Nissan 370Z Nismo Roadster study debuts in Chicago

Nothing like injecting a bit of Nismo to keep things going – production for the domestic market may have ceased, but as the Nissan 370Z Nismo Roadster Concept shows, there’s plenty of life left in that particular open-top Z-car. The car, which is premiering in Chicago, is a one-off design study created to gauge market interest in a factory Z Roadster given the Nismo treatment.

The exterior gets dressed with GT-R-inspired aerodynamic body pieces, and the front end features hyper LED DRLs, black headlight bezels and a Nismo emblem. Red accents too, which also find their way on to the sides of the car and side mirror covers.

The rear, meanwhile, is highlighted by a custom carbon-fiber rear spoiler created exclusively for the concept, which rides on 19-inch Nismo super-lightweight forged aluminium-alloy wheels made by RAYS, The wheels are wrapped with staggered Bridgestone Potenza S001 245/40 front and 285/35 rear rubbers.

The interior features custom red stitching and Nismo logos on the Recaro seats, an Alcantara leather-wrapped three-spoke steering wheel and a Nismo red tachometer.

Mechanical revisions are similar to that seen on the 370Z Nismo coupe introduced for that market last year – suspension mods, which includes special springs and stabiliser bars, sport brakes and a viscous limited-slip differential (VLSD) with a shorter final drive ratio. Also on, a Nismo-branded strut brace under the hood and a red engine cover.

Likewise the output of the tuned 3.7 litre V6, which is 350 hp and 375 Nm, and the choice of transmission – as with the coupe, a seven-speed auto with downshift rev matching, adaptive shift control and manual shift mode with paddle shifters makes its way on here.

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