Why Do People Get So Excited For A New Nissan Z Car?

Why is the Nissan Z special? What does it do that other sports cars can't? And why do people get so excited every time there's a new Z?

In the first-half of 2022, Nissan showrooms will begin to welcome the seventh-generation Z, officially known as the 2023 Nissan Z. (You can learn more about the new Z here, with dozens of images, important specs, and trim level information.)

Obviously, one reason for all of the hype surrounding the Z is its genuine sports car performance. At 400 horsepower, this will be the quickest, fastest, best-handling Z ever. But there are plenty of fast cars on the market, right? Why does the Z incite such an instantaneous reaction?

Think about words like lineage, history, and nostalgia. Ancestry. Pedigree. Roots. To put it simply, we know where the Z comes from. The Z comes from five decades of Japanese sports car development. 

When the first Datsun 240Z was introduced in New York City in 1969, the sports car world was rocked. The 240Z offered Porsche-beating performance at half the price. "About 160,000 240Zs were sold in North America during the first three model years," The Drive says, "that's nearly 97 percent the car's exports, far exceeding company predictions." At the time, Car And Driver wrote, "It will keep right up with your neighbor's Bonneville and leave all of the sports cars in its class scuttling along in the slow lane." 

" It is also several mph faster than a 2-liter Porsche 91IT," they said, surely upsetting the folks selling high-priced European machinery. 

That mission, to severely undercut the price of cars with similar performance envelopes, has always been at the heart of the Z's mission. Or, at least part of the mission. It has also always been very important for the Z to look good, whether it was accelerating past its rivals or parked in your driveway.