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I love statistics. Did you know that Americans drive further than anyone else? It’s true! We had 128 million cars of the world’s 531 million cars on the road in 2000, a quarter of the total despite the fact we’re only 6 percent of the world’s population.
According to the publication Worldwatch, we drove those cars 2.3 trillion miles, consuming 8.2 million barrels of fuel per day and emitting 302 million tons of carbon.
In an average year, an American car travels 10 percent more than a British car, 50 percent more than a German car and almost 200 percent more than a car in Japan. Wow, that’s interesting: The Japanese are world leaders in building cars, but have far more interest than Americans in leaving them at home and taking public transit or walking.
I visited Japan and was struck by several facts. People do walk a lot. There are soda and juice machines on the street for walk-by sales. There aren’t many superhighways, and getting anywhere is a slow process. The lousy air quality is a deterrent to casual strolls, but the streets are pedestrian-friendly.
The Japanese are very conscious of how these varying facts come together. With $5- to $6-a-gallon gasoline prices, they drive small, fuel-efficient cars that they don’t even bother trying to sell on the American market. Even vehicles that seem "small" to us, like the Camry, are big for them.
So turn back the clock to the Datsun 240Z, a car that changed perceptions of Japanese cars for Americans. It was designed by a German, Dr. Albrecht Graf von Goertz, who was inspired by the Studebaker Starliner, which he’d helped create while working in Raymond Loewy’s design studio in South Bend, Ind. The influence of the Corvette and other proto-American muscle cars was evident in his later work on one of the most beautiful (and least-known) cars in the world, the BMW 507. (The current Z8 is derived from it.)
Still batting a thousand, Von Goertz also helped create the Porsche 911 before landing in Japan for work with Datsun. The resulting 240Z was very American, though there was a touch of the Jaguar XKE in there, too. The long hood and short tail was a revelation to hot-blooded American youth of the period and it sold like gangbusters. Powered by an in-line six with 150 horsepower on tap, it cost just $4,000 in 1970. Rust and thin plastic seats were the only drawbacks.
Did Japanese buyers go for it? Of course not. They were buying tiny little pocket rockets, and still are. They were having fun without mortgaging their chopsticks to fill the car with gas.
More than 30 years later, after a hiatus since 1996, the Z car is back as the 2003 350Z. It’s probably got some fans in Japan, but the 20/26 mpg fuel economy from the 3.5-liter, 287-horsepower V-6 probably deters many would-be sports.
The 350Z is a truly fun car, though, if you can get used to the low, low seating position. Fall into it and you’ll be comfortably enveloped in the two-seater layout. The six-speed transmission is very precise and marries well to the revvy and wonderfully noisy V-6.
I drove the 350Z right after the new Mini, which I felt was let down by overly stiff steering. The feel of the Z is just right, weighted for serious chucking in corners. And after riding in top-heavy SUVs, I appreciated the road-hugging stance of this crouching tiger.
No major complaints, really. The dash is nicely laid out, the controls excellent (although the navigation screen is distracting and its door flimsy). I wish there was more up-front storage space — the door pockets are a joke — but it’s nice to be able to simply toss your gear into the commodious rear section.
And with an entry-level price of $26,809, it costs less than half as much as a Porsche 911 and only 10 percent more than a Miata. A serious contender, this Z, even if it is strictly for the export market.
