Nissan executive known as 'father of the Z' dies at 105
Source: AP-Excite
By YURI KAGEYAMA
TOKYO (AP) — Yutaka Katayama, a former president of Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. unit who built the Z sports car into a powerful global brand in the 1970s, has died, his son said Saturday. He was 105.
Known as the "father of the Z," Katayama won international respect for the Datsun Z as an affordable sports car at a time when Japan-made products were synonymous with slipshod quality.
Katayama, who retired from Nissan in 1977, died Thursday of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital, his son Mitsuo said.
Carlos Ghosn, who has led a turnaround at the Japanese automaker under an alliance with Renault SA of France, resurrected Katayama's legendary status at Nissan by bringing back the Z, which had been discontinued in 1996.
FULL story at link.
FILE - In this July 9, 2002 file photo, Yutaka Katayama, a former president of Nissan Motor Co.{2019}s U.S. unit, speaks during an interview at his office in Tokyo. Katayama, known as the {201c}father of the Z,{201d} who built the Z sportscar into a powerful global brand in the 1970s, died Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, his son said. He was 105. (AP Photo/Tsugufumi Matsumoto, File)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150221/as--obit-japan-father_of_the_z-41a91268a3.html
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By far, my favorite Z-car was the 280ZX from the early 80's:
A silver-and-black T-top with a straight-six engine and manual shift. The thing had astonishing acceleration...
Thank you, sir, for a great car.
RIP 
Got to check tire pressure and load the things onto trailers and stuff. I was only 16 or 17.
Last edited Sat Feb 21, 2015, 06:38 PM - Edit history (1)
I don't have any personal photos from that era. Wish I did, because I volunteered as race crew for a bunch of people in the local SCCA region and was allowed to hang out at Chinetti Motors/N.A.R.T. in Greenwich, before the collection was broken up and the Ferrari concession and trade name was sold off, being picked up by Bob Sharp for a time.
This is one of the cars that were sitting in the Chinetti show room - one of the last N.A.R.T. team cars, a Ferrari 512 S/M that ran at Le Mans in 1971. You should have seen the dozens of '30s-70s competition cars and prototypes of all nationalities that Chinetti had collected and had in the garage in the back. Because I showed a healthy interest and willingness to clean parts (for free), they even let me run a few of them down Rt. 1 to fill up with gas. I'm not even sure I had a driver's license at the time.
and the original Z was his vision of an affordable E-type for the average enthusiast. I think he succeeded. 105 is a damned good run.
The man and his machines
