The Nissan 300ZX Was The Last True Z Car

The Nissan 300ZX Was The Last True Z Car

The Nissan 300ZX Was The Last True Z Car

The Nissan 300ZX was supposed to cement Nissan as Japan’s most exciting automaker. It was the darling of the motoring press when it debuted in 1989 and even managed to hold its own in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Mazda, Toyota, and Honda. Instead, it succumbed to the same fate as so many other Japanese sports cars. Nissan stopped building the 300ZX for the US in 1996 and altogether in the year 2000, meaning that for the first time since the Nixon administration, the company did not have a Z car in its lineup. Its fall from grace mirrored that of Nissan. Some consider the 300ZX to be the last true Z car.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 INTRO
1:02 DESIGN
9:13 ENGINEERING
11:51 DEBUT
13:07 MAGAZINE REVIEWS
14:01 COMPARISON TESTS
19:35 LATER YEARS/DECLINE

SOURCES

www.barchetta.co/300zx-sources

ARTICLES, SOURCES, AND MORE

www.barchetta.co


Content

1.86 -> Yutaka Kume wasn’t your average public relations  guru. He earned a degree in aeronautical  
8.34 -> engineering from the University of Tokyo and  then worked at a navy dockyard during the war.  
13.8 -> Kume joined Nissan in 1946, worked his  way through the engineering department,  
18.72 -> and eventually became the automaker’s head of  research and development. Nissan appointed him  
24.6 -> as its Executive VP in 1983 and then  its president two years after that.
30.36 -> He set about injecting the company with  a shot of adrenaline. Under his guidance,  
35.16 -> Nissan initiated the “901 Activity.” That  number encapsulated its refocused priorities.  
42.06 -> They aimed to be the number one automaker in  terms of performance by the year 1990. Design and  
48.72 -> technology also became major considerations. The  next crop of Nissans would take this philosophy on  
55.2 -> in stride, and the car that would spearhead  this effort would be the next generation Z.
60.72 -> Development began in 1984. The venture earned  the internal designation of Project UZ.  
68.52 -> Previous iterations used the S30s  basic design as a foundation,  
72.48 -> but for the new Z, designers worked from  a clean sheet. During the ideation phase,  
78 -> stylists were required to submit sketches  for the UZ as well as the upcoming Silvia.  
83.88 -> Toshio Yamashita disregarded the rules  and placed all of his efforts in the Z.
89.28 -> He worked on the car at home while his wife  and newborn child were visiting her parents.  
93.9 -> His sketch was the only one on the wall that  didn’t have an accompanying Silvia drawing.  
99.36 -> The directors were so impressed with the proposal  that they accepted it, broken rules and all.  
104.88 -> This echoed Yamashita’s unusual  start in the automotive industry.
109.38 -> He entered his adolescent years with dreams of  becoming an architect. That profession was his  
114.9 -> first choice on his high school application.  Design was his second choice if he couldn’t  
120.06 -> get into his preferred program. He was in for a  surprise when he got word on the final result.  
125.82 -> Architecture wasn’t in the cards.  While this was a disappointing result,  
130.14 -> he was still capable of carving out a long  career in this field. The strange part in  
135.72 -> all of this was that design was listed as his  preferred path. Toshio confided in his father,  
141 -> who he expected to be sour about the course  of events. On the contrary, he was actually  
146.88 -> pleasantly surprised. It was all his doing. The  elder Yamashita believed that he was too small  
153.3 -> to be an architect and therefore wouldn’t  be taken seriously on site by the builders.
158.46 -> Visitors came to his institution as his studies  wound down. Nissan representatives arrived  
163.92 -> looking for designers. A high school seems like a  strange place for a major automaker to scout out,  
169.32 -> but the practice wasn’t too uncommon in Japan  around this time. There weren’t very colleges  
175.14 -> that specialized in transportation design. Nissan  stopped this practice about a decade later.
