From the archive: We cinched down our helmets to find out how these 3.0-liter, DOHC, 4-valve-per-cylinder engines do when hooked up to a pair of sports cars.
They call it “The Streets of Willow Springs.” It’s a 1.3-miles asphalt snake; a miniature, 10-turn, simulated street course in the Mojave Desert, tucked into the foothills behind the main road course that is Willow Springs International Raceway. The Streets has a variety of tight corners, unsettling kinks, off-camber turns and esses, with just enough straight time in between each to allow a driver to throttle in a little extra excitement.
It’s a sort of “pitch-and-putt” course for race cars. You probably won’t get beyond third gear on it, but you will get to work your engine and challenge the balance of your chassis. Dick “Goldie” Guldstrand—original Corvette Grand Sport racer, eternal hot-rodder, and Corvette tuner extraordinaire—once told us that he could learn almost as much about a Vette he was setting up by doing a few hot laps on The Streets of Willow as he could during a full day of testing on the road course.
This story originally appeared in the October 1989 issue of Road & Track.
The Streets of Willow Springs sounded like just the additional proving ground needed for a head-to-head comparison test between the most sporting Z-car to come from Nissan in years, the new 300ZX, and its marketplace rival in the United States, the Porsche 944 S2.
Like all good comparison tests, this one started with controversy: two camps of editors stating absolute, unshakable—and opposite— opinions. Those who had driven the 300ZX were wholesaling superlatives onto the car, asserting that it was so completely thought out, designed and executed that not even the Weissach-Zuffenhausen connection could touch it.
For their part, the Porschephiles around our editorial offices viewed the new Z as a bit of an upstart with derivative styling and not enough pure sports-car breeding. They contended that this comparison was, indeed, odious and this time the Keeper of the Comparison Scales had gone too far.
But Road & Track had already begun drawing the battle lines in print, having documented with high praise the new 300ZX in a cover story (March 1989 issue) and a road test (May 1989). As for the 944 S2, in our February 1989 cover story of “Porsches in Provence,” we speculate that it “may just be the best Porsche for America.” And so it was a horse race.
The format for the comparison test, in addition to our normal two-week driving period, called for a jaunt that would begin in Southern California’s high desert, continue through the earthquake region and central valley, and end in the rolling hills near the coast.
Accordingly, at dawn on test day, the Nissan 300ZX and Porsche 944 S2 arrived at the skid- pad that serves as base camp for The Streets of Willow Springs. We donned our battle gear (helmets and notebooks) and prepared to take to The Streets.
In truth, there was no antagonistic “Challenger versus Champion” relationship between the Nissan and the Porsche. Both cars are fundamentally new faces on American roads, the 300ZX literally, the 944 S2 figuratively. And both are distinct improvements over their previous selves (the 1989 300ZX and 1988 944S).
Almost all-new for 1990, the 300ZX is the third piece of good news to come from a revitalized Nissan, joining the new Maxima and 240SX. Compared with last year’s car, the new ZX is shorter, wider, slightly heavier (please note that muscle weighs more than fat) and rides on a longer wheelbase. The new styling is a dramatically updated improvement over the old; very easy on the eyes. Not derivative, but no less immune to visual similarities than any other new car. Deep inside, an innovative multi link suspension, viscous limited-slip differential and brand-new engine give further testimony to the ZX’s transformation.
On the other hand, the 944 S2 has the same external dimensions as the 944S that came before it. And it has the same interior dimensions as its predecessor. And it’s got the same suspension as the 944S (which the 944S inherited from last year’s 944 Turbo); it is in the engine compartment of the Porsche 944 S2 where enough of a change has occurred that we may call it new.
In a move of elegance and bravado, Porsche has pushed its inline 4-cylinder engine to a new limit, each of the 944 S2’s four cylinders now displacing 748 cc. The car’s 16-valve DOHC 3.0-liter holds the record for being the largest-displacement 4-cylinder automobile engine currently in production—by a whole slew of cc.
Over on Nissan’s side of the powerplant tracks, the new 300ZX is still powered by a 2960-cc fuel-injected V-6 engine, but Nissan has added 4-valve heads, dual overhead camshafts, variable valve timing, sequential multipoint fuel injection and a distributorless ignition system. The engine’s compression ratio has also been raised from 9.0:1 to 10.5:1.
