NB The photos are high-res and will take some time to render What gives a car company its soul? Questions that obviously Carlos Ghosn thought long and hard about when he took over the helm at Nissan at the end of the last millennium. One of the first things that he did was to sanction the resurrection of a design icon, a key player in Nissan’s product line up – the Z car. Marketed as the Fairlady Z in Japan, but known as the Z elsewhere in the world, the car had evolved since its 1969 debut as the 240Z, through numerous incarnations each involving an increase in engine displacement. So the car that most of you will be familiar with is the 3.5-litre variant Nissan 350Z, developed with the sanction of the new CEO back in 2000 to bring the soul back to Nissan and create a buzz in the automotive market. The Z car had built a strong following in the US, bringing affordable sports cars to the masses in the 1970s and offering dependability, style and fun motoring at the right cost. Even Paul Newman and Jay Leno were part of the Z faithful, with the late Newman taking the cars to triumphant finishes in the SCCA and IMSA races in the US as a factory driver. So Ghosn saw the return of the Z as critical to giving Nissan back its soul and tapping into the hearts and wallets of the US market. All hail the… [Read full story]
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