Before today's GT500 Z, the 350Z won Japan's championship in its first season
In 2004, Nissan made a fairly significant change to its top-level Japanese racing program.
The Skyline GT-R was out.
The Fairlady Z was in.
And in its first season competing in Japan's GT500 category, the new Z33 did something rather impressive: it won the championship.
More than two decades later, the No. 1 XANAVI NISMO Z remains an important piece of Nissan's competition history. The championship-winning machine is currently listed among the vehicles exhibited at NISMO's headquarters showroom in Yokohama.
It is also an excellent reminder that the relationship between Nissan's road cars and racing machinery has never been quite as straightforward as the badges suggest.
Taking over from the GT-R
The Skyline GT-R had been Nissan's principal GT500 contender throughout the preceding years, but the company introduced the Z33 Fairlady Z for the 2004 Japan Grand Touring Championship.
That was a substantial change in identity.
The Skyline GT-R had established an enormous racing reputation, and replacing it with a sports car that had only recently returned to production was not necessarily an obvious decision.
Mechanically, however, the transition was less dramatic than it appeared.
Nissan retained major elements of the previous GT-R racing program, including its VQ-family competition engine and transaxle configuration.
The 2004 XANAVI Z used a VQ30DETT, a 2,987 cc twin-turbocharged V6.
That's an important distinction from the road-going 350Z, which was powered by the naturally aspirated VQ35DE.
Nissan's Heritage Collection lists the racing engine at more than 465 PS and 706 Nm of torque.
The car's published competition weight was just 1,080 kilograms.
This was emphatically not a showroom 350Z with a roll cage and an unusually enthusiastic exhaust system.
The Type E connection
Although the mechanical architecture carried over from the previous GT-R program, the new racing car needed to look like a Fairlady Z.
Nissan based its exterior styling on the limited-production Fairlady Z Type E, which featured extended front and rear bumpers.
That allowed the competition car to retain recognizable Z33 proportions while adopting the aerodynamic hardware required for serious GT500 racing.
The result was considerably wider, lower and more purposeful than its production counterpart.
Nissan lists the racing car's overall width at 1,940 mm, with a wheelbase of 2,650 mm.
Double-wishbone suspension was used at both ends.
Taken together, the specifications illustrate how far GT500 machinery had evolved from its showroom origins.
The body communicated the identity of a Fairlady Z, but the engineering was developed around the demands of professional competition.
Winning from the beginning
The No. 1 XANAVI NISMO Z was driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons.
The number itself reflected Nissan's status as the defending champion.
The new Z immediately demonstrated its potential by winning the opening round at TI Circuit Aida, now known as Okayama International Circuit.
It added another victory at Round 6 at Autopolis.
That second win was particularly important.
Nissan's contemporary race report records the XANAVI Z starting third before moving into the lead and ultimately winning the event.
The victory placed Motoyama and Lyons at the top of the championship standings heading into the final round.
They went on to secure the 2004 GT500 title, giving Nissan consecutive championships across two different racing models.
The Skyline GT-R had delivered the 2003 title.
The Fairlady Z delivered the next one.
That is quite a way to introduce a replacement.
The Z33's place in Nissan racing history
The 2004 championship matters for reasons beyond the trophy.
It demonstrated that Nissan could transfer its established GT500 engineering program to a different sports-car platform without sacrificing competitiveness.
It also helped establish the Z33 as a legitimate part of Nissan's modern racing identity.
The production 350Z had already become an important enthusiast car, but the racing program gave the revived Z nameplate a different sort of credibility.
It wasn't merely a return to affordable rear-wheel-drive performance.
It was representing Nissan at the highest level of Japanese GT competition.
Today, the company continues that tradition with the current-generation Z NISMO GT500.
The engine configurations, regulations and chassis technology have changed considerably over the intervening years.
But the idea remains familiar.
Take the Z's recognizable shape, reinterpret it for competition, and put it against the best machinery Japan's manufacturers can produce.
A championship car worth remembering
NISMO's current showroom inventory includes the 2004 XANAVI NISMO Z alongside other important competition machines.
That makes the car more than an interesting historical photograph.
It remains part of the manufacturer's own presentation of its racing heritage.
And while modern GT500 cars make extraordinary technical achievements look almost routine, the 2004 Z deserves a little extra appreciation.
It replaced one of Nissan's most famous racing nameplates.
It inherited a complicated and highly developed competition program.
And it won the championship immediately.
Not a bad first impression for the 350Z.
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