At The Track
The time for speculation past, we cinched down our helmets and started up the cars to find out how these two 3.0-liter, DOHC, 4-valve-per-cylinder engines do when hooked up to a pair of sports cars.
There is a straight of about 1000 ft. before the first turn on The Streets of Willow. It is the longest unbent strip of pavement on the course. The straight gives you just enough time to admonish or congratulate yourself on your last lap, confirm your mental notes, and then set up for Turn 1 and the gnarl of The Streets’ nine other turns.
This is by far the highest-speed area on The Streets. The straight gives you ample runway to move through 1st, 2nd, 3rd and, if your ride is quick enough, 4th gear. Speeds of 80-plus mph are not much of a problem here as Turn 1 is a mini-sweeper with a fair amount of exit room.
It was on this main straight that we got our first indication that the Porsche had an acceleration advantage. The 944 S2 consistently pulled away from the 300ZX on wide-open sections.
Statistically, this makes sense. While the ZX has 14 more horsepower than the S2 (the cars are rated at 222 bhp at 6400 rpm and 208 bhp at 5800, respectively), the 944 S2 has 207 lb.- ft. of torque down at 4100 rpm vis-a-vis the 300ZX’s 198 lb.-ft. of torque at 4800 rpm. The Nissan’s lower torque at a higher rpm becomes significant when the weights of both cars are factored in. At 3220 lb., the 300ZX weighs 235 lb. more than the 944 S2. The Porsche is at once lighter and has more cranking force. The objective result: The 944 S2 is 0.4 second quicker to 60 mph than the 300ZX. Not that the Nissan is slow, but the 3.0-liter Porsche is a sprinter.
The subjective result was that the 300ZX driver kept wishing for more bottom end on the straights. And then in the 944 S2, there were a few fast times when we grabbed 4th gear going into Turn 1. That Porsche is quick.
Next comes Turn 1, the mini-sweeper. To our delight, both cars were able to fly into the corner and all they did was show off how well balanced their chassis were. In platform dimensions, the 300ZX outsizes the 944 S2 in all respects with a 2.0-in. longer wheelbase, 0.7-in. wider front track and a 3.3-in. wider rear track.
Despite its greater heft, the Nissan felt lighter and a bit more nimble. A bump in the middle of the turn unsettled the more softly sprung 300ZX only slightly.
After the thrill of Turn 1, it’s time to brake hard and set up for the Turn 2 hairpin. If acceleration honors go to the Porsche, then the points-winner in the braking category is the Nissan. Both cars come standard with excellent anti-lock braking systems that in no way compromise track driving (although it was easier to invoke the ABS in the Porsche). The pedal effort needed to bring down the 300ZX’s speed was very light compared with that of the 944 S2, so we were able to wait a little longer before braking than in the Porsche. Consequently, much of the time lost on the straights was made up going into the corners.
Both cars performed well coming out of the corners, but the S2’s better low end made it easier to position the car and get back on the power. The Porsche’s strong tendency toward drop-throttle oversteer sometimes made it exhilarating to set up for exiting a tight corner; other times it was just plain scary. The 300ZX had a tendency toward a more benign, controllable oversteer in drop-throttle and trail-braking circumstances.
For the track, the consensus was that the meatier Porsche “never-miss-a-shift-in-all-the- confusion” gearbox would be the top choice. The steering on both cars was superb. We couldn’t have asked for two tighter, more responsive power-assisted rack-and-pinion systems (with a very effective speed-sensitive assist on the Nissan). The tires on both cars—V-rated Dunlop SP Sport D40s on the 300ZX, Z-rated Bridgestone RE71s on the 944 S2—complemented their respective chassis beautifully.
Our track summation was that the Nissan 300ZX was a more forgiving chassis and that it was an easier car to get in and go fast quickly, with a steeper learning curve. The Porsche 944 S2, on the other hand, was a more demanding car. It required more talent to stay out of trouble, but that talent would be rewarded in the long run with ever quicker lap times. Neither car felt alien to the race track in any respect.
