This might be more proof that the new Z will have GTR brakes on the production version.

370z front GTR Caliper bracket

I wouldn't be surprised at all if we end up finding out Z1 helped build most of the new Z from a fabrication perspective. It actually is really smart on Nissan's part. Get a big name Z shop to do work for you on new parts cut out large scale manufacturing cost and get aftermarket parts made for the 370z and the new Z at the same time. I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if we see Z1 selling a 370z to 400z motor swap conversion kit.

They have also had AMS doing stuff on the Infiniti side with the VR motor. Extensively. Tons of parts available that allow you to retain warranty if you have the dealer install them. Nissan has been heavily active with both of those shops - Z1 even stood up an offroad arm to help out with the Titan, and they built that dually concept for SEMA. The Titan Warrior concept was even at Z1 HQ for a while (and still may be there, IIRC).

Re: the motor swap kit, I was under the impression that this was under development at Z1 for some time now, but it went quiet. That talk was possibly a smokescreen for development of the new Z, and the timeline matches up with that.

Not in a fanboy war context, it's pretty fascinating to pick up on these co-developments to see how Nissan is making this possible in contrast with Toyota.

I still am not completely set with the looks, an the promos can be a bit hollow/redundant, but the fact the PR team is putting in work is great imo. I mean knowing Nissan has an uphill climb, it's nice seeing them make the push here.

It is, but it's also time for some details. You can only talk about design for so long.

I agree where are our specs? Nothing at the original press conference at all and still nothing now. I know they are pretty much known but I want to hear it from the horses mouth. IDK the fact that they aren't excited enough to at least act like they want to give us details and HP numbers or 0 to 60 times or even price worries me a little that they don't have a lot of confidence that the new Z will stack up against it's competitors. That or they are going to have to push it's release back further than they thought they would which won't help either considering the Supra is already looking to roll out a faster more powerful model.

Couple things here -

The guys that built this know it can compete just fine... IF... the beancounters let them proceed as they ideally would like to. There are likely going to be a few compromises to the final configuration of the car that affect all of the final numbers. The car is still technically in development... why should they tip their hand until it's fully ready to go? Parts of this are still a chess game to ensure their competition doesn't respond before they're ready for them to. You can already bet Toyota is trying to figure out what potential Z conquest sales are out there if they crank out a manual Supra.

However, the statement made with this whole play they've made so far is there WILL NOT be a compromise of any kind on the manual transmission offering and the powerplant being a twin turbo V6. They've already committed to that and can't back off on that now or it would be a PR nightmare that Nissan can't afford.

The continuous release of videos about the design of the car are to keep it fresh in people's minds while they undoubtedly adjust to pandemic-related challenges impacting product development. Nissan is supposed to launch two new products in the Infiniti QX55 and Nissan Ariya with pending launches of a revised Armada, a brand new Pathfinder/QX60, and a brand new Frontier... all after delayed/hampered launches of the revised Titan and the extremely important Rogue redesign (the company's top selling model). Every single one of the aforementioned have been delayed due to COVID.

It's not an issue of confidence in the product. It's a cash-crunched company doing its best to survive a pandemic. I was more than surprised to even see a Z Prototype, and even moreso one that's basically production ready like we got in September.

I think we can afford to be patient a bit longer here. Some of us have been waiting on the next Z for 10 years already. A few more weeks won't hurt.

Alfonso (same designer that presented the Proto Z) posted this image of the Proto in a new, dark grey color on IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIVhBrvpp0N/

https://instagram.ffxe1-1.fna.fbcdn....58&oe=5FF27309

That's the color I would get.

That color is awesome, reminds me of the 40th aniversary 370z. Looks very Aston Martin like.

I still can't handle that front grille.

Powerhouse Amuse to Nissan: Leave it alone Nissan. We'll make something 1000x better looking and sell a ton of it.

X2.

I like what I’ve been seeing so far, but that pic is the first one that made me feel like “damn, take my money!” :driving:

That grill would be hard to clean. LOL.

I'm hoping that yellow isn't the only caliper color. I would much rather have red.

the GTR only comes in orange calipers since 2009. the only change happened this year the 2020 nismo carbon ceramic brakes are yellow and no choice just what you get.

Man why is Nissan reinventing the wheel....just throw the much loved ZF 8 speed that’s been proven. With good programming, it’s almost as quick as a DCT, but much smoother in traffic, lower maintenance, and smaller pkg.

That's what I really dislike. For the $100,000+ price tag of the new GTR it should absolutely have multiple caliper color options. Ridiculous that it doesn't. I just hate the fact that yellow calipers will look ugly on half the body color options. It'll look good on black, grey, maybe white. But on the other body colors yellow calipers just look off-putting to me. Red overall looks best with most colors, IMO.

i agree.

however, i assume this single color (well 2 with the new CCX nismo brakes) is how they keep the car as cheap as it is currently.

before anyone jumps on that, yes it is now starting msrp at 113k.

i still think thats good value since to get similar performance you'll be high 100k or over. porsche 911 turbo starts at 170k and turbo S is 205k for example.