180.84 -> Toshio’s instructor asked if anyone was interested  in the opportunity. He and another student were  
186.72 -> the only students to raise their hands.  His colleague couldn’t join him at Nissan  
190.98 -> because his parents didn’t want him to move to  Tokyo, so he was on his own. Preparing for the  
196.8 -> interview was a challenge in itself. He didn’t  have a strong interest in cars at the time and  
201.72 -> none of his professors were trained in that  particular field. He showed up to the interview  
206.58 -> with a portfolio mainly consisting of drawings of  pots and rice cookers and gave it his best shot.  
212.82 -> Nissan must have seen something in him because  they brought him on as a full-time designer.  
217.86 -> Designing a car of his own became a dream of  his, but a fellow employee informed him that,  
222.78 -> as a designer fresh out of high school, he’d only  be assigned to work on components and the like.
228.18 -> There were some growing pains early on,  but he improved by applying feedback from  
232.62 -> his managers and referencing car magazines.  Soon enough, he found a chance to stand out.  
238.92 -> Designers often hung their sketches on the wall  for evaluation, similar to what occurred in the  
243.84 -> mid-80s with the 300ZX. Toshio wasn’t expected to  submit any proposals due to his standing within  
250.32 -> the company, but he didn’t let that stop him from  giving it a try. He made a handful of drawings  
255.9 -> when he got home from work one night. When he  returned to the office the following morning,  
260.34 -> he hung 10 of them on the board. He then returned  to his work on the Silvia’s radiator grille.
265.8 -> One of his supervisors pulled a sketch off of the  wall and asked who made it. Once again, Toshio  
272.28 -> rose his hand. This led to an evaluation meeting  where he was asked to create a 5th-scale sketch.  
278.58 -> From here, he was able to establish  himself as a fully-fledged designer.
283.38 -> Returning to the mid-1980s, Yamashita  remained heavily involved in Project UZ  
288.42 -> after his proposal was accepted. He spearheaded  a pair of 1:1 configuration mock-ups to get a  
294.54 -> feel for the overall proportions. The details  hadn’t yet been fully explored at this point,  
299.4 -> but the silver front-engine one  resembles an evolution of the Z31.
304.32 -> The two-tone mid-engine proposal, meanwhile, would  have changed the very idea of what a Z car was.  
310.68 -> The fact that it was given serious consideration  at all was an indication of Nissan’s emphasis on  
316.62 -> performance. What that car would look like would  have to remain in the minds of those at R&D.  
322.38 -> A midship layout had packaging conflicts  with the inevitable 2+2 variant.
328.32 -> Yamashita also traveled to the United  States with a few of his colleagues to  
332.64 -> see why the Z had become such  a phenomenon in that market.  
336.06 -> They also wanted to see if there was anything  they could do to increase its appeal even more.  
340.98 -> The traveling party made stops in California,  Texas, and Michigan. It was intended to be  
347.4 -> for market research, but Yamashita made  one serious sketch while in the country.
351.9 -> A Dino pulled out in front of them while they were  on the road. He became inspired to create a sketch  
358.68 -> when he returned to his hotel room. It looks far  removed from the final design, but some features  
365.7 -> exaggerate its width. The wide tail light bar is  one that made the jump over to the real thing. The  
373.38 -> details are far removed from the production model,  but the idea of emphasizing its width remained.
374.323 -> Yamashita wanted the design to see  production with as few changes as possible.  
378.36 -> His stubbornness earned him the nickname of  Yadashita. “Yada” translates roughly to “I don’t  
385.26 -> like” or “I don’t want to” and was in reference  to all of the suggestions that he shot down.  
391.32 -> The headlights were a prime example of this.  
394.32 -> The design called for units that were set at  a 60-degree angle. Engineers either wanted  
400.2 -> to reposition them to a 45-degree angle or use  retractable lights. Instead of admitting defeat,  
406.2 -> Yamashita went out on his own and found smaller  projectors for the engineering team to use.
412.38 -> The antenna was also a point of contention. The  layout team wanted to place it on the front of  
418.08 -> the car near the A-pillar. He argued that this  would have distrusted the overall design and  
423.96 -> wanted to find another spot for it. They insisted  that it couldn’t be installed anywhere else.  
