The Nissan Z has always been one of those cars that seems to carry a little history around with it. You don’t simply see a Z and think of the car in front of you; somewhere in the mental rearview mirror are all the others—240Zs, 280ZXs, Z31s and Z32s, and perhaps a few late-night drives and old magazine road tests as well.
So it seems fitting that Nissan chose ZCON, the annual gathering of the Z Car Club Association, to unveil something aimed squarely at that collective memory. Called the Nissan Z Kaze concept, it takes the current Z and gives it something enthusiasts of a certain age may remember particularly well: a removable roof.
Named for the Japanese word for wind (kaze), the Z Kaze concept’s defining feature is a custom-engineered T-top roof. It’s an appropriately old-school idea, bringing back the open-air experience that was once nearly synonymous with sporty Japanese cars. The project was conceived and developed by a group of Nissan product planners and designers who wanted to reconnect the modern Z with the open-top traditions found throughout the car’s seven generations.
Their inspiration was refreshingly uncomplicated: a perfect summer day, a good car and California’s Pacific Coast Highway stretching out ahead. There are worse reasons to build a sports car.
“The Z Kaze concept celebrates some of Nissan’s most iconic open top sports cars, while recognizing the ’90s tuning culture that helped put Nissan and NISMO on the map,” said Ponz Pandikuthira, senior vice president, chief product and planning officer, Nissan Americas. “This passion project combines Nissan’s engineering excellence, creativity and celebration of the brand’s heritage.”
Nostalgia-inspired design
The nostalgia doesn’t stop with the roof. Nissan finished the Z Kaze in Pacific Teal, a color that looks very much at home in a conversation about 1990s Japanese performance cars. The designers then gave the Z a handful of carefully chosen modifications recalling the import-tuner era without turning the car into a rolling catalog of aftermarket parts.
There’s a lightweight vented carbon-fiber hood, wider fender flares and a custom carbon-fiber aerodynamic body kit. Together, the changes give the Z a broader and more purposeful stance while leaving enough of the original shape intact that nobody is likely to wonder what kind of car just went past.
Perhaps the most interesting detail, however, is at ground level.
The Z Kaze rides on authentic 18-inch NISMO LMGT2 wheels, the forged multi-piece wheels that became highly prized among Nissan and Japanese performance-car enthusiasts. The LMGT2 has been out of production for years, so Nissan’s product planners tracked down an original set and had the wheels painstakingly restored and rebuilt for the project.
They’re properly substantial pieces, measuring 10 inches wide at the front and 11 inches at the rear. Besides filling out those widened fenders nicely, they lend the car the slightly serious look of something that might have escaped from a particularly well-funded Japanese tuning shop circa 1998.
Inside, Nissan resisted the usual concept-car temptation to make everything black and vaguely futuristic. Instead, the Z Kaze gets custom white leather-appointed seats, which brighten the cabin and emphasize the openness created when the T-top panels are removed. Carbon-fiber accents carry the performance theme indoors without overwhelming the place.
And because an open roof is generally more enjoyable when accompanied by the appropriate soundtrack, Nissan fitted Bose® Personal Plus speakers into the headrests. This should allow occupants to hear their music over the wind without requiring everyone else along the Pacific Coast Highway to hear it too.
Powerful performance inspired by tuner culture
The Z Kaze isn’t merely an exercise in teal paint, T-tops and fond memories. Nissan also looked beneath the bodywork, where the concept continues its salute to the tuner culture that surrounded Japanese sports cars during the 1990s and beyond.
The suspension receives an extensive selection of NISMO components, sharpening the chassis to go along with the car’s more aggressive stance.
Under the hood remains Nissan’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6, but here it’s accompanied by hardware from GReddy, one of the names that will be immediately familiar to anyone who spent the 1990s reading Japanese-car magazines or wandering through import-performance shops.
The GReddy equipment includes a SUPREME SP exhaust system, a front-mount air-to-air intercooler kit and an Airinx air-filter kit. It’s the sort of parts list that feels entirely appropriate for a car intended to celebrate an era when opening the hood at a weekend gathering was nearly as important as driving there.
Which is really what makes the Z Kaze interesting. It’s not simply a current Z with its roof altered, nor is it an attempt to recreate one particular model from Nissan’s past. Instead, it borrows memories from several different chapters of Z history—the open-air cars, NISMO hardware, period wheels and the flourishing Japanese tuner culture of the 1990s—and folds them into the modern car.
And then, naturally, it removes part of the roof.
The Nissan Z Kaze concept will remain on display at ZCON in Phoenix, Arizona, through Saturday, September 26, before heading west for the Japanese Classic Car Show on Saturday, October 31.
Which seems appropriate. A car named after the wind probably shouldn’t spend too much time standing still.
Above contents © 2026 Nissan, reviewed and edited by Rex McAfee , @rexmcafee 🏁
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