Frisselle and the Z

In 1964, Nissan Motor Company introduced a two-door sports coupe named the Silivia 1600 Sports Coupe. One year later, at the New York Motor Show, the Silvia made its one and only appearance in the U.S. The car was not well received by the U.S. motoring press, perhaps because it closely resembled the wildly successful V8-powered Ford Mustang.

From 1965 to 1968, Nissan continued working on new designs for a Sport/GT model no doubt motivated by the Mustang’s success and Toyota’s introduction of the 2000GT into the U.S. market. During this period, the Sports/GT project was designated as “Nissan Design – Project Z” with youthful buyers of performance cars in the U.S. as the prime target. Influenced by the flowing bodylines of the Jaguar XKE, by 1967, the design had evolved into the body style, which became the 240Z.