I test drove a 350Z and an RX8 on the same day (in that order). There was no comparison. The RX8 had to be in a low gear before it did anything. The 350Z will pull from low in the rev range and you get a steady increase in acceleration up to the red line.
I was upgrading from a Honda Prelude 2.2vti, which was a great car, but I wanted something that I didn’t have to rev the nuts off to make progress, and the 350Z fitted the bill.
I drove a Mazda 3 MPS a few days before. The turbo does give a kick in the back, but it delivers the power in a very tight rev range. So the power kicks in and it feels great for a second, but then the turbo gives up and the last 500 rpm feels lifeless. So you end up changing up at about 5500rpm, which makes it feel like driving a diesel.
I’m very happy with the 350Z.