There is a little button in the 370Z, just behind and to the right of the steering wheel, that transforms the car. This is the button I look for when getting in any car and, in the Zed, it is labelled ESP (off).
Though the effort to press the button is not a huge one, if you forget to do it on any given journey the ESP system's over-exuberance will come as a shock at your first enthusiastic exit from a junction. The Electronic Stability Programme seems merely to cut the power to the wheels instead of controlling their slip, and you are suddenly not accelerating into the gap you had aimed for.
Remember to hit that little switch, though, and the difference is astonishing. Courtesy of the limited-slip diff, the 370Z is now free to accelerate out of junctions with speed and predictability.
Add a little drizzle (or a slightly heavier right foot) and you can suddenly have a lot more fun, too, as you can coax the tail out a little if you so desire. The gulf between the behaviour of the 370Z with the ESP button on and off is so vast it is strange Nissan didn't fit a halfway-house setting.
The best place to really test an ESP-less 370Z, however, is on track. So, on bended knee, we asked the good people at Nissan if we could take the car on track. Not only did they agree to this, but they also suggested that an appropriate venue would be a drive up the Goodwood hill at the Festival of Speed on Saturday 3 July.
Presumably in order to avoid wheelspin-ey abuse of our own PH fleet car (probably shouldn't have you running it in that case, Pete... - Riggers), Nissan has also given us a chance to run the roadster version instead of the PH coupe.
With a spare space next to me for this amazing opportunity, it would be rude not to invite a fellow PHer along. So If you e-mail
competitions@pistonheads.com
subject line "370Z hill ride"
- and you aren't of too nervous a disposition given that I have never driven up that piece of Tarmac before - you could be in with a chance to win the open-topped, Goodwood-based Nissan thrill ride of the summer.
We have a pair of Festival of Speed Saturday tickets to go along with the prize, and the run up the hill will be at 1pm. And I will be turning off the ESP!
The e-mail should contain the following info:
- Your name
- Your age (on July 3rd 2010)
- Your daytime telephone number
- Your address so we can send you the tickets (should you win)
- Your current vehicle (because I need to chat to you about something when we are waiting to be pulled back out of the hay bales)
Entries will close at midday on Tuesday June 29th, and our lucky winner will be pulled at random from the PH electronic beanie hat that very afternoon.
T&Cs. Entrants must be at least 18 years old on July 3rd 2010 as they are signing on as a competitor. Please note there is no substitute or alternative to the prize being offered if you can't make the designated time and place, or if circumstances outside our control mean the prize has to be withdrawn.