430.38 -> Yamashita caved and that seemed to be the end  of it… until the directors came to check on  
435.3 -> his progress the following day. They took one  look at the model and pressed him about it.  
440.64 -> He pointed to the layout team and  said that his hands were tied.  
444.42 -> The directors took his side and assured him  that the situation would be taken care of.  
449.46 -> Sure enough, the antenna was moved  onto the rear haunch the very next day.
453.66 -> “I don’t care about mechanics.  I care about design.”
454.44 -> Designers made extensive use of full-scale  models while that car was in development.  
460.26 -> For the S130, they brought the  design along via scale mock-ups.  
465.24 -> The exterior of Project UZ evolved mainly  through two-dimensional means. Only 11  
471.72 -> quarter-scale models and 3 full-scale models  were produced throughout the entire process.
477.3 -> The first of them was referred to as Type E.  
480.36 -> Judging from the available photographs, it appears  to take on more of a traditional hatchback body  
485.76 -> style that isn’t that far removed from the Porsche  968. Its front-end signature also looks to be  
492.3 -> inspired by cars such as the S13 Silvia, with a  thin grille that joins two slender lighting units.  
499.44 -> The oblong headlights also recall the ones  from the R32 and R33-generation Skylines.
506.34 -> The second model. Internally known as Type C,  was submitted by Nissan Design International in  
512.82 -> San Diego. It takes a different approach from its  Japanese counterparts, with retractable lights,  
519.36 -> smoked pillars, and more  angular surfacing on the whole.
523.32 -> The final one was designated Type F. On the  surface, appears to be a clean break from the  
529.86 -> Z lineage, but there are a few elements that  link it to the older models. The tail light  
535.44 -> arrangement, for instance, puts a twist on the  traditional setup. The brake lights are up top,  
538.903 -> the turn indicators are at the bottom, and the  reverse lights are closest to the center. This  
539.82 -> model also had an S13-inspired panel in  between the headlights that was removed  
544.74 -> from the production car. De signers also  color-keyed the thin bumper guard to the  
549.6 -> rest of the body and broke up the mass of  the thick black divider directly under it.
554.46 -> The mechanicals would also be a departure from  previous Z cars. Nissan initially wanted to use  
561 -> an entirely new engine. The VH45 V8 caught their  eye for a moment, but they decided to go in a  
568.38 -> different direction. After all of their options,  they decided to overhaul the outgoing VG engine.  
575.46 -> Make no mistake; the refreshed power  plant would be a different beast entirely.
581.16 -> It featured new camshafts, pistons, and connecting  rods, and would also make use of Nissan’s NVTC  
588.6 -> valve timing technology. The naturally aspirated  VG30DE made more horsepower than the turbocharged  
597.3 -> Z31. The turbocharged VG30DETT had another  significant difference from its predecessor.  
606.3 -> Instead of using one single turbocharger,  the engine made use of two smaller units.  
612.42 -> Nissan took this approach in an effort to  reduce turbo lag and increase responsiveness.  
617.82 -> A version of this engine was used in the MID4-II  concept vehicle, where it made 322 horsepower.  
626.34 -> It was a bit less potent in this application,  though a figure of 300 horsepower was still plenty  
632.64 -> impressive for the late 1980s. The automatic  version was detuned further to 280 horsepower.
639.42 -> The body and chassis were also improved. Thanks  in no small part to a Cray Supercomputer,  
645.66 -> they were able to improve the bending  rigidity by 35 percent and the 20  
652.08 -> percent improvement in torsional rigidity. To  really illustrate the structural improvements,  
655.86 -> Nissan was able to make the t-top variant  stronger than the previous generation coupe.
661.38 -> The Z32 also used Nissan’s  HICAS 4-wheel steering system.  
665.82 -> It used both mechanical and computerized  methods to work out how the rear wheels moved.
671.88 -> Previous generations of the Z were benchmarked  against the competition in terms of practicality  
677.1 -> and NVH. For Project UZ, they compared it  to segment leaders in terms of performance.  
683.52 -> It was the first Nissan to have  an overseas testing program.  
687.72 -> They set it against the Porsche 924 and 968  on the Autobahn and Nurburgring in Germany.  
