No, 306 HP is standard on the current Z (thanks to the VQ35HR).

The story behind the Q being dropped is something I do not know other than it is no longer offered. It was the first Japanese car to be hit with a gas guzzler tax though. But it is most likely that Nissan decided that the Q was redundant next to the M. They aim for luxury perfromance and not land yachts as well and it was likely considered that Nissan just did not want to try to make a battleship that could live up to that.

As for moving up,

It depends on the mission the parent company puts down for the division. Lexus is the Oldest of the Japanese Luxury marks and the biggest. The LS is being pushed forward and upward like a rocket. Only recently was the LS600h, the first and so far only hybrid (mainly for performance) car in its class, was debuted. If technology and refinement are you touchstones, it does it all except transform into a robot to crush to guy who stole your parking space (otherwise it can park there for you). About $106K to start.

As for Infiniti and Acura, Apparently huge price tags are not what they are aiming for. Infiniti is doing fine but Acura is kinda’ lagging but is otherwise okay. The RL is still their flagship.

Mazda? They make sporty cars and with FORD still holding a controlling interest in the company, that is not likely to change, however their Mazda6 underpins the Lincoln MKZ. But I would be happy if Mazda could make more sports cars. An AWD Mazda3, RWD Mazda6 sedan and coupe, a tri-rotor RX or maybe call it “Cosmos”, would be cool. Mazda is doing good where it is for now. Better than FORD really.

If I have enough money to get into a V8 RWD Tiburon by the time they come out.. you damn well best believe I will be doing so. Either the Tiburon or the Genesis, anyway.

Meanwhile the Japanese are constantly rotating names and styles in their top echelon to see what sticks, never able to solidify that spot and move on up.

Witness the Lexus LS400 –> 460, the Q45 replaced by the M45, the Acura RL (WTF happened to it?) and Mazda has no entry at all.

When you have 100k kicking around for a fancy ride you tend to zone in on an S500 or a 750iL.

I’m not disagreeing with you but I meant that Hyundai wants to do everything that Toyota is doing now, Luxury and Mainstream. The only thing they are not doing, at least in the US is trucks, not just SUVs.

And before anyone gets confused, the NISMO 350Z makes 306hp, not the standard 350Z (still making 263hp). Also I think drive54 is right the 370Z will have, at least, a version of the G37′s 3.7L V6 making 330 horsepower. A V8 would be cool but I think they would reserve that for some new Infiniti G-car (G45 anyone?). The Z-car has a six and that will likely not change for a long time.

I’m still dissapointed that Nissan didn’t put the Q45 engine in the Z, but i understand the economics of it

Still I would love to see a V8 Z-car or a turbo six. The NISMO Z was great but not really enough.

Hyundai has aspirations to be Korea’s Toyota and they seem well on their way. I always tend to root for the underdog, so I am on Hyundai’s side hoping they succeed.