Media first-drive event: potential setups and their possible implications

[DevonK]

It won't be that many weeks before Nissan runs their first-drive event for the media - in fact, given the lead times necessary for booking a venue and accommodation, inviting attendees, etc., I'd bet the location and dates are already set up. The actual reviews will no doubt be embargoed for one to two weeks afterwards, but assuming we at least get some information via social media from participants about how the event was configured and where it was run, we could get some initial clues about how confident Nissan is about the car's performance and handling chops before the reviews drop. Here are a few potential configurations, what they might indicate about Nissan's faith in the car, and my estimate of their likelihood:

• Nissan brings a couple of price-tier competitors along for media comparison drives (e.g. Mustang GT PP, 4-cyl Supra): supreme confidence, highly unlikely.
• Nissan provides a few last-gen 370 Nismos for comparison drives: high confidence, possible but far from certain
• Nissan provides on-track driving with drivers being allowed to set their own pace (not just lead-follow): reasonably confident, likely
• Nissan only offers on-road driving: not confident at all, unlikely
• Nissan only offers on-track driving: not confident in car's streetability, unlikely
• Nissan invites a few hardball reviewers such as Savagegeese to the event in addition to the usual slo-pitch regulars: extremely confident, quite unlikely

The usual practice at these events, especially sports/performance car drives, is for an engineering lead to provide a technical briefing on the car using a detailed slide stack. Hopefully we'll be able to get a copy of that stack somehow, although it doesn't always happen - the ones used for the twins' first-drives don't seem to have made it to the forums, but you can see some of them in Savagegeese's videos.

 

[jdm-rhd]

op, could we add if you don't mind, who we would like to see review and/or test drive the car?

i was gonna start a thread on the subject, but it seems it would fit nicely here...

 

[DevonK]

op, could we add if you don't mind, who we would like to see review and/or test drive the car?

i was gonna start a thread on the subject, but it seems it would fit nicely here...

Good idea.

Top of my list would be Savagegeese, they were not very kind to the final 370Z, if they were to find the new Z to be a huge improvement that would be a major plus.

 

[jdm-rhd]

throttle house would be fun to watch as per usual for me.

not sure of the guys name/channel, but this aussie can drive. recently watched him test drive the new wrx and gr yaris. ill see if i can find out who it is...

 

[West Aussie]

op, could we add if you don't mind, who we would like to see review and/or test drive the car?

i was gonna start a thread on the subject, but it seems it would fit nicely here...

I’m happy to do it for them???

 

[Tdog87]

not sure of the guys name/channel, but this aussie can drive. recently watched him test drive the new wrx and gr yaris. ill see if i can find out who it is...

Your probably talking about Chris Atkinson who is a former WRC driver.

He doesn't have a channel per se as far as I am aware but does mainly the track tests for CarExpert which is an Aussie review site.

https://www.carexpert.com.au/author/chris-atkinson
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ

 

[tcaustin]

throttle house would be fun to watch as per usual for me.

not sure of the guys name/channel, but this aussie can drive. recently watched him test drive the new wrx and gr yaris. ill see if i can find out who it is...

Their videos are great and funny. I think tbe best reviewer on YouTube though is Alex on Autos.
Redline reviews is good too.
And I enjoy Mikah from Kelley Blue Book.
And there’s always Doug Demuro.

 

[trackratZ]

I'm waiting for Randy Pobst, very smooth race driver, great inputs, experienced in both road racing and autox for years.

 

[DevonK]

I'm waiting for Randy Pobst, very smooth race driver, great inputs, experienced in both road racing and autox for years.

I agree he is terrific but he works strictly for Motor Trend and does not do first drives, so we won't see anything by him for quite a while.

Jason Cammisa on Hagerty is very thorough on the handling and performance aspects of a car and not afraid to mention negatives.