The hotly anticipated Nissan Z has now arrived in Australia, ushering in a new dawn of twin-turbocharged performance for one of the world’s most iconic automotive nameplates.
To celebrate, Nissan arranged a family reunion for our newest performance car — one headlined by the limited-edition Nissan Z Proto Spec — in Sydney.
“This is a proud moment. Few models can claim the performance lineage of the Z, and to be able to celebrate it right here in Australia, on the eve of a new dawn of performance for the brand, is special,” says Nissan Australia Managing Director, Adam Paterson.
“This might be the first example of the all-new Z we see on local roads, but we’ll soon be seeing many more, with a new era of Z about to begin.”
While every Z model was a performance benchmark for its era, that benchmark has shifted considerably over the decades, as evidenced by the incredible increase in power on offer in a Z vehicle over the past 50 years.
The Datsun 240Z arrived in 1969, with the brand’s “luxuriously appointed high-performance sports car” fitted with a six-cylinder engine that produced in excess of 100kW.
Today, the all-new Nissan Z is still equipped with a six-cylinder engine (though now a 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V6), but the power on offer has almost tripled, to 298kW.
That’s the enduring ethos of the Z car story, and one that’s been successfully applied to every new iteration of this icon of performance. A new generation must improve the formula, while also staying true to its heritage.
It’s clear in the progression from 240Z to 260Z, from 280ZX to 300ZX, and from the 350Z to the 370Z. And every step in that journey has led to this moment — the arrival of the new benchmark in Z performance, the all-new Nissan Z.
