By ALASTAIR SLOANE
The Nissan engineer who helped to steer development of the legendary 240Z sports car in 1969 urged the company's chief executive to build its spiritual successor, the new 350Z.
In 1962, Yutaka Katayama was a senior engineer working on the company's first sports car, a soft-top roadster called the
Fairlady.
He quickly rose through company ranks and, in 1965, was appointed president of Nissan US.
America was moving away from soft convertibles of the 50s and early 60s. Hardtops like the domestic Ford Mustang and imported E-Type Jaguar pointed to a new direction.
Katayama urged Nissan to follow the trend and proposed a replacement for the Fairlady: a lightweight and hardtop rear-drive coupe with a long bonnet and a six-cylinder engine.
Nissan toyed with a new twin-cam engine for the project but settled on a single-cam 2.4-litre straight-six, a reworked version of the durable four-cylinder 1.6-litre engine in the Datsun 1600. (Nissan was called Datsun until the early 1980s.)
The result was a two-seater coupe capable of 210km/h and zero to 100km/h in under 9 seconds. It was launched in America in September 1969.
Buyers queued for its combination of style, performance and value.
It quickly earned a reputation for its reliability and became so popular that year-old cars were selling for $500 more than their new price of about $4500.
In 1974, Nissan replaced the 240Z with the more powerful 260Z, a two-plus-two-seater coupe. That's when the rot set in.
The bloated 280Z coupe of 1979 continued the decline. So did the 300ZX of 1984. The facelifted 300ZX of 1990 was an improvement but still lacked the essence of the original 240Z.
By 1996 the Z car was finished and Nissan, burdened by debt, was fighting for its life.
The company ended up under the control of French carmaker Renault, which appointed Brazilian-born Carlos Ghosn to run it.
One of Ghosn's first visitors was 90-year-old Katayama, urging him to revive the original Z car formula.
The 350Z was launched in New Zealand on roads around the Chateau 24 hours ago.
Two models are available, priced at $64,990 for the four-speed automatic and $67,990 for the six-speed manual.
We will have a full report of the launch next Wednesday.
