Listen to this article The Yokohama marque has introduced the new Z for the 2022 campaign, replacing the R35-generation GT-R that had raced in various guises since the 2008 season. Since launching the car late last year, Nissan has been busy putting the Z through its paces in several private manufacturer tests. Its cars dominated the timesheets during a two-day test at Suzuka in January, albeit with limited representation from rivals Honda and Toyota, and has conducted further running this month at Fuji Speedway and Motegi. Read Also: Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, NISMO COO Motohiro Matsumura was reluctant to say whether Nissan may hold an early edge over its GT500 opposition, but did reveal that the Z had exceeded the manufacturer’s own internal performance estimates. “At this moment it’s difficult to say as we’ve only had very limited testing, so I can’t say we are obviously at an advantage or disadvantage,” Matsumura said. “But one of the good points is that the laptime we recorded is better than we estimated. “I can’t speak about our [relative] competitiveness against our rivals, but we are ahead of the laptimes we estimated at Suzuka and Motegi, so we have made good progress.” The Z, based on the new road car that was revealed last year, features a radically different look compared to its predecessor, featuring a much lower and sleeker shape ostensibly aimed at reducing drag – a key weakness of the SUPER GT 2020-spec GT-R. Indeed, the GT-R notably struggled against Honda and Toyota at Fuj …