694.5 -> In America, it was compared to the Chevrolet  Corvette. The test program required three years,  
701.04 -> 190 prototypes, and well over a million test  miles, but it was finally ready to ship.
711.6 -> The new Nissan 300ZX was unveiled at the 1989  Chicago Auto Show. They were hoping to make  
721.02 -> a splash here, but it probably would have been  in their best interest to select another event.  
726.42 -> Japanese heavyweights in the Acura NSX  and Mazda MX-5 debuted here as well. It  
732.66 -> still managed to garner a fair bit of attention.
735.48 -> The naturally aspirated model went on sale in  May of 1989 at a starting price of $27,300.  
743.4 -> The 2+2 came in July and could be had for $28,500.  The range-topping turbocharged variant began at  
751.62 -> $33,000. This would equate to just under $80,000  in today’s money. It was certainly a pretty penny,  
759.36 -> but for one of the best-performing cars in its  segment, the price isn’t completely ridiculous.
764.76 -> It also went on sale in the United Kingdom  in April of 1990, but with a catch.  
771 -> Buyers here would only be able to purchase it  in its turbocharged 2+2 guise. With only 375  
778.38 -> examples earmarked for the market, they weren’t  expecting it to sell in large quantities here.
783.96 -> Road and track had an early look at the car  at the company’s test facility in Tochigi and  
788.82 -> published its findings in the March 1989 issue.  They absolutely gushed about it and declared that  
795 -> the Z32 was a return to form for the model line.  Its exterior design and technology suite impressed  
801.18 -> them, though its performance was arguably its  strongest attribute. The going power of the base  
806.76 -> model impressed them, though the turbocharged  model made it seem tame by comparison.
811.74 -> A more thorough test took place in August. They  continued to shower on the praise here as well,  
817.56 -> with them calling it one of the most compelling  offerings to appear on the American market  
822.06 -> in years. Interior ergonomics and instrument  placement continued to be high marks, though they  
828.66 -> did have a bone to pick with the automatic climate  control system. Even then, it wasn’t that big of  
834.54 -> a deal. Manual controls were standard and they  predicted that those would be more cooperative.
840.6 -> In February of 1990, it was placed against the  Chevrolet Corvette. Both cars did well during  
847.02 -> track testing at Grattan Raceway in Michigan.  The Corvette had a slight edge here. It was quite  
853.86 -> neutral while the ZX had a tendency to understeer.  Nissan did what it could to mitigate the turbo  
860.04 -> lag, but it simply wasn’t as responsive as its  rival’s naturally aspirated 8-cylinder engine.  
866.52 -> The corvette recorded a lap time of 1:38, which  was about a second faster than the Nissan. It  
873.06 -> couldn’t have solely been attributed to the power,  as the import had a 50 horsepower advantage.
876.6 -> It made up a bit of ground during the  instrumented tests. Awkward gearing let  
881.76 -> the Corvette down during its 0-60 sprints and  top-speed trials. The ZX also had the highest  
888.9 -> slalom speed they’d ever recorded. Its lead  widened even further during day-to-day driving.  
895.2 -> Testers took issue with the interior layout,  outward visibility, and entry and exit.  
901.98 -> Road manners on less-than-optimal surfaces  also left something be desired. The Z didn’t  
908.1 -> get off scot-free either. Several build quality  issues emerged over the course of their testing.  
914.04 -> The first example that they got their hands on  had boost issues. The second one arrived to them  
919.08 -> with loose brake calipers. And the third was  the worst of them all. First, an 18-inch piece  
925.32 -> of interior trim fell off. Then its heater broke.  Lastly, a concerning blue haze spilled out of the  
932.88 -> exhaust tips. Even with these quality concerns  in mind, the Z still won in a convincing fashion.
940.08 -> It faced off against another  sports car in August of 1991.  
945.12 -> The Dodge Stealth had been recently introduced  and had some serious potential to make some  
949.8 -> noise in the segment. On paper, the cars were  quite similar to one another. Both of them had  
955.44 -> twin-turbocharged 3-liter V6 engines that made  300 horsepower. They also had antilock brakes,  
963.24 -> four-wheel steering, and trick suspensions.  This bout would all come down to execution.
