The instructor tells me to look for the dirt road on the hill beyond the track to point the 2024 Nissan Z Nismo in the right direction. It’s my first time driving Sonoma Raceway and all the hype couldn’t have prepared me for the quick elevation changes and blind turns of a track carved out of a hill. 

After four laps in the more docile 2024 Nissan Z Performance model, we take lead-follow laps in the new track-ready Z Nismo. The first turn banks hard left and climbs as vertical as any track grade I’ve been on. Then it’s a hard right 90-degree turn into a quick descent and switchback. There’s so much to process that I don’t even see the alleged dirt road until the subsequent round of four laps in the Z Nismo. 

The advice helps, but not as much as being the tail of a five-car train because I’m the Sonoma noob. The initial bank before the climb helps control the direction and balance, but it’s where it bends back left that the structural changes of the Nismo over the base Z become apparent. New stabilizer bars front and rear conspire with the larger dampers and springs to counter the forces pushing me wide, and I’m able to use the bank to climb straight into the blind turn.