I think the C8 changed the meaning of value. We'll see what happens to that definition for sure when the Z06 comes out.
I think the next gen GTR is ready to meet that challenge.
I think porsche will probably go 100% EV to stay expensive yet relevant.

I agree the C8 completely changed the game. Corvette showed that a fast car doesn't need to be 6 figures anymore. The Supra trying to compete with the C8 proved that if your car is slower than the C8 it needs to be under $50k otherwise might as well buy a C8. If the new Z is not under 4s then the car will have to be less than 40k max for it to sell period. You look at Nismo pricing right now even if the shave another 1s off the time who's spending that much compared to a C8?

This is just thinking in absolute metrics. Not everyone thinks this way. I totally respect and appreciate the performance value of the C8, and I generally like the car. But, I feel no urge to go out and buy one. I have zero bad things to say about it (I have many bad things to say about a Mustang or Camaro, another possible Z competitor)
I am also sure a C8 and the new 300Z will be equally expensive to insure, both being 2-seaters, so that's another metric that would push the value ratio towards C8.
For me, I've had (2) Z31's, (2) V6 S12's, a Z32, a Q60, various Maximas and a Stanza and a Titan. All have treated me well, and all of my V6 coupes stand out in my mind as being favorable memories. I want another one, especially since we are going back to a retro-vibe 3.0TT V6 model, which was my favorite of all time.
Honestly, I HIGHLY doubt the new 300Z could outperform the BMW Supra 3.0TT, let alone the C8, obviously. BMW deserves a lot of respect for building cars that perform better than their specs suggest, and BMW has a lot of un-tapped room for improvement in the Supra, if the 300Z begins to nip too closely to the Supra, BMW can just turn up a few dials, maybe even offer a 6MT. I doubt Nissan will play such tricks with the VR, you will get what you get.
Nonetheless, I don't want a BMW either (although I'd take a C8 over a BMW in a quickness).

An enthusiast can take a new 300Z, significantly improve it with a tune, change out the exhaust in their driveway, modify it as they wish and not really break the bank. For us Nissan fans, it's an easy sell.

But that's the problem for Nissan and the same thing that Supra failed to understand. Many people aren't Fanboys or girls and only care about performance per dollar and reliability and the lots of people now don't wrench in their cars heck they can't even change the oil themselves. The average person buys a car as is maybe adds an exhaust and that's it. The Supra tanked because it's in the same price bracket as the C8 without the performance and the questionable reliability of the BMW engine. Toyota relied too much on nostalgia and the new Z will have this exact problem. Especially with the way most people's impressions of Nissan QC after all their transmission issues and general poor customer satisfaction compared to other car manufactures. Nissan absolutely needs to sell volume not just to us Nissan fans or they will go bankrupt.

The average person buys an SUV these days. Supra, BRZ, new Z, are all playing to a very small audience.

There won't be volume for these types of cars these days. We are in the twilight of the market for these cars, soon ICE vehicles are going to be legislated away. We are so lucky that there are so many choices these days, and many of them make ZERO financial sense.
Nissan needs to sell volumes of those Rogues and Airya (spelling?) if they want to avoid bankruptcy. The new Z won't move them away from the edge.

Agreed here. This is likely the very last Z car Nissan will ever make to be honest. No matter how amazing the car could turn out to be, I just don't think it'll sell enough realistically. I think this will be the last hoorah of the Z.

Z35 ICE, Z36 hybrid/electric.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-by-mid-2030s

80Million electric cars expected in China by 2035??? That's a lot of batteries to be "recycled".

Meanwhile, Japan will build another Nuclear power plant, on a major earthquake fault line, to meet this new demand for electrical consumption. :icon14:

SMH at these green crusaders who think for short term and based on knee jerk reactions. Ethanol and Corn comes to mind. Wind farms and solar panels. Good ideas at first, and look great on paper but we know the outcome.

zz

It will be an Electric eventually. In some form or another. It will be the Nissan 500E. LOL.

zz

Here you go:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...0Non%20Openers

As others already stated, last ice Z, next Z after this upcoming one will be ev only for sure, whether we like it or not.

/\ good point about absolute performance metrics not being the be all end all for whether or not someone buys a particular performance car.

There’s a balance at play between aesthetics, ergonomics (not everyone is comfortable in every car equally), absolute performance, performance for the dollar (perceived performance value), perceived quality and workmanship, brand loyalty, historical provenance of a particular model, and of course price (both absolute $$ and how it stacks up $$ compared to rivals).

