By Gary Anderson

The sports car world was turned upside down in 1970 when Datsun (now Nissan) introduced the 240Z. Stylish as a Jaguar, practical as an MG, with performance to match the Porsche, the two-seat, three-door sports car offered the best of all worlds to the driving enthusiast.

With a price in the range of most young adults, the cars flew out of the showroom as fast as Datsun could ship them from Japan.

But like Elvis Presley, the “Z-car” didn’t age well. As the years went by, it gained weight and added tacky trim until, finally, in 1996, Nissan killed off the breed, promising that the idea of a sharp, tight sports car would someday return.

With the introduction of the 350Z last fall, those who remembered the first Z-cars couldn’t wait to see if Nissan had made good on its promise.

The design is certainly very attractive. It might even have been called leading edge, with its roof line tracing a smooth curve down to the taillights, and the curves of the lights themselves echoing the curves of the windows.

Unfortunately for Nissan, Audi has already established that styling edge with its TT, making the 350Z a little too “me-too.”

In a styling comparison with the TT, the 350Z suffers even more with its bargain-basement interior fittings. In contrast, the TT uses excellent materials; an interesting screw-heads and chrome-circles design theme give its interior a real touch of class.

Nevertheless, the appearance of the Nissan was rewarded with admiring, or at least curious, glances wherever we drove.

The real proof of this car is in the driving. After all, in the class this Nissan inhabits — cars that are totally impractical but super fun to drive — with competitors like the TT, the Honda S2000 and the Toyota MR2, the point is how it feels from behind the wheel.

And here, the 350Z doesn’t need to fall behind any other car in its price range. Our Touring model, with the six-speed manual transmission, sporting 18-inch wheels and tires, but without the available navigation system, has an MSRP of $33,719. Even though it sells for much less, the 350Z gives up little in performance to the more expensive, but equally impractical, Porsche Boxster or BMW Z4.

My wife Genie and I took a run on some of our favorite backroads to scout some photo locations, which gave us the chance to put the 350Z through its paces.

One nice feature is the hatchback. Though the car may be small, unlike its competitors, it can swallow a pretty good-sized bundle of luggage and camera gear.

The car is a little heavy at 3,200 pounds (the original 240Z weighed only 2,400 pounds) but it is moved by a 287-horsepower, V-6 engine producing 274 pound-feet of torque. That gives it the best power-to-weight ratio in its class.

The 350Z can move from zero to highway speed limits in less than six seconds. And when there’s no double-yellow, it can get from 60 to gone in only a few seconds more, leaving slower traffic to wonder what just blew by.

Around curves, it’s absolutely unbelievable. With the 18-inch wheels and 225 mm wide tires of the “Touring” model, its frame stiffened by front and rear strut tower braces, and a suspension just this side of nailed to the wheels, the car takes corners with exciting esprit.

Therein lie the problems we noted with the car. The rock-hard suspension is last century’s approach to good cornering performance. BMW is doing much better with its little new Minis, proving that good cornering performance is possible without discomfort.

Those large wheels and tires mean lots of road noise. At highway speeds, even with the windows tightly closed, we had to shout to talk to each other.

This car will be great fun on a track or autocross course, but after 350 miles from Los Altos to Placerville and back, we were exhausted.

But these cars weren’t designed for comfort or long-distance touring. The fact that you can carry enough luggage for two for a weekend is almost irrelevant. If this were your only car, you’d probably rent an Altima before you’d subject yourself to more than 500 miles in the 350Z.

For tooling around town, blasting up 280 or carving corners in the foothills or on an autocross course, no two-seat sports car is going to be any more fun than the new Z. And next year, you’ll be able to buy a drop-top version, which will be even more fun.

Anderson is editor of Classic Auto Sport Magazine, which is published bimonthly and distributed internationally from offices in Los Altos (949-9680; www.autosport.com).