Yutaka Katayama, 'father Of The Z' Nissan Sports Car, Dies At 105

[TomoHawk]

Yeah, but the Z  has 60 years of history.

 

Who's James Gardner?

 

That one photo has "Gardner" in it.

Edited February 27, 2015 by TomoHawk

[240260280z]

Watch the movie Grand Prix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garner

Mr K was a bit like Mr. Yamura http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060472/

[TomoHawk]

I have that DVD, but Toshiro Mifune is a thing in himself.

[sblake01]

Yeah, but the Z  has 60 years of history.

 

Who's James Garder?

 

That one photo has James Gardner init.

G-A-R-N-E-R...........How does the Z have 60 years of history?

[TomoHawk]

The filename of the photo is:  Bob_MrK_Gardner.jpg

 

In Mr K's book, he states that he came up with the idea for the American sportscar in 1959.

[HS30-H]

Mr K was a bit like Mr. Yamura http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060472/

 

Except that he wasn't.

 

The 'Mr Yamura' character in the film 'Grand Prix' is a composite of the real-life Yoshio Nakamura (Honda Grand Prix team chief) and Soichiro Honda himself. The fictional team 'Yamura Motors' is clearly based on Honda, and the Yamura GP cars carry Yamura's name on them.

 

Both Nakamura and Honda were engineers. Katayama was not an engineer, a designer, 'stylist' or product planner, and the cars we talk about here are not called 'Katayamas'.

 

So, Mr K. was not a bit like 'Mr Yamura'.

[240260280z]

This thread is for Mr. K.

[TomoHawk]

I can appreciate your point, Blue.    Mr K was a no-frills type of guy, with the way he would go it alone, against the way of Nissan's upper management to get personally involved, and he had a strong voice, just not as deep as Mifini-san's.

 

In the movie there are other things parallel to real life, like Mr. Manetta, who was in charge of the Ferrari team, and signified Enzo Ferrari, and the other race drivers,  Jean-Pierre Sarti, Scott Stoddard, Nino Barlini, and even Hugo Simon, all had their real-life counterparts

Edited February 27, 2015 by TomoHawk

[HS30-H]

This thread is for Mr. K.

 

And so am I.

[240260280z]

I can appreciate your point, Blue.    Mr K was a no-frills type of guy, with the way he would go it alone, against the way of Nissan's upper management to get personally involved, and he had a strong voice, just not as deep as Mifini-san's.

 

In the movie there are other things parallel to real life, like Mr. Manetta, who was in charge of the Ferrari team, and signified Enzo Ferrari, and the other race drivers,  Jean-Pierre Sarti, Scott Stoddard, Nino Barlini, and even Hugo Simon, all had their real-life counterparts

Thanks Tomo, I was thinking of an even simpler and beautiful parallel.... a guy that "could", taking a big risk and helping out a broken F1 driver hard on his luck. In the end the risk paid back many fold for both.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Blue

[bpilati]

It would be nice to see a tribute car.

50th anniversary of his S30 in 4 years.... fingers crossed.

I've already described it on Nissan's facebook page. It's a real 240Z 2600# advanced composite body with 2.4 L supercharged six cylinder engine. Nissan could make a screamer out of it. They could even make a Special K Edition. 

[240260280z]

I've already described it on Nissan's facebook page. It's a real 240Z 2600# advanced composite body with 2.4 L supercharged six cylinder engine. Nissan could make a screamer out of it. They could even make a Special K Edition.