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The History of the Z® In 1966, Nissan product planners looked to strengthen the Datsun product line with the introduction of an inexpensive, compact GT. Yoshihiko Matsuo, the chief designer of the new sports car project and an engineering team led by Teiichi Hara listened carefully to Yutaka Katayama, the president of Nissan Motor Corporation USA, for suggestions. Katayama, known as “Mr. K,” loved the long nose of the Jaguar XKE and many other design characteristics of past and current European sports cars. Matsuo’s and Hara’s teams began work on a prototype which would come to be known as the 240Z. Why name the sports car 240Z? Many sports cars used numbers as their names — the Triumph TR4 and MG 1500, for example. So Katayama and the Nissan planners opted for 240 to reflect the engine size and letter Z because, as Katayama said, “Z can be taken to mean so many things, zenith, for example, and sounds good in almost any language.” In October of 1969, the 1970 Datsun 240Z was introduced to the U.S. media in a ballroom at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. It featured sleek styling, a 2.4-liter inline 6-cylinder engine that produced 150 horsepower, a comfortable ride, great handling due to its independent front and rear suspensions and 0-60 mph times of under 9.0 seconds. List price for the 1970 240Z was only $3,526, impressive at the time considering the car’s styling and performance was on par with entries from Italy and Germany costing thousands more. The 240Z was an instantaneous hit, with prospective owners having to wait nearly six months to get their hands on a car. ”I knew that to succeed, the Z-car would have to capture the imagination of Americans,” said Katayama. And it did. In fact, the demand for the 240Z was so strong that in 1970, less than a year after the car’s debut, Kelley Blue Book rated the value of a used 240Z at $4,000. The Z-car became the fastest selling sports car of all time. Almost immediately after the introduction of the car, 240Zs were developed for racing by legendary drivers and constructors, including Bob Sharp, John Morton and Peter Brock. Z-cars were raced in off-road rallying and road-racing competitions, winning 10 consecutive SCCA C-Production championships and numerous IMSA GTU races and championships. The evolution of the Z-car continued throughout the 1970s with the introduction of the 260Z, the 2+2 body style, the 280Z and ending off the decade with the redesigned 280ZX. Every year, the Z sold in high numbers, reaching a peak in 1979 of 86,007 units, a Z record. The 1980s saw the first 280ZX Turbo, 300ZX and 300ZX Turbo and, towards the end of the ’80s, a change in the American marketplace, where overall sports car sales began to decline. Racing, however, was still the Z-car’s forte, with drivers such as racer-actor Paul Newman and Scott Sharp setting records and winning races and championships throughout the decade. 1990 was a new beginning for the Z-car. The new, dramatically styled 300ZX and 300ZX Turbo were sleek, aggressive and offered supercar-like performance. The new 300ZX remained basically unchanged until 1996. It was on Car and Driver’s “Ten Best Cars” list for 6 consecutive years, Automobile’s “All-Star” list for 5 straight years, and was voted Motor Trend’s “Import Car of the Year” upon its debut in 1990. 1990s racing victories included the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours at Sebring and a class win at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. Unfortunately the market no longer supported importing the 300ZX into the U.S., and in 1996, the car was retired at a gala at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Over a 26 year period, 1,087,409 Z cars were sold. At the same time the company was celebrating the Z-car’s glorious history, the question that remained top of mind was clearly: What comes after Z? As with many legendary athletes and performers, this one was never intended as a permanent retirement. The Z Concept was unveiled at the 1999 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. This car, designed by Nissan Design America (NDA) in La Jolla, California, featured a long hood, sweeping front fenders and characteristic headlights, suggesting the lines of the original. The car was a huge hit of the 1999 Auto Show season. With this car’s success, as well as a massive campaign by Z-car enthusiasts worldwide, it was decided that the Z would return to Nissan’s new car lineup. For 2001, the Z has evolved again, this time in closer-to-production form. It was decided that the 1999 Z Concept was too retro, though the sprit of the Z should remain the same as the original — the perfect combination of passion, price and performance with cutting-edge sports car style — a concept called “Z DNA.” Designed by NDA and Nissan Technical Center (NTC) in Atsugi, Japan, the new Nissan Z features a long wheelbase, wide stance, an intimate greenhouse area and hatchback body, with an appropriate amount of heritage design cues. The interior is a medley of metal and leather, with the signature Z three gauge pod in the center of the instrument panel. Powering this latest Z Concept is a 3.5-liter DOHC V6 producing 260-plus horsepower backed by a 5-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission, all-new fully independent suspension and 20-inch alloy wheels and tires. 0 to 60 mph times should be sub-6.0 seconds and the production version will be priced well under $30,000. The Z is scheduled to go on sale in mid-2002 as a 2003 model.
 STAGE V++++
Going to XV+ and beyond :) Yellow Z STAGE II
Going to XI+ |
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