Nissan Fairlady Z - All The Z Models Reviewed
The full story Behind the 40 years of Nissan's mostly magnificent Z car family
Lumps and Legends
Anyone looking at a #Micra, a #Pulsar or god forbid a Joke - #Juke would be forgiven for thinking that Nissan are just a bit lame.
The truth however is that this Japanese brand has always been a little bit Jekyll and Hyde, producing utterly pedestrian cars for the masses while creating beautiful and exciting performance driving icons like the GTR, and the Z car family.
So much Meh
Back in the late 1960s when Nissan then known as #Datsun first introduced the Z-car, no one was to know that they were initiating a motoring dynasty that would become an enduring icon of Japanese design and engineering, to be held up alongside other cultural icons such as Godzilla, Katana Swords, Bonsai Trees and Sushi.
Genesis
The first Z Car, the 240Z was a beautiful looking car, with elegant lines that sat somewhere between the Jaguar e-type and C2 Corvette of the time but more edgy and modern than the others, a bit smaller too. But it wasn’t just looks that made the 240Z stand out.
Although it was built from off the shelf parts, the 240Z was so well made and handled so beautifully compared to it’s contemporaries from Ford (mustang), Porsche (911), Chevy (Corvette), Jaguar (e-Type) that it became an instant legend, suddenly the sports car to beat.
the 240Z was a beautiful car, with elegant lines somewhere between the Jaguar e-type and Corvette
DISCO STEW
Sadly however, tastes changed through the 1970s and Nissan had to go with the flow, regularly updating its classic design to keep up with the trends. This meant, brutally constricting early 70s emissions controls robbed it of power, the engine had to get bigger as did the chassis as Nissan attempted to broaden the car’s appeal as a “personal coupe” rather than a sports car.
By the time the last of the #280ZX rolled out of the factory, the Z cars had lost much of what made them special, with opulent interiors, soft suspension and under stressed engines making them rather like the Elvis Presley of the time, a dim shadow of his former self.
The less said about the 80s #300ZX the better but Z car was resurrected for the 90s with the magnificent Z32 shape 300ZX that offered drop dead good looks with staggering performance and an all new alloy v6 that even powered racing aircraft!
Zeitgeist
The 300ZX died quietly and Z cars were gone for a little while before returning magnificently in the early 00s with the fantastic 350Z, later replaced by the 370Z an excellent car, still on sale in 2017.
F cOmes Before Z
The Datsun Sports 2000 also Known as Datsun Fairlady 2000
The 240Z was not Datsun’s first sports car, the 1959, Fairlady 1000 takes that accolade. This 1000cc four banger looked the part, an italianate barchetta, elegant light weight 50s design, the lady was fair indeed.
What she had in looks though she lacked in performance, the engine was underpowered even by the standards of the time and it was the 1500cc update, styled by the legendary Count Albrecht Goertz in 1963 that first brought the car to the attention of sports car fans.
The car continued to grow in capacity to a 1.6 and then a 2000cc the final variant, known as the Sports 2000 was a very potent machine with up to 155hp on tap it excelled in competition
240Z The Icon Is Born
The 240Z was launched in Japan in 1969 as the Fairlady Z, it is hard to imagine just how progressive it must have looked at the time, contemporary writers likened it to a lighter, sharpened and more agile #Jaguar e-type, high praise indeed to be compared to that much loved legend from Coventry.
The original 240z had a very competitive 151 horsepower propelling it to 60 mph in 7.8 seconds, not too dissimilar to our contemporary #Toyota-GT86.
240Z the Legend
In the USA, Datsun sold an impressive 16,215 240Z in its first year!
This form continues with 33,684 the following year and 45,588 the year after that, in 1973, it’s final year of production, the 240Z sold 46282 cars making a total of 141,786 240Z sold to US customers in just 4 years.
One wonders why they felt the need to change anything about it!
Not Only a Sales success
The 204Z was not only a sales success but a competition success too. In 1971 three 240Zs were entered into the gruelling East African Safari Rally.
As a testament to the superb engineering behind the 240Z, all three cars finished their debut race, one of them, incredibly being driven to victory by Edgar Hermann and Hans Schüller, second place going to… another 240Z!
That same year, the close cousin of the 240Z the Fairlady 432Z - same body, different engine won the 1000Km of Suzuka, the 240Z even competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans however that was in 1975 and the aging 240Z was behind the pack.
The fundamentals of the 240Z were just right for competition, the suspension comprised of MacPherson struts at the front end and Chapman struts at the rear. Incase you are wondering, Chapman struts are named after their inventor, Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus cars.
1971 East African Safari Rally all three cars finished one of them, driven to victory and second place going to another 240Z!
Less from More
The 240Z was replaced by the 260Z in 1974. As the name indicates, the engine capacity increased from 2.4l to 2.6l.
This increase in capacity sadly did not bring an increase in performance, the 260Z having lost a few horses when compared to the 240Z, 139 vs 151 horsepower. This decline was due to &0s emissions controls which sucked power, it is worth recognising that Chevy got similar power from their 5.7 V8 at the time.
The bad news did not end end with the emissions controls, the 260Z was a bigger car too, it got two comically small rear seats, a longer wheelbase and unsightly large bumpers, this bigger larger car was slower and had lost the crisp handling of it’s predecessor.
The 260Z, still beautiful but some of the purity of form is lost.
A year later the 260Z was replaced by the 280Z, the name indicating another increase in engine capacity. Adding fuel injection to the mic brought the power back to 149 horsepower, similar to that of the original 240Z but the 280Z never was a fast car but it still looked good and it was a sales success, in 1977 they sold 70,000 in the USA.
Production ended on the 240Z derived family of sports cars in 1978.
A sad state of affairs
The Sleek but flabby 280XZ
In 1979 the #280ZX was born, this was not a good time for cars generally, with the muscle and pony cars of earlier years being replaced by disco lounge inspired monstrosities, heavy and opulent, with ultra soft suspension and saggy handling.
Although the 280ZX looked a lot like the 280Z it was significantly wider and longer and most tellingly it had an altogether different suspension. The bigger heavier car having the same engine as the 280Z but somehow it lost a handful of horses.
Producing just 135 horsepower, the #280ZX was truly a slug, getting to 60 in 11 seconds, dismal next to the original 240Z with 7.8 seconds. 1981 brought turbo power to the Z car for the first time, producing the most powerful model to date the 280ZX turbo with 180 horsepower.
The turbo car was at first only available as a 2 seater manual and with a 0-60 sprint taking a whisker over 7 seconds, the Z car once again had respectable performance. The 280ZX production ended in 1983, despite its mediocrity the car sold well to the end.
The 280ZX was also the last car to be sold as a Datsun with the rest of the Nissan range dropping the Datsun name in 1981.
the 300ZX Turbo, saving grace of the range.
Ignominiously, the first Z car to be branded a Nissan was the #300ZX, this update of the 208ZX featured bland new exterior styling and grotesquely opulent new interior, the one positive not being the new 3.0l v6 being more powerful at 160 horsepower than the 2.8l inline six. There was a turbo version of the 300ZX that had an impressive for the time 200 horsepower!
What it lacked as a streetcar, the competition version of the 300ZX made up for on track. Significant reductions in weight from the road car which was no real slouch meant that it could be the basis of a pretty competitive racer.
Famously campaigned by actor turned race driver Paul Newman, the 300ZX competed valiantly in the SCCA Trans AM race series, winning at Brainerd in 1982.
Paul Newman's 300ZX
A Phoenix Risen From the Ashes
The years between 1974 and 1989 could hardly be considered the glory years of the Z car. Despite looking a lot like their glorious ancestor, the 260/280Z and 280/300ZX had not lived up the that early promise. All this made the 1990 launch of the new Z32 shape 300ZX all the more staggering.
The #300ZX set off in an entirely new design direction, the legacy shape replaced by one sleek and modern, with not a hint of retro to it. The rebirth of the Z car didn't end with the styling.
The new cars had thrilling performance to match the futuristic exterior. The suspension was beefed up with a new multilink setup at the back and an A arm set up in the front, the real party piece of the handling setup being the very sophisticated, speed sensitive rear wheel steering.
To say that the 300Zx handled well was an understatement, it handled spectacularly!
Under the hood things got even more exciting, the somewhat tame 160 - 200 horsepower v6 of the old 300ZX was replaced by a new double overhead cam 24 valve v6 with over 220 galloping horses, that’s 20 more than the turbocharged previous 300ZX.
The new 300ZX Turbo however was staggering at the time. The v6 gaining a pair of turbochargers raising the output to 300 horsepower. These days you can get 300hp in a hatchback but in 1990 this was a supercar.
If there was a negative point about the new 300ZX it would have to be the matter of weight. It sure was a hefty beast, it was large but all that new technology was heavy too, the 300ZX came in at a pretty sturdy 1600kg. That heft meant that despite the staggering output, the acceleration figures for the 300ZX were only ever a modest 6.3 seconds for the turbo model.
300ZX, the Z car gets it's mojo back.
Nissan have never been shy of racing and it didn’t take long for the 300ZX to find its way onto the track. Surprisingly the race car was built on the 2+2 model, apparently the longer shel permitted better weight distribution.
The 300ZX racked up numerous wins throughout it’s campaigning career in the 1990s with class wins at 24 Hours of Le Mans and Daytona 24 Hours being the most celebrated. The endurance racing version of that factory based v6 producing a heavily boosted 800 rampaging horses!
The production of 300ZX cars continued until 2000 but exports to the US ended in 1997.
The fabulous Millen 300ZX Le Mans Racer
The Difficult Third Album
With the huge success of the 300ZX, and little hint of any forthcoming replacement, the 200 demise of the Z car might have seemed like a long term thing. Any fears were unfounded however when in 2003 Nissan unveiled its spectacular replacement.
The compact and brutally powerful new #Fairlady-Z. The #350Z as it is known outside Japan took the Z car in a new direction, much smaller than the 300ZX, a strict 2 seater with a beefy 3.5l v6 from the Infiniti G35 mounted behind the front axle this beast was unleashed into a sports car world previously dominated by the BMW Z3 and Audi TT and took the game to an entirely new level.
Delayed but delightful the 350Z
The new engine was easily the most advanced to ever grace a Z car, with 24 valves, quad cams, variable valve timing, and high compression the all aluminium VQ35DE is a magnificent power plant.
In 2003 it was rated to 287 hp but this soon grew to 306hp by the time the last 350z were being produced. The 350Z brought with it astonishing performance, 0-60 was despatched in a shocking 5.4 seconds! The new compact shape did wonders for the handling, the mid mounted engine kept all masses close to the centre of the vehicle enabling a level of agility not previously seen in a Z car. By taking the 350Z back to basics, Nissan had rekindled the magic of what made the 240Z such a wonderful sports car.
In mid 00s competition in the small sports car category was fierce, the 350Z faced serious competition in the BMW Z4, Honda S2000 and Porsche Boxter, all great cars and all drop tops, Nissan unleashed a convertible 350Z to take the fight out in the open.
In 2005, the 350z got an engine upgrade bringing it from 287 to 300hp, this reprofiling of the engine brought a higher redline but didn’t do anything for acceleration however as torque dropped off a little, the new engine has proven to be even more reliable and is seen as the one to buy. In 2007 the 350Z got yet more power taking it up to its ultimate 306hp specification. The hi-po 350Z can be identified by the subtle power bulge on the hood.
NISMO, Nissan’s counterpart to BMW M division produced a track optimised version of the 350Z with upgraded aerodynamics, engine and suspension, dubbed the 380RS competed widely with factory support in the hands of privateer racers in the GT3 race formula.
Improving on Perfection
Many felt that Nissan had got everything right with the 350Z, apparently so did the people at Nissan as when it’s replacement was unveiled in 2009, the differences were only small.
Unlike any previous point in the history of the Zcar, the 370Z represented an incremental change but all in the right direction. It was lighter, faster, more agile, prettier outside and neater inside. Nissan had done it, they had perfected the Z car at last!
370Z, Compact, handsome, nimble and fast
The 370Z introduced a level of power previously unseen in a factory Z car, 330 horsepower and 270lb-ft of torque propelling the new smaller and lighter frame, the performance was expectedly brilliant, 4.9 seconds 0-60 time and 100mph coming after just 12 seconds. F there is any room to complain about the 370Z it would be the convertible which is oddly proportioned with the hood up or down.
Nissan claims the 370Z production run will end soon and no replacement is in the works. The market has changed too, with a 3.7L v6 being largely at odds with a market full of 2.0 4 pot turbos. The Z car’s long serving adversary the Toyota Supra looks set to make a return soon with hybrid power. Could this be the future for the Z car too?
The uncertain electric or hybrid future of the Z car?
Join In
Comments (9)
The Z34 370Z is a fantastic car, fast, handles well, gorgeous to look at, everything feels solid and well put together, feels very alive, you feel the road through it, stock exhaust is too quiet, needs made more rorty.
All the poor Z31 needed was some much stiffer springs and shocks. I still think the Z32 is the worst looking Z, mired in the 90s melted plastic bubble looks. And as much as people hate on the 280ZX, keep in mind the actual real life "Devil Z" was a red 280ZX.
And still the best looking and the one I'd like to drive is the first one.
I dont understand the hate on z31, i think they are great and look better than z32 imo
The 380RS-C was built for Privateer race teams, the VQ38HR engine was developed & built for ST1 (Super Taikyu) endurance series racing where the Z33 chassis trounced Porsche in 2006. To celebrate it they built 300 road-legal Cars with the same power plant and called it the Version Nismo Type 380RS.