To conclude our exceptional morning at The Streets of Willow Springs, we decided to combine what we had learned about the Porsche’s acceleration, the Nissan’s braking and the superior handling of both in some timed runs. Let’s get the stopwatches out and break this dead heat. No such luck. Using a simple protocol of one lap to get up to speed followed by a timed run, our best driver posted duplicate times for both cars down to 1/100th of a second. It was time to move on to the second stage of our test.
On The Road
Carrisa Highway is California’s state route 58 running through the sparsely populated southern end of the San Joaquin Valley into the rocky fringes of the Los Padres National Forest. The landscape created in this area by the San Andreas fault is both austere and stirring. That the state of California had the good sense to lay down a contoured two-lane black top over this uneven land is a blessing to driving enthusiasts. The highway winds freely from the small town of McKittrick through farm lands and chaparral up to the lightly forested hillsides of Calf Canyon Highway near San Luis Obispo on the California coast. This is, to put it mildly, prime sports-car country: a challenging road accented with panoramic vistas.
Our track experiences were confirmed by our afternoon tour toward the coast. Both cars were ideally suited to spirited driving on winding country and mountain roads. The Porsche, with its stiffer springing, was a bit less compliant than the Nissan, but the ride was by no means harsh. The ride/handling balance that Nissan has achieved is superlative.
The longer stretches along the Carrisa Highway gave us a chance to appreciate how superbly Porsche has extracted both impressive power and smoothness out of a 3.0-liter four. Faulting the road manners of either car could only be classified as nit-picking. Life was good and the road seemed to stretch out forever.
At about 4:00 p.m., however, our endless highway ended in a traffic jam.
San Luis Obispo is a lovely old college town full of students, artisans and merchants. But like so many other otherwise wonderful cities in the Golden State, it is also susceptible to morning and evening traffic gridlock in the downtown area. At these times, it’s not an easy drive, not a fun drive, but for us, it was a necessary and illuminating drive.
Our gratifying morning and afternoon runs were now distant memories as we sat suspended in (and by) late afternoon traffic on a one way street. In the San Luis logjam, time was passing too slowly for us, but too quickly for our photographer who was beginning to perceive a whole new meaning for the phrase “rage against the dying of the light.”
The time spent sitting afforded us the opportunity to make some new observations about the Nissan and the Porsche.
The first realization was that after having driven hundreds of miles over a number of surfaces and in a variety of styles, we still felt refreshed and ready to go out and do it again. The seats in both are supportive and comfortable for the long haul.
The second realization was that so much of the everyday driving we do is in city traffic. This brings us to the third realization, which is that the 944 S2 is the most pleasurable urban-going 944 we’ve ever driven. It has nice pickup off the line and almost never drags its feet. We were delighted to discover a race-track-worthy 300ZX. but we were equally pleased to find a 944 with a penchant for stop-and-go traffic.
Both manufacturers have done a fine job with their interiors. The Porsche environment, in basic black, is straightforward and familiar, with the climate controls as perplexing as ever. Nissan is carrying through the curved, organic dash layout it began in the 240SX and continued in the Maxima. On the dashes of both cars, the business gauges—speedo and tach—are big, readable and centered. The materials, fit and finish inside the two cars are also to our liking. The sound systems, top-notch.
As we began fiddling with the controls on the 300ZX, we noticed that there are a busy lot of switches on the control pod, but this is something an owner-driver would get used to. Also in the ZX we noticed the awkward, door-mounted seatbelts and can’t help wondering if Porsche hasn’t got the right idea, installing driver- and passenger-side airbags.
Somewhere in the San Luis Obispo traffic, we pondered the prices of these two exceptional automobiles: $27,300 for the Nissan 300ZX versus $42,515 for the Porsche 944 S2. The Porschephiles among us were impressed by what an exceptional car the 944 has evolved into. And we were all struck by the marvelous performance, feel—and, yes, character—embodied in the 300ZX, at less than two-thirds the Porsche’s price.
We recalled Porsche’s sports-car and racing heritage. And we mused that while the 300ZX may not yet have heritage, it certainly has lineage and its share of success in GTP racing. And then our minds wandered back to The Streets of Willow Springs, the Carrisa Highway, San Luis Obispo. Traffic started to move and we realized that paradise is wherever we are right now.
Keyword: Paradise on Wheels: 1990 Nissan 300ZX vs. Porsche 944 S2