The 2027 Nissan Z NISMO now comes with a six-speed manual transmission, and Nissan wants $68,505 for it. That’s the same price as the automatic. No upcharge for the third pedal, no penalty for wanting to row your own.
In a market that increasingly treats the manual gearbox like a boutique option worth a premium, Nissan’s approach is refreshingly straightforward. Every 2027 Z trim — Sport, Performance, and NISMO — costs $1,460 more than the outgoing model. The Sport starts at $45,725, the Performance at $55,725, and the NISMO at the top.
All three let buyers choose between the six-speed stick or a nine-speed automatic at no difference in price. The Sport and Performance share a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 making 400 horsepower. Step up to the Performance and you get forged 19-inch RAYS wheels, upgraded dampers, better brakes, and a limited-slip rear differential.
The NISMO bumps output to 420 horses and adds upgraded front brakes engineered specifically for the new manual option. This isn’t just a parts-bin swap. Nissan’s engineers had to do real work to get the manual into the NISMO, a car originally designed around the automatic.
That they bothered at all says something about where the Z sits in the company’s dwindling performance lineup. The GT-R is dead. Nissan has no replacement in the pipeline.
The Z is it — the last sports car standing in Yokohama. And the landscape around it is thinning fast. The Toyota Supra is gone, the BMW Z4 is gone, both buried alongside the R35 GT-R in the sports-car cemetery that grows bigger every model year.
If you want a rear-drive, two-door car with more than 228 horsepower and a manual transmission, your choices have collapsed to three: this Z, the BMW M2 at $69,550, and the Ford Mustang GT starting at $48,795. That’s the entire list. The Mazda Miata and Toyota GR86/Subaru BRZ twins still offer stick shifts, but they play in a different power class.
The Z NISMO occupies a specific niche — track-focused, turbocharged, manual, under $70,000 — and right now it has almost no direct competition. The M2 costs a grand more and comes from a brand that’s increasingly tilting toward electrification. The Mustang GT undercuts the Z by nearly $20,000 but lacks the precision engineering and exotic feel of the NISMO package.
Neither offers quite the same proposition: a Japanese rear-drive coupe with serious turbo power, serious track hardware, and a clutch pedal, all from a company that frankly could use the goodwill. Nissan is not in great financial shape. The company has been cutting costs, shedding models, and restructuring globally.
Launching a manual NISMO isn’t going to fix the balance sheet. But it does something harder to quantify — it reminds enthusiasts that someone inside Nissan still gives a damn. The 2027 Z is already arriving at dealerships.
For buyers who have been waiting for the NISMO with a stick, the window is open. How long it stays open depends on whether enough people actually buy the thing, or whether it joins the long list of cars enthusiasts demanded, ignored, and then mourned on internet forums for a decade. The sports-car market doesn’t reward nostalgia — it rewards sales.
Share this Story