970.38 -> Driving dynamics in both cars were pleasant  during their two-day excursion in Ohio.  
975.9 -> Testers had a few quips with the Stealth’s sight  lines and instrument placement, but aside from  
981.3 -> that, they were neck and neck with each other. On  the Proving Grounds, the stark differences between  
986.88 -> the two came to the surface. The Z was precise  and communicative on the track. At times, the  
993.66 -> Stealth felt disconnected from its front wheels.  They attributed this to its full-time all-wheel  
999.72 -> drive setup. Again, the Z did just enough to  add another head-to-head victory to its belt.
1006.68 -> A golden age in motoring history was upon us, and  a 1993 roundup would show where the 300ZX ranked  
1013.16 -> among its rivals. It already bested the Corvette  in an earlier test, and the Stealth’s platform  
1018.92 -> sibling was also present in the Mitsubishi  3000GT. It wouldn’t be easy for the Nissan,  
1024.98 -> though, as a pair of hotly anticipated sports  coupes would give it everything it could handle.  
1030.38 -> Mazda’s latest rotary-powered wonder was  already garnering acclaim from the press  
1034.94 -> and the public alike. Journalists were also  eager to see how the Toyota Supra stacked up.  
1041.12 -> This particular test was the first  American road test of a production example.  
1046.22 -> And to spice things up, they threw  in the facelifted Porsche 968.
1049.76 -> The Mitsubishi came in fifth place, with the  publication citing its weight and compromised  
1055.1 -> ergonomics as the main reasons for the result.  Porsche’s front-engine sports coupe shared real  
1060.5 -> estate with it at the bottom of the standings.  They felt it was a tasteful package overall,  
1065.54 -> but its spotty build quality and eye-watering  $47,000 as-tested price undid it in the end.  
1072.74 -> The Corvette had a strong showing  considering it was overdue for an update.
1077.48 -> In terms of sheer agility, the bright  yellow RX7 was in a class of its own.  
1082.82 -> Keeping the boost on proved a  bit of a challenge, however,  
1085.4 -> and they were also concerned about the  long-term reliability of its 13B engine.
1090.62 -> Nearly four years after its introduction, the  300ZX remained one of the strongest offerings  
1096.14 -> in its class. One rider that stepped into the car  after driving the 3000GT likened it to swapping  
1102.62 -> out a pair of hiking boots for running shoes.  The areas that kept it from the top position  
1107.6 -> were its grip and visibility. It placed second  to last in the 70-0 emergency braking test and  
1114.62 -> tied for last in the road holding trial.  It was just one point behind the Supra.  
1120.14 -> That car had a dominant showing on Willow Springs  Raceway, but for as exemplary of a performer as it  
1126.38 -> was, the Toyota was an equally effective daily  driver. With such a slim margin of victory,  
1132.68 -> Nissan was in a prime position to  take back control of the segment.
1137.12 -> They managed to build about 22,000  units in the United States and roughly  
1142.58 -> 42,000 units globally through the  end of its first year of sale.  
1145.82 -> Those numbers seem right in line for a  new Z car. Nissan built 44,000 S130s and  
1153.08 -> 36,000 Z31s in their initial runs. It wasn’t until  the second year that they really hit their stride.  
1159.68 -> Considering the Z32's upmarket push, an increase  of that magnitude wasn’t likely in the cards.  
1167.06 -> Still, they hoped that this would be the start of  another successful generation of their sports car.
1176.72 -> Soaring costs made it difficult for the car to  maintain its momentum. The base price for the 1991  
1185.48 -> model year in the United States rose to $28,175  while the turbo model increased to $34,570.  
1194.9 -> These numbers went up by approximately  $2,000 the following year.  
1199.76 -> Sales in this market totaled just  under 17,000 in ‘91 and 11,000 in 1992.
