The Nissan Z Nismo has been officially teased by the Japanese marque, following the release of a short action video.

How do you stir up excitement amongst car enthusiasts and the modified aftermarket scene? Well, if you answered, “release a video of Chris Forsberg drifting a mysterious new Nismo model”, you’d get full marks.

Clearly, Nissan has been copying your homework, because that’s exactly what they’ve gone and done. Check it out below:

Nissan Z Nismo – What do we know so far?

First of all, let’s bring things back down to reality. There isn’t really much mystery surrounding this upcoming new car at all. A hotter version of the lukewarm Nissan Z coupe has been mooted for some time now, following the launch of Z-specific Nismo performance parts at SEMA last year. And frankly, the slightly lackluster Z could certainly use a bit of a dynamic reawakening.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re very glad that the new Z exists in its standard form (true enthusiast cars are a rare commodity these days), but when put up against the likes of the GR Supra, BMW M2, or Porsche Cayman, the Z struggles to keep up.

Happily, in the hands of a three-time Formula Drift champion at least, the new Nismo variant does appear to have a bit more verve and gusto about it.

As far as specs go, Nissan has yet to give us a single measly detail about what sort of performance we should expect. However, as first reported by Road & Track, rumors suggest that there won’t be a manual version – a claim that falls in line with the fact that Forsberg’s play thing in the video above is also seemingly an automatic.

If there is indeed some truth to those rumors, it’s hard not to view that as a bit of swing and a miss on Nissan’s part. Sure, we all know that manual cars don’t sell very well these days, but given the fact that you can get a manual transmission in the regular Z (and its closest rival, the GR Supra), you’d have thought that the manual box would be an option in the more driver-focused spin-off too…

Edit: More details about the Nissan Z Nismo have dropped! Read it all here.