Nissan unveils a new retro-styled Z sports car
Nissan had been dealing with struggling sales due to an aging lineup and the arrest of its chairman, Carlos Ghosn in 2018. Nissan designers were already working on redesigns of the company’s mainstream models when talk of a new Z sports car came up.”At the time, we were looking at who we are as a company,” said Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s global head of design. “Like myself, a little bit depressed. I was disgusted.”Creating the Z helped pull everyone through, he said, both in the design studio and in other parts of the companyThe original Datsun 240Z, is widely credited with changing Americans’ perceptions of Japanese cars. There had been Japanese sports cars before, including ones from Nissan, but the 240Z was different. It was relatively affordable, unlike Toyota’s beautiful but expensive 2000GT, while it offered compelling performance for its time. The Datsun 240Z was a version of the Nissan Fairlady Z coupe, as the model was called in Japan, but it was engineered especially for the US market. Two important changes were made for the American version. First, the American Z got a larger, more powerful engine and the Fairlady name was dropped in favor of a number. The Fairlady name continues to be used in Japan. The new Z will go on sale in the spring of 2022. Pricing for the car will be announced closer to when it goes on sale. Prices for the current model, the 370Z, start at around $31,000.
