The debut of the Nissan Z Proto is just days away now, and we’re getting a better idea about how the new sports car—which will replace the aged 370Z—will look when it’s fully revealed. We’ve already seen its retro-inspired headlights and sleek profile, including a brightwork strip accentuating the roofline, in previous teasers. Now, a senior Nissan designer has shown us what the hindquarters will look like.
We’re impressed with how these taillights (and the design that we’ve seen so far, overall) honor previous Z cars without delving into overly retro tropes. The designer is Alfonso Albaisa, Senior Vice President for Global Design, and he’s worked on various Z car projects throughout his career at Nissan. This image, which appears to show some concept art for the rear end and haunches, was shared on Instagram along with a personal memory of a Z car experience.
In the post, Albaisa notes how the Z32 300ZX, which debuted in 1989, impacted him early on in his career. It’s something we’ve seen him mention in interviews elsewhere—the Z32 must have made quite an impression on him, as it did on the car world as a whole. It’s no surprise, then, to see that car’s elongated oval taillight elements reinterpreted for the Z Proto here. While this is clearly just concept art, the other elements we can see—like that roofline brightwork—match the other teasers. So we think we’re looking at a fairly accurate representation of the rear end, and not merely Albaisa’s personal take on what the Z should look like.
