It’s been a long, hard winter, and I don’t just mean the weather. So I can’t deny that having a new fast sports car in the test fleet is something of a ray of sunshine.

We recently bought a Nissan 370Z, the latest incarnation in a long line of two (and occasionally 2+2) seaters. Rather than being a drastic shift from the past–-as happened between the bulky 1990-1996 budget supercar and its lithe 2003-2009 post-hiatus reincarnation–-this version is an evolution of the last generation.

Our $38,565 370Z Touring has the sport package, which includes a rather entertaining piece of kit: the “SynchroRev Match” manual transmission. Instead of heel-and-toeing to match revs when you downshift, the car does the fancy footwork for you-–and it does it well. It blips the throttle all on its own as you push in the clutch and move the shifter.

First impressions are that this is a really fast ride with an extremely willing and eager engine and very responsive handling, but the stiff ride and high noise levels present clouds on the springtime horizon.

—Tom Mutchler