2023 Nissan Z Review: On Road and On Track

Auto123 reviews the 2023 Nissan Z again, this time testing the car on the road and on a very familiar track.

Mont-Tremblant, QC - Life is funny sometimes. Recently, my handlers at Auto123 offered me the opportunity to drive - or rather re-drive - the new 2023 Nissan Z, a car I had test driven just a few months earlier at the North American launch in Las Vegas.

This time around was a regional launch, an event taking place in my “backyard” - one of the best closed circuits on the continent, the Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec, north of Montreal. I love the place for its history, but also for the thrill it gives me every time I have the opportunity to set foot there.

But here's the thing: that first contact in Vegas hadn't gone quite as I’d expected. Indeed, the new Z, despite all the improvements made to its structure and to its powertrain, had not convinced me of its on-track abilities.

The Z, throughout its glorious history, has been on racetracks all over the world and it's clear that this will be the case again with this new variant. But as far as the 'regular' 2023 Z is concerned, there's reason to wonder about its chops. The suspension, for example, appeared to me to be a bit soft for intensive use on closed circuits.

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