With 2014 marking the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Z32 300ZX, here are photos and videos from key events around

the world as Nissan launched the new car during 1989.

 

Chicago Autoshow - February 11th-19th 1989. The show attracted over 990,000 visitors. This show was the main

launch event for the US, Nissan's most important marketplace for the new car.

 

 

 

Katsuo Yamada, chief designer of the 300ZX project for Nissan Motor Corp, stands next to the new

300ZX Turbo model just before the opening of the show.

 

 

For the US, the NA 2+0 went on sale (shown above as a 1990 model for marketing reasons) from May 1st 1989. The NA 2+2

went in sale in June 1989, followed by the Turbo (2+0 only in the US) in September 1989. The new car started a $27,900 rising

to over $35,000 for a fully equipped TT model.

 

 

Toronto Auto Show - February 1989. The show had around 300,000 visitors.

 

 

 

 

Tokyo, Japan - July 10th 1989 Nissan announcement - All model types (except convertible) go on sale in Japan.

 

 

In Japan, the new model sold better than any previous Z, with Nissan and the dealer network selling 2,000 cars a month

in the first six months. Prices ranged between 3.2 and 4.5 million yen (approximately £12,500-£17,500 in 1989 money)

were high by Japanese standards.

 

 

Frankfurt Motor Show - September 14th–24th 1989. Over 1.2 million visitors attended. This show was the main

launch event for the European specification TT 2+2 car (the only model homologated for Europe). The car went on

sale in Europe in the spring of 1990 and in the UK from 1st April 1990.

 

(The 300ZX segment starts at 2m39s and lasts 22s).

 

 

Tokyo Motor Show - October 27th-November 6th 1989. The show was attended by well over 1.9 million people.

 

 

(The 300ZX segment starts at 54m26s and lasts just under 2m).

 

 

London Motorfair Show - 19th-29th October 1989.

 

(The 300ZX segment starts at 1m10s and lasts just 2s!).

 

The new 300ZX TT 2+2 went on sale in the UK from 1st April 1990. It had the distinction of being the most expensive

(as well as fastest) Japanese car ever offered, starting at £34,500.

 

 

To support the role out of the new car. The Nissan Shatai factory started producing the new 300ZX cars in late 1988

along side the run out Z31 model with production switching over completely to the Z32s in July 1989.

 

From the revised and accurate production figures published in the book "Nissan 300ZX 350Z. The Z-Car Story" by Brian

Long the Nissan Shatai factory produced 4911 Z32 cars in late 1998 with 4859 exported. For 1989 the figures were

57,449 with 34,478 exported, and for 1990 39,745 with 22,339 exported. Production was set at 5,000 cars per month.

 

 

N.B. I'm sure that there are other pieces of information lurking out in the Interweb etc waiting to be discovered on the

events that took place nearly 25 years ago to give us one of the best performance cars to come out of Japan. But this

is a good start I hope you will agree and I'm looking forward to the 25th anniversary in 2014!

Star!

Brilliant Andrew nice to see all them new and shiny z32's :thumbup:

Good effort mate, I enjoyed that.

Cool - great find Andrew!! So the Z32 came to our shores in April 1990.....:wink:

 

Shame it was only a wee snippet..... Never mind; Janet Ellis was in the video - I always liked her whilst growing up......:blush:

 

Richard:cool:

oh yeah a red fiat uno. that was my 1st car :rockon:

So the Z32 came to our shores in April 1990.....:wink:

 

Not sure what you're getting at... Cars were brought into the UK in late '89 to support the Motorfair 89 event and

were also registered on G year plates (which covered 2nd half '89/1st half '90) for motor magazines. An example

of which was Car magazines review in March '90 in which they describe the review car as "pre-production". Up

to July 31st '90 any new cars sold and registered after the launch in April would also have been on G plates.

Edited December 21, 201311 yr by AndrewG

Not sure what you're getting at... Cars were brought into the UK in late '89 to support the Motorfair 89 event and

were also registered on G year plates (which covered 2nd half '89/1st half '90) for motor magazines. An example

of which was Car magazines review in March '90 in which they describe the review car as "pre-production". Up

to July 31st '90 any new cars sold and registered after the launch in April would also have been on G plates.

 

Nothing really mate - just at the time you posted, I was actually about to look into when the Z32 was officially first available for sale in the UK.....

 

.............Frankfurt Motor Show - September 14th–24th 1989. Over 1.2 million visitors attended. This show was the main

launch event for the European specification TT 2+2 car (the only model homologated for Europe). The car went on

sale in Europe in the spring of 1990 and in the UK from 1st April 1990.

 

And you provided the answer before I started!!

 

With the 25th anniversary celebrations next year, we had been discussing loosely whether there was an actual significant date that might be feasible for our event. One choice being the first weekend in August to coincide with the "G" registration. But actually it is now of no importance - as we are selecting a day in the summer anyway (for the weather); and will not be worrying about if the Z32 was actually available here 25 years ago!!

 

Sorry if that doesn't make sense - but it might to those of us planning the event...:wink:

 

Richard:cool:

Edited December 21, 201311 yr by RichardS