Car Masters Zigzags, Makes It All About Me

Nissan 370Z

To be young again, to thrill to the "me" of the moment -- the Nissan 370Z is good for that. Like most sports cars, it makes no practical sense. It is what disappears when "me" becomes "we," unless "we" are rich and can afford toys.

The 370Z, be it hardtop coupe or convertible, is a toy -- a motorized joy for all who love the game of Open Roads. It is a game because there are no such roads, not really, not in any metropolitan area in the United States.

The trick for urbanites engaged in such play is to find what rarely exists before the sun rises and what seldom is available until long after it sets -- a highway hospitable to fantasy. That is what I arose to look for one early autumn morning.

"Where are you going?" asked my wife, Mary Anne, as I tried to sneak from our Northern Virginia bedroom.

It was the voice of a woman long accustomed to life with a foolish man.

"For a drive," I said.

"At 4:20 in the morning?!" she shouted.

"Traffic should be light," I said.

"You're insane," she said.

She was right, of course.

But insanity in pursuit of an uncluttered road to enjoy an automobile built solely for the joy of driving is a virtue. The Nissan Z-Car, since its introduction in the United States in October 1969, has always been such an automobile.

It was conceptual genius: Develop and build a fast, light sports car purposefully engineered for performance driving and little else. Aim it primarily at young men unfettered by families, mortgages or health-care expenses. Price it at $3,526 -- its actual base price at the time.