Last week, Autocar brought you a first drive of the new Nissan 370Z Nismo. To celebrate, we've gone though the archives to bring you a picture history of Nissan's iconic Z cars.
The first Nissan Z car was the Datsun 240Z, unveiled in autumn 1969. Current Nissan president Carlos Ghosn described this car as "a two-seat sports car that revolutionized the automotive world at the time. It had European styling, American muscle, Japanese quality and global desirability."
See the hi-res Nissan Z car timeline in pics
Despite it being the car that brought the Datsun name to the global stage, 240Z wasn't the firm's first sports car. Its roots can be traced back to the Datsun Sports of 1952 and 1957, as well as the Datsun Fairlady of 1968.
Many more Z models, including race and rally variants, have followed since, and the name still lives on today with the recently-launched 370Z.
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Re: History of Nissan Z cars in pics
I had a 1990 Nissan 200SX back in the day and thought it was a nice looking car.
I always hankered after a 300ZX but they were over £30K then when my 200 was only £19K!
Re: History of Nissan Z cars in pics
If the 350Z actually happens to be the immediate successor of the 300ZX and was designed by the same person, then that person must have had a real moment of design genius; if was designed by somebody else, then people at Nissan it seems were able to find a person who had in him at least one master piece. Even though I have never been able to like its tail lights, the tail lights of 350Z that is, but the rest of the car really is beautifully sculpted with smooth flowing body panels. Tail could have been better, and it remains the case with the latest version of the Z series as well.
Re: History of Nissan Z cars in pics
The 1998 shape is better than the 2002 shape...