Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post - Japanese and the Z

fastsach · 12-22-2010, 10:34 AM

I'm gonna post up some of the more interesting things that I ran across during my trips to Nissan Japan and hope they are entertaining to some of you.
The Japanese are incredibly into touch, feel and actually the 5 senses in general to a much higher degree than anybody else I have ever ran into. They can all draw, are extremely observant and notice little things about people they are around and communicating with. Hard to explain but it's like Japan was colonized by a band of artists.
A good example is that when Admiral Perry visited them in the 1800s he left a cartridge firing rifle with them as gift. When he returned several years later they had made another just like it even though that was the only rifle they had ever seen. They gave him the copy. Tom Cruise alludes to this in The Last Samurai.
A peek into the future I think..............

While there to train on large Japanese built plastic injection molds I was in a class and the subject of sound came up and my group was informed of the following to show us how far they go to finesse something.

Notice the sound of your engine when you mash the throttle and you year that soothing sound of internal combustion power. Several things affect this sound but the most important is the intake which is number one and the exhaust which is secondary.
Designers are given a certain amount of real estate under the hood for their given parts so look at your intake. I am not familiar, yet, with the Z but most cars have a type of plenum that is blow molded plastic where air enters before the air filter container. This is the source of your intake sound and it is tuned like a musical instrument by a man that is blind. At that time Nissan had one man that went to different areas to do just this. This was his job even though he was an accomplished musician of some sort.
He was very high paid and famous in the company. He would listen in the car, direct changes, report back to the PPM (Principal Project Manager) and together they would acquire the proper sound. But the blind guy's hearing was the tool for the job.
After the intake was tuned the same guy would do the same for the exhaust and later would choose tire type and brand using the same logic. In Purchasing it used to kill us that he would choose a tire that cost $50 each when we could get the same quality of tire for $35 from another manufacturer. But this guy ruled. Yes, Nissan gets tires that cheap.

If this is of interest let me know and I'll lay out some more stuff later.

I just thought it was fascinating.

12-22-2010, 10:34 AM	#1 (permalink)
fastsach Base Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 20 Drives: Honda CBR1100XX Rep Power: 14	Japanese and the Z - Sound I'm gonna post up some of the more interesting things that I ran across during my trips to Nissan Japan and hope they are entertaining to some of you. The Japanese are incredibly into touch, feel and actually the 5 senses in general to a much higher degree than anybody else I have ever ran into. They can all draw, are extremely observant and notice little things about people they are around and communicating with. Hard to explain but it's like Japan was colonized by a band of artists. A good example is that when Admiral Perry visited them in the 1800s he left a cartridge firing rifle with them as gift. When he returned several years later they had made another just like it even though that was the only rifle they had ever seen. They gave him the copy. Tom Cruise alludes to this in The Last Samurai. A peek into the future I think.............. While there to train on large Japanese built plastic injection molds I was in a class and the subject of sound came up and my group was informed of the following to show us how far they go to finesse something. Notice the sound of your engine when you mash the throttle and you year that soothing sound of internal combustion power. Several things affect this sound but the most important is the intake which is number one and the exhaust which is secondary. Designers are given a certain amount of real estate under the hood for their given parts so look at your intake. I am not familiar, yet, with the Z but most cars have a type of plenum that is blow molded plastic where air enters before the air filter container. This is the source of your intake sound and it is tuned like a musical instrument by a man that is blind. At that time Nissan had one man that went to different areas to do just this. This was his job even though he was an accomplished musician of some sort. He was very high paid and famous in the company. He would listen in the car, direct changes, report back to the PPM (Principal Project Manager) and together they would acquire the proper sound. But the blind guy's hearing was the tool for the job. After the intake was tuned the same guy would do the same for the exhaust and later would choose tire type and brand using the same logic. In Purchasing it used to kill us that he would choose a tire that cost $50 each when we could get the same quality of tire for $35 from another manufacturer. But this guy ruled. Yes, Nissan gets tires that cheap. If this is of interest let me know and I'll lay out some more stuff later. I just thought it was fascinating.