Nissan global chief creative officer, Shiro Nakamura, says the replacement for its six-year old 370Z needs to be “more revolution than evolution”, suggesting a re-think is on the cards for the company’s iconic sportscar line.
While the replacement for the current 370Z — long speculated to be called simply ‘Z’ — could be some time in gestation, Nakamura has made it clear than a smaller, more efficient and, most importantly, cheaper model can be expected.
“I mean 350Z, 370Z… I don’t think the next one is going to be the 390Z,” Nakamura told us this week, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“It’s not growing because it’s already big enough. You know, 350 started with 240, 300, 350 and [then came] 370. I don’t think we should go higher,” Nakamura said while pointing upwards. “Maybe backwards,” he added, pointing down.
“We haven’t yet decided anything about next-generation Zed should be anything larger, or more power. We need to take another path,” Nakamura added.
“We have GT-R. If you compete with the high performance, we have GT-R. You cannot beat GT-R, so Zed has to be fine it’s own way.”
Admitting that the gap between 370Z and its replacement could be similar in time to the three-year pause between the 300ZX and 350Z — contrary to some reports that suggest the replacement is due sooner — Nakamura says the Zed can’t simply evolve like the GT-R.
“I feel [next-gen] GT-R is more evolution but I feel Zed needs more revolution than evolution.”
One area where this could be most evident is in its eventual pricing and positioning. After being informed of the naturally aspirated six-cylinder 370Z’s circa-$60,000 retail price in Australia, Nakamura seemed startled, saying, “That’s too expensive!”
“That’s very, very expensive. Therefore we have to make a revolution: repositioning. Reposition the Zed, otherwise I don’t think that we have a future with that kind of, you know, $60,000 and a 3.7-litre engine – it’s very, very expensive.
“And I think it’s not only price but also running costs with that that kind of a car,” he added, pointing to a potential move to a turbo four.
Quizzed on the potential of future product being related or inspired by the IDx concept (pictured below) unveiled at the 2013 Tokyo motor show, Nakamura laughed, saying, “Such a nice car. But at the moment, no IDx”.
This echoes recent reports regarding the production future of the small, rear-wheel drive IDx concepts that made their debut at the 2013 Tokyo motor show to some fanfare.
“IDx [has so much support] but financial decision is a different story… but that could be a next generation Zed – [it’s] one of the options,” Nakamura said, somewhat tantalisingly.
Asked if an entry-level Toyota 86-type rival – one more affordable than the $60K 370Z – is something Nissan is considering, Nakamura suggested the Zed’s current role was to be a more affordable option for enthusiasts.
“I don’t think we’d have three cars. Because we already have two sports cars – that should be more than enough, more than many.
“I think GT-R has to stay most high performance symbol of Nissan technology and Zed is [below it] to be more affordable sports car or sporty car to get the younger people [interested].”
We expanded with Nakamura onto the topic of Nissan’s Nismo arm, which is rolling out tuned road cars — though not yet for Australia.
“None yet [in Australia]?,” the senior Nissan executive asked. “Why not? No GT-R Nismo? No Zed Nismo? We even have the Nismo March/Micra in Japan. We have such a nice range of Nismo…”
In markets such as Japan and the UK, punters keen for some sporting flavour for less than a 441kW/652Nm GT-R Nismo can choose from the likes of the Micra/March, Note and Sentra Nismos as well as Nismo versions of the Juke and 370Z.
“Nismo is sort of a core, or heart of Nissan. We want to have Nismo everywhere,” he said.
As we have previously reported, Nissan Australia is currently understood to be fast-tracking the rollout of Nismo locally.
