1 hour ago, HS30-H said:

Goertzlore on display with his remarks about Japan. He tells us that Japanese people were still wearing Kimonos (presumably to set the scene whereby he is some kind of pioneer bringing Western culture to the savages...) but that would be 1860s rather than 1960s, when Goertz started writing letters to Japan and knocking on doors. He paints himself as some kind of pioneer, but in truth he was a latecomer. In terms of industrial design he was a good part of 60+ years late minimum (arguably 150+). But people swallow this kind of stuff whole, don't they? 

 

 

Indeed, he muses about "having tea" with some of the legends of Japanese automotive industry - Honda, Toyota, etc.  All of whom apparently elected not to pursue furthering their business relationship.

22 hours ago, florian said:

Yes, the Toyota thing comes up a lot, too, unfortunately.

Do you have the book available? Unfortunately, in all these years I have never had the chance to find a copy.

The 2000GT Toyota book by Shin Yoshikawa has got more expensive since I brought mine. I found this one;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364146024429?hash=item54c8cb5fed:g:IPcAAOSw3mpXNJAd&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4OaBR0phfqczh36fQyyL167ViMLn0kKm54coGG8dR2PomHStpAUc5aOINtubbRLfarj5lxyBmPl8aAIeXdYzUQsHjdUwdrIrXBe0sTWrEHL3rM%2BkKTC3jy3%2FLTcCzA4ExzoTinlSSvQNCDQYVlkFt358LtjxsSD74V%2FWpKzJEdJX6ADiBRZOaFKXxVwY2%2BR1cB0Vcx%2Frt%2BZSC9z2YRbWzHxYi%2FqYFQgkRmVDAHIK9cxRr51x48p7XestP9btG4rGl%2FYzStLvz7CPwgAjOSUxbhUwRu1zfB7vvRZDBMjhsbG%2F|tkp%3ABk9SR77iv9b5YQ

and there is another one for sale in France with a $850 asking tag.

 

This weekend i was at a swiss Archive place of automotive history. The source of many Experts which judge historic cars and make the FIVA ID cards (hsitoric vehicle authenticity proof), etc.. A very nice place.
I was suprised however to find a book about Nissan where goertz has signed the cover during a visit. I forgot to take a photo, sadly, but will visit again.
Obviously the experts (in this case they were judges and cars-selectors at all the major global concours d'elegance, so they definitely have some knowledge about historic cars and designers, but the usual lack of japanