Nissan marks Z's 40th with special edition coupe

To celebrate four decades of its iconic Z sports car, Nissan is launching a limited edition 370Z 40th Anniversary model.

The celebratory coupe starts out as a basically loaded up model, with a manual gearbox and that oh-so-slick SynchroRev Match technology. The exterior wears a “40th Quartz” exterior colour, a smoked wheel finish, red brake calipers and 40th anniversary badges on the rear hatch and front strut tower brace.

Inside, there are red leather seats are door panel inserts, 40th anniversary seat and floormat embroidery, red stitching on the center stack, shift boot, kneepads and steering wheel and a plaque of authenticity.  Every 40th Anniversary Z also comes with a commemorative premium satin car cover. The coupe goes on sale in the spring.

It was October 22, 1969, when the first 240Z arrived in North America. Nissan does a pretty good job of explaining why its original coupe set the sports car world afire: “Where previous sports cars were primarily a.) imported from England or Germany b.) expensive c.) fragile or unreliable or d.) all of the above, the new import from Japan offered the performance of a Porsche, the looks of a Jaguar and the price and reliability of, well, a Nissan.”

Much of the Z’s early success is attributed to Yutaka Katayama – or “Mr. K” - who was president of Nissan America at the time. He was convinced that the sports car would be a hit in North America. Katayama swapped the car’s ‘Fairlady Z’ Japanese name (still used abroad today) for 240Z and threw the coupe headlong into motorsports. On September 15th, 2009, Mr. K celebrated his 100th birthday.

A little bit of perspective on how the Z’s changed in 40 years. The original car came with a 150 horsepower 2.4-litre SOHC inline six-cylinder engine, four-wheel independent suspension, 14-inch wheels, a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission, and a quarter-mile acceleration time of 17.1 seconds at 136 km/h.

Today’s sixth generation 370Z is equipped with a 332 hp 3.7-litre DOHC V6 engine, largely aluminum four-wheel independent suspension, available 19-inch forged alloy wheels, a six-speed manual transmission with SynchroRev Match or refined seven-speed automatic and a quarter-mile acceleration times of 13.5 seconds at 171 km/h.

Luxuries on the original Z included roll-up windows and a radio. Today, there’s Bluetooth connectivity, XM Satellite Radio and a touch screen navigation system.