availability of a maroon red interior was a non-trivial factor).
Depending on the pricing of the Z, it could well give the BRZ/86 some serious competition, IF the price is in a range buyers consider 'comparable'. I'd guess that if the Z starts within $5,000 of the BRZ/86, it would sway a lot of people. But it's hard to see how Nissan would offer a starting price at less than $40k-ish, which would stratify nicely with the less expensive BRZ/86.
Regardless of what one thinks of the Z, the world of car enthusiasts is very lucky that both the new Z, and the second generation BRZ/86, are being built. The sports car segment has been shrinking for some time as people migrate in lemming-like droves to SUV/CUV boxes. Add to that the inexorable and somewhat forced drive (pun intended) into the bland, soulless, devoid of all passion electric car + autonomous transportation pod future, we should be thankful that Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota are building these cars. It's Fin de Siecle, the waning last days of internal combustion sports cars, affordably priced, and especially with thank-you-automotive-gods manual transmissions, and we should appreciate and enjoy them while we can. Once they're gone, they won't be back.
Pay your money and take your choices, among some of the last but very sweet machines being offered.
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