1205.64 -> Nissan tried to resurrect that initial spark  by unveiling a convertible variant in Japan in  
1211.82 -> August of that year. The American Sunroof Company  handled the conversion. The car was based on the  
1218.48 -> 2-seater and utilized a basket-style roll bar  for rigidity and safety purposes. It also used a  
1224.12 -> pop-up wind deflector. Key stiffness was naturally  going to take a hit. To shore some of this up,  
1230.72 -> they used redesigned soils and incorporated  thicker sheet metal wherever possible. ASC used  
1237.5 -> 37 reinforced panels in total. The inevitable  weight penalty was also softened through  
1243.68 -> the use of aluminum in the trunk lid, storage  compartment cover, and soft top linkage mechanics.
1249.86 -> This wasn’t the only open-top proposal that  ASC submitted. A hardtop convertible surfaced  
1255.92 -> in 1992 in Geneva. The company wanted to  show that it could be viably produced.  
1261.62 -> As such, it utilized production-spec materials  and tolerances. They also worked some packaging  
1268.28 -> wizardry by retaining the back seats. ASC and  Nissan spent close to 800,000 on the project,  
1274.52 -> but in the end, the automaker shelved the whole  thing. They were able to talk Mitsubishi into  
1281.12 -> producing a 3000GT with a similar mechanism,  though that remained a niche product at best.
1287.06 -> The soft top 300ZX made some  significant compromises.  
1291.32 -> For one thing, it was about 200 pounds  heavier than the fixed-head coupe.  
1296.3 -> It was also only available with the base 222  horsepower V6. All of this taken with its steep  
1304.58 -> $37,000 asking price made the 300ZX a tough sell  to most buyers. As for the rest of the lineup,  
1310.82 -> the standard model went up to $30,500  while the turbo rose to $37,655.
1319.04 -> 1992 was not a particularly good year for Nissan.  According to a 1993 New York Times article,  
1325.4 -> the company lost $480 million. The main culprit  was an unfavorable exchange rate between the  
1333.26 -> dollar and the yen, which made its offerings as a  whole more expensive and less appealing. Cars like  
1339.2 -> the 300ZX were especially affected by the bursting  bubble. That Times article also speculated that  
1345.86 -> the next-generation model would move downmarket  and could possibly debut in either 1994 or 1995.
1352.4 -> The outlook of the current model was murky at  best. In 1994, Nissan discontinued it in the  
1359.18 -> United Kingdom because of incoming emissions  regulations. They didn’t believe it was worth  
1364.04 -> it to amend the issue for a market where it  wasn’t particularly popular to begin with.
1368.42 -> The line soldered on in the States, though  at a price of 33,700 for the base model and  
1375.62 -> $41,000 for the convertible, its potential  customer base was only going to get smaller.  
1380.84 -> Global production plummeted to 6,790, and roughly  4,800 of them were set for the American market.  
1390.14 -> Sales in its home market fell to a  bit over 1,800 that year as well.
1393.38 -> 1995 came and went without any news  on a potential successor, and the only  
1398.12 -> change the Z32 saw here was in regard to its  price. The entry point rose to about $35,000.  
1406.4 -> 1996 turned out to be its final year on  the market. Nissan pointed to side-impact  
1411.86 -> legislation as the main reason for its exit,  but barring a significant update, it was bound  
1417.44 -> to happen sooner or later. Japanese performance  cars of this vintage were destined to wither away  
1423.14 -> around the turn of the millennium. Mazda stopped  importing the RX-7 to the market a year earlier.  
1429.5 -> Toyota and Mitsubishi ceased sales  of their flagship cars in 1999.  
1434.66 -> The final US-spec 300ZX was added to the  Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
1441.44 -> After Nissan withdrew the model from down  under, it was offered solely in Japan.  
1446.36 -> 1999 saw its final notable update.  This included a redesigned front end,  
1452.3 -> a reworked rear spoiler, and modified rear  lights. The convertible was also dropped from  
1459.5 -> the lineup. This redesigned model  was also not long for this world.  
1463.52 -> Nissan discontinued it the following year,  meaning that for the first time since Nixon  
1468.44 -> was in the Oval Office, the company didn’t have  a Z car in its lineup anywhere. And with Nissan’s  
1474.5 -> continued financial difficulties, there was reason  to believe that there wouldn’t be one ever again.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T728rc8ggIY