Some folks will weigh certain of the above more than other ones but all are at play to some degree for every car buyer.

As I get older, the absolute performance metric becomes far less important. I want performance but never at the expense of the other stuff, especially quality and ergonomics, etc. I’d rather be in a slower Porsche than a faster vette.

The problem with only bringing in buyers who are essentially performance mercenaries is that every year or two, something better comes out so sales will tank once the new hotness gets superseded by the even newer hotness.

Long term sales success for a performance car is actually least dependent on absolute performance and much more on brand loyalty and all the other things I listed above. As long as the car gets some updates periodically to keep it somewhat relevant it’s overall performance might be the hook initially that gets attention but the manufacturers hope folks keep coming back for all the other stuff too.

The z34’s downfall was that Nissan is building a 2009 car in 2020 and its had no real updates ever, no I don’t think the ‘15 nismo refresh was a major update.

My family in China has an electric car. China has been really pushing EVs hard.
Some of the EV cars there have overcome the charging time issue by having exchangeable battery packs.

For me, I find PHEV like the RAV4 the most likely to "convert" me. I like being able to carry 200 miles of range in a 5 gallon jug.

I'm going to keep my ICE vehicles as long as possible. My biggest concern is how much will gas cost as ICE cars fade away?

If ICE cars fade away, that should reduce the cost of gas. Supply/demand?

zz

PHEV is the real bridge tech to tide us over for the next 10-15 years until battery tech advances to the point ice isn’t needed anymore.

Battery tech should get better, ie smalller lighter packaging, runs cooler, holds recharges better without wearing out as fast, faster recharges like ice refueling stops, even better range, etc.

Graphene tech may help with this iiirc and there’ll be advances we don’t even anticipate as well. Ice cars sucked for the first few decades let’s not forget, but we don’t still prefer to ride horses...

Gas prices should stay relatively unimpacted for the near future, esp as long as PHEVs are abundant. After that, it’s not so much a price issue imo, but a where the hell can I get gas since no one sells it anymore issue.

The power grid needs major updating to handle this tho. We’ve got a decade to sink about a trillion into our grid to prepare for this. It’s a really good idea to upgrade it regardless since it’s a national security issue so we’d be killing two birds with one stone so to speak.

See above, I think longer term it means no place to get gas anymore. “Gas stations” will be super fast recharge stations at that point most likely.

I retired from the power generation industry. I can tell you this. IF 10% of the cars on the road now was electric. Our grid could not handle it right now. California would be in even bigger trouble. Their grid is already on shaky ground. They don't have enough generation capacity for the extra load. As they have to buy electric from out of state now. Combine that with the blackouts from the fires. :shakes head:

The power companies have been trying to up grade the grid for years with new power lines. But people not want the power lines close to them. So the power lines are being built.

It needs to happen yesterday, first world countries don’t have rolling blackouts, sh1thole countries do.

If it’s electric vehicles that get the federal and state governments to finally get off their azzes and upgrade the national grid, then good, shoulda been started 20 years ago. :shakes head:

Rural America is going to make it extremely difficult for the US to force electric vehicles on a national level. I'm predicting that we'll have a number of companies and politicians screaming for it wherever they can make money (i.e. California and densely populated regions) and the rural portions of the country will continue to use ICE vehicles for several decades. This will lead to even more discrepancy in the needs and style of living between rural and urban areas. Which should lead to much better political discourse at the federal level :rolleyes:

It seems only anyone in power generation truly understands this. My pops is a lifelong nuclear power guy. I truly believe nuclear is the only feasible macro solution to meet our power needs while minimally impacting the environment.

Rural America and heavy industry is where I feel Hydrogen Fuel Cells have a place.

Right now gas is cheap. Post-COVID, we'll see an increase in demand and an increase in price that will eventually normalize, but gas will not get less expensive with widespread adoption of electric/alternative fuel vehicles. Production volume will decrease while demand seen from rural areas will remain, which at best will result in prices staying the same or slightly increasing. My bet is increasing. When we see electric vehicles take over, gas will become so expensive that it will price people into electric vehicles.

So you're saying I should just start hoarding gas now? I've got a bunch of empty coffee cans that should be good for years of gas storage :tup:

They haven't built or IMO, ever be able to build, LARGE Electric commercial Aircraft. Dino fuel will be around for them for years to come. Unless Greta gets her way. ;)

I'm sure 100 years from now, the "super" battery will exist. Maybe then, large commercial electric planes will be viable. We will be Dino oil ourselves by then.

Interview with Alfonso Albaisa of Nissan on Road&Track. Proto Z talk starts at 10:50. Nice pic of the Proto Z from the rear in the grey color at 18:18. Host tries to get some engine info out of Alfonso but he doesn't bite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydY7-PGwdk