Audi TT vs Nissan 350Z review (twin test)

When the Audi TT first appeared in concept form at the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show, the reaction from visitors must have been akin to a flying saucer landing at Heathrow and three green goblin-like creatures hovering down the steps.

With gorgeous curves where there should have been lines, this spectacular-looking car was about as advanced as car design was at the time. But this was more than just a multi-million-pound concept, the sort that just gets wheeled out at motor shows and binned. The TT has since gone on to become one of the most iconic cars ever. Lined up here is TT version two, an all-new model for 2007 and beyond. The design might not have advanced much but Audi insists that this latest TT is a much better car to drive. Well it better had because sitting beside it is the most focussed, driver-orientated car in this class, the Nissan 350Z. Let battle commence.

Ian's view of the Nissan 350Z

When Henry pulled up in the new Audi TT I thought for a moment he had switched from journalism to hairdressing. This wasn’t because he had made a special effort over his hairdo that morning. Nor was it his threats of doing a "Sweeney Todd" on me if I didn’t stop laughing. If anything, it’s more to do with my preconceptions of the old TT and the people who drive them. I am well aware a slap across the face for being a sexist pig is imminent, but it’s a view which is widely held – that is that the TT is, whisper it, a bit girly.

Now this isn’t something you can say about the Nissan 350Z. Rear-wheel-drive surely means extra kudos points, as does a bigger, more powerful engine and a six-speed manual gearbox as opposed to the TT’s S-Tronic (formerly DSG) semi-automatic job (a £1,400 optional extra). And then there’s the rarity value of the 350Z. It’s hardly supercar scarce, but, unless you live next door to a Nissan dealership, you won't see one very often. As for the TT? Admittedly, ours did get quite a few looks, but then it’s barely on sale. Give it six months and everyone will have one, including your barber.

Driven: Nissan 350Z

Lift the bonnet

The obvious place to start is at the business end of the 350Z. Pop open the bonnet and you’ll find a 3.5-litre V6 capable of churning out 286bhp at 6,400rpm and a fat 260lb ft of torque at 4,800rpm. This is a good set-up because there’s enough mid-range shove in each gear to nip past Sunday drivers without the need for an invite and a gear change, but at the same time it’s an engine that thrives on plenty of revs. The performance figures are equally impressive: 0-62mph in 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 155mph means this coupe is quick enough for most people, unless you’re an absolute mental case.

Actually, mental is a good way to describe the Nissan. Let’s just say I’m glad electronic stability control is standard across the range because this is one car that needs the help. Rev it out to the red line in the first two gears and you can feel the back wheels move around as they try to key into the surface. And that’s in a straight line. The result is an overactive ESP system, briefly cutting power to allow the wheels to figure out what’s going on. Once over this initial setback the 350Z storms through each gear like a bull chasing a farmer across a field.

One solution to this dearth of low-down traction might be to switch ESP off completely to prevent the system cutting power away so readily. Although caution is required, it’s when the Z really comes alive; turn in sharp, hit the accelerator and you’ll have the Z drifting through corners like you’re an honorary member of Tokyo's Midnight Racing Club. But public roads aren’t the place for this showboating. Instead, get yourself some track day sessions, budget for some replacement rubber and get out there and have some fun. That’s what I’d be doing if I had a 350Z.

How to drift

Multi-talented

For me a car should excite, stimulate and petrify, yet be civilised enough to soak up hundreds of miles. The Nissan somehow manages to do this. It feels like an old-school muscle car with its beefy V8-sounding exhaust pipe rumble and lively rear-end, yet it has the subtleties and refinements required of a modern performance car. The ride is a little firm but no more teeth-cracking than similar cars, plus it gets anti-lock brakes, airbags and ESP to keep you out of trouble on the majority of days when you just want to drive it normally.

Driven: hardcore Nissan 350Z

The TT, in comparison, with its grippy four-wheel-drive chassis and point-and-squirt tendencies, is rather insipid and too easy to drive. And nowhere near as much fun on the occasions when you do feel like using your favourite roads as a make-do Group B rally stage. The TT is a very swift machine, though, hanging on to the rear bumpers of the 350Z on most roads. However, the key difference is that you can have fun in the Nissan without having to travel at twice the speed limit.

In control

But as well as the TT being too easy to drive, its steering is also very light at speed and the wheel is rather big. By this I’m not saying that it doesn’t react sharply, because it does, but you just feel a sense of disconnection when you’re pushing it briskly down country roads. The Z’s controls are much more focussed. The steering is well placed, the wheel is small and has just the right amount of power assistance. The pedals are also well spaced, with the brake and accelerator close enough to blip the throttle for smoother downchanges.

Buy a used Nissan 350Z from £12,000

This helps a lot, actually, because the six-speed manual is not the slickest, especially when cold. Ergonomically, I like the gear knob; it’s short and stubby and feels nice in your hand. The seats are also excellent, being both firm and supportive, but also pliable enough to avoid repeated visits to your chiropractor. However, the cabin finish is poor, with too much cold, dark grey plastic that is more Micra and less £30k performance car.

Oh yes, the price. £30k is actually an overestimate. We were testing the entry-level 350Z which, when fitted with the £450 metallic paint option, lifted the price to a quite palatable £26,945. This is some way short of Henry’s Audi which, as he will argue, gets four-wheel-drive, a plusher cabin and an automatic transmission. The thing is, you just need to weigh up what you want. Is it the TT; highly capable but a little too detached to be called a real driver’s car; or the 350Z; certainly not a premium product but the sort of car that makes you chuckle to yourself in a nervous “that was close” kind of way? Answering my own question, it’s the thrills of the 350Z – and the TT’s lack thereof – that does it for me.

Henry's view of the Audi TT

I must admit I wasn’t a fan of the original Audi TT and had much the same prejudices about it as Ian still harbours about the second generation model. It seems it was bought by pharmaceutical reps, advertising types and yes, hairdressers. The last one was too small and as a result looked too cute, too stylised. Not so much Bauhaus as overturned bathtub. The drive was similarly uninspiring thanks to some highly publicised crashes involving early models and their habit of snapping into lift-off oversteer. Audi was forced to revise suspension, ESP and aerodynamic settings, resulting in a car offering as much tactile enjoyment as your bathroom suite.

Buy a used Audi TT from

The new TT is bigger and bolder and as a result has shed its girly looks. Audi’s designers have cleverly taken the swage line that adds definition to the flanks and repeated it in the curve of the leading edge of the front wing and even on the spokes of the alloy wheels. True, the front lights do look uncomfortably close to those on a Ford Focus but the rear lamps feature stand out square light clusters. The rear end is now much more coherent than of old thanks to a neatly integrated rear spoiler that rises at speed. With of course the obligatory override button so plod can’t use the sight of it as a reason to pull the car over.

Driven: the new Audi TT

The wrong type of attention

Speaking of which, the Nissan attracts far too much attention as I discovered when pulled over for a non-existent traffic infringement. It came to nothing, a little politeness and obsequiousness goes a long way, but the car simply attracts the wrong type of attention. It looks larger than life, like a refugee from a Manga cartoon. It is a latter day Capri and in a couple of years will no doubt be found in large numbers on used car dealers’ forecourts across Essex.

The Capri analogy extends to the driving experience too. The Nissan feels like an old fashioned bruiser with its brawny V6 and rear-wheel-drive. Admittedly this can be enormously good fun but the enormous bracing bar built into the boot and another under the bonnet make me wonder whether the chassis is something of a makeshift effort. The 350Z can easily be induced to wag its tail on a wet roundabout but at other times the power is simply too much and it is enormously frustrating trying to power out of a second gear bend only too have the ESP kick in and cut power to that of a one-litre Micra.

Video: new Audi TT

A bit of Lambo, a bit of Porsche

By contrast the TT is incredibly civilised from the moment you step inside. The 350Z feels like a two-seater minicab with its cheap plastics and fake metal, but the TT uses chunks of real aluminium and swathes of contrasting leather to create the sort of quality cabin that only comes from Audi or British Airways Business Class these days. Admittedly, we had the basic spec 350Z and the GT trim would add some of the toys we found on the Audi but that doesn’t alter the basics - where the 350Z's steering wheel is lifted from a Navarra pick-up, the TT shares its helm with the Lamborghini Gallardo.

Driven: Audi TT Roadster

The quality and attention to detail that has gone into the Audi extends beyond the surface, though. The structure is a mixture of steel and aluminium for the sake of strength, low mass and, crucially, better weight distribution than the outgoing model to improve the down the road dynamics. Settle in the driving seat and it certainly feels the part with the high window line making me feel ensconced and part of the car. Thankfully both cars have resorted to the superfluous starter button and the Audi’s 3.2 litre, 250bhp V6 starts on the key with a bark. It sounds crisper than the Nissan’s bigger motor and has a metallic edge to its sound, not unlike a Porsche 911.

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The car is equipped with Audi’s S-Tronic twin clutch automated manual transmission, by far the best such system this side of a Ferrari F430. In ‘D’ it makes a decent fist of being a smooth shifting automatic, the only gripes being that it can be frustratingly slow to kickdown and the occasional jerk when coming to a halt at a junction. The Sport mode seems rather superfluous, keeping the car running a couple of gears lower than it should be. Far better to push the lever across to the left which puts the gearbox into manual mode and use the paddles behind the steering wheel. Now even full throttle upshifts are completely seamless and downshifting results in a pleasing electronic blip of the throttle.

Box of tricks

Combined with the Quattro four-wheel-drive system, S-Tronic allows for incredibly rapid cross-country progress, not once did I see the traction control warning light flash or experience any loss of composure from the car. Our test car also featured the optional magnetic dampers and probably the greatest praise I can give it is that I didn’t notice it was in ‘sports’ mode half the time. The ride and body control is excellent in either case, with just a slightly firmer edge to the damping in ‘sport’. I haven’t driven a conventionally suspended TT but if that rides as well as the one we tried then I personally wouldn’t fork out for the trick dampers.

Would I buy the Audi above the Nissan, though? I have to say that while the 350Z is a lot of fun in an old-fashioned, tail-happy way, I think it would soon become irritating on a day-to-day basis. The Nissan is like a puppy, bouncy and eager but far too likely to end up messy. The TT is more feline, slightly aloof, certainly, and not as playful but a lot easier to live with and a whole lot cooler. Let’s just hope the hairdressers don’t ruin its reputation second time round.