varying accounts of the whole 240Z /Count G story. Do you know of a reliable account of the evolution of the design. One thing I read (but don't remember where) basically said he did next to nothing-but that's at odds with the long standing repute he had.
A friend of mine worked for a time in his office in New York in the early eighties and saw drawings and info in the archives. That friend is an independent automotive designer now (we both went to Art Center).
I also base my statement from looking at the available images of the actual prototypes and imagery. The packaging is clear, the forms are iterative and the graphic of the design clearly show his influence all the way to the final car.
I think the Nissan team did a phenomenal job completing the car and making it better than the Count had left it by rounding the contours and moving from the kinked rear window to the trademark upward curve of the rear side window. Many point to the time gap between his employment and the release of the car, people forget it used to take longer back then to develop a car for mass production with no CNC etc to move things along.
The Z is and always will be a design classic, which may be somewhat derivative of the time period, but really owes nothing to any other car design. Unlike the Miata, the MR2 (S1) and others which borrowed all too heavily from other companies (Lotus, Bertone).
The Z is one of the few Japanese cars from the time period I would consider owning and still turns heads as although it is not contemporary, it isn't archaic either. A beautiful car from all angles with just a touch of period Japanese over design in its rear fascia.
Now the 280ZX, oh my...:dead:
