Drag race: Nissan Z vs Lotus Emira vs Toyota Supra vs Porsche GT4 RS

The Nissan Z is a sports car that was never sold here in the UK thanks to emissions regulations, but I’ve managed to get hold of a Japanese import to drag race it against its key competitors.

It should be an interesting one as well, because we have three cars with similar horsepower and manual gearboxes, and one car with less power but an automatic gearbox and launch control. Let’s get into the stats.

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Nissan Z

I’ll be driving the Nissan Z for this race, and under the bonnet my car has a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine with 406hp and 475Nm of torque. This power is sent to the rear wheels only via a six-speed manual gearbox.

It sort of has launch control (it just holds the revs and then you dump the clutch), and the car weighs in at 1,604kg. This car has been imported from Japan, and is currently on sale for £44,000.

Lotus Emira

The Lotus Emira has a mid-mounted 3.5-litre supercharged V6 engine with 406hp and 420Nm of torque. Like the Nissan, it also has rear-wheel drive and a six-speed manual gearbox.

There’s no launch control here, just the skilled feet of Racing Diver Sam, and the car weighs in at 1,458kg. It also costs from £96,500, more than double the price of the Z.

Porsche Cayman GT4

Now we come to the only naturally-aspirated car here. The Porsche Cayman GT4 has a 4.0-litre flat-six engine with 420hp and 420Nm of torque, and this is paired to a six-speed manual gearbox sending power to the rear wheels.

The car weighs in at 1,420kg (a lot of 420s going on here) and it costs from £82,000.

Toyota Supra

Finally we come to the Toyota Supra, which uses a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six engine, borrowed from the BMW Z4, putting out 340hp and 500Nm of torque. It has rear-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox with launch control.

The Supra tips the scales at 1,495kg, and it cost around £52,000 when it was last on sale.

So which of these great-handling sports cars will be best in a straight line? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.

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