http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdtAwYUAqpc

(apologies if there's already a thread on this)

Mat, I've seen that story a couple of times including on Carl's site. As far as any validity, I don't know......

http://zhome.com/History/Ford/Ford.htm

Due to the censor, I guess you'd have to type 'D1CK Avery'.....

Edited January 9, 201114 yr by sblake01

Amazing! He saw a Datsun 240Z in a dealer lot over a year before it came to America. By the way, I told Nissan that I didn't like the styling of the concept they developed in 1999, and sure enough, they ditched that design.

It would be great to see some sketches. IMHO the sketch on ZHome looks more like a 2 door full-size coupe than a hatchback. Headlight treatment reminds me of a 65 thunderbird with 2 headlights instead of 4.

(not my pictures. credit to image owners)

<img src=http://www.driveclassiccoupe.com/includes/images/Ford_Thunderbird/1965FordThunderbird.jpg><img src=http://zhome.com/History/Ford/Blowup2.jpg>

dang i had a feeling somebody was gonna flag that youtube vid

in short: d1ck avery was a young designer who worked at ford in the 1960's

mr. avery claims he first penned the z concept (although it wasn't called the z at the time)

but when mr. k and other nissan execs toured the ford design studio, all the materials and sketches were removed

and the mr. avery was simply told the z concept had been shelved

a few years later he sees the first 240z car on the road and says "wow! that's the car i designed"

Edited January 11, 201114 yr by Mat Big Hat