In straightline terms at least, the Z8 is pure hot rod. One prod of the throttle at idle has the thing shaking excitedly and blaring traditional muscle car noises out of those twin exhausts. For a perfect standing start, switch off the DSC, engage the sport button to cut the throttle’s response time and enjoy one of the best displays of traction by a front-engined rear-wheel-drive car we’ve ever seen.
It’s brutally fast – much faster than the M5 and the only rag-top to beat it is the Porsche 911. Although it’s limited to 155mph, we managed to get 161mph out of it in fifth gear. In sixth, the car was pegged back to the limited speed.
It stops well too. A 60-0mph time of 2.5sec equals our road car record but the feel of the pedal doesn’t inspire much confidence.
And then there’s the handling. For a start the steering doesn’t want to be drawn into a dialogue about what’s going on under the front wheels and although the car is running on mighty Bridgestones it doesn’t take much to provoke it into running wide. It’s a very safe but infuriating chassis. Try to counter its inherent understeer with more power and the car understeers some more. It takes utterly brutal stabs of the right pedal to shift the loss of grip to the rear tyres and send the car into a powerslide.
The ride is firm at speed but sufficiently compliant to make motorway cruising perfectly comfortable. Lower down the speed scale and things aren’t quite as controlled. Potted British roads have the car crashing around uncomfortably.
