Proto Z
 

Why does this forum and so many others insist on referring to the future z as "400Z"? It has officially only been known as "proto Z", it has been announced that it would be powered by a 3.0 engine which would indicate it will be called a "300Z", which also explains their effort to take styling cues from the Z32.

I think it would be a huge mistake to depart from their history of the cars name being indicated by its displacement. Might as well make it FWD.


End rant.

That's just the way we roll around here. ;)

Me: “why do you xxxxxxx?”

My wife: “because”

THANK YOU.

In the entire lifespan of the Z, which may come to an end after the new Z....the engine displacement was always the nameplate.

In the "ZX" days, Nissan even reused the same name twice for the Z31 and Z32 300ZX.

Therefore, I like to think that Nissan would have ZERO issues calling the new Z "300Z" as it would be a never before used moniker.

Think "300Z" is less than "370Z"? Let's line em up and let the VR30 whoop some butt!

Nissan is even showing the new Z in USA with "Fairlady Z" badging.

Where the eff does the "400" come from anyways? Why not "380Z"? or "371Z"??
Nissan has yet to do arbitrary with their Z

Don't blow your load yet, wait till Z goes hybrid or full electric ⚡️.

Glad to hear I'm not alone on this.

They did use "380RS" on a hotted up version of the 350 with you guessed it a 3.8 liter engine.

I kinda wondered if their effort to use cues from the Z32 was a foreshadowing of them calling a "300Z"

Also, Z31 way underappreciated and the only Z car to come from the factory wiht a decent diff, the 87.5-89 Turbo's came with a CLSD. Why Nissan continues to use the viscous is beyond me.

They should just call it the Z.

Naming it after HP or displacement is not a scalable strategy.

If they call it 400z they should just increment the name the same way corvette does with C6, C7, C8, etc.

Only problem with that is the Z34 is the 6th generation of Z car. (S30, S130, Z31, Z32, Z33, Z34) Proto Z is presumably Z35, which is more agreeable to me that 400Z.

The VR30 engine is very flexible, so it would be scalable to call the car "300Z" or "300Z Twin Turbo" and allow a wide range of power levels.

In the Q's, the VR30 already has 2 very distinct power levels.

It'd be very easy for Nissan to make 3 power levels with the VR30.

This is why I see "300Z" based on 3.0 liters as being more reasonable than "400Z" based on one known Infiniti Q output. Or an arbitrary escalation of model number for the sake of being higher than previously.

Then it will be based on Megawatts.

I can see conversations in the future.

How many MW's you got there? Ohh about 3.5 MW's. Chitttt, that's child's play. I got 1.7 gigawatts with a flux capacitor. :driving:

I had 2 Z31's back in the day, a 1984 coupe and a 1988 coupe. I also had 2 V6 S12 200SX's. Those cars really were under appreciated, even at the time. I will say the contemporary RX-7 and Supra were "better" in different ways, but I clearly remember whooping on my friend's 1984 Corvette with the 305 "Crossfire" engine with my 1984 300ZX.

Sold the 1984 to my friend and we swapped the turbo system onto the NA block. It was actually quite alarmingly quick!

Speaking of diffs, I have a Eaton HLSD in the rear diff of my Titan. Love it. Never have to worry about it wearing out.

Then they could simply call it "ZeE" or "zEE" or "Zee"

Or my fav, "e-Zee" and have some big subwoofers in it to slap some beats to!

I've had a lot fo Z cars, at least one of every generation. A few of them Z31's, i did an N/A-T with one, MSNS, intercooler, etc made 315 whp and 400 lbft, was a hoot to drive, terrible suspension on those. Still have my series 1 240Z. It's also boosted, the old engine was 300 whp, the new one should be 400whp (L28ET). Something fun about putting down that much power with an L6.

It seems blasphemous to me to give a new chassis code (Z35) to Z that is cobbled together using existing Nissan/Infiniti parts :icon14:

And 300Z is a poor choice IMO cuz it's way too close to the 300ZX moniker.

400Z seems like a logical next step because it works with a 4.0 engine displacement or a 400 HP mark. The internet just ran with it.

They should call it the 345Z as a nod to the chassis code which should be Z34.5 :icon17:

One could argue the Z34 is just Z33.5. The S130 is more similar to the Z31 than the S30 if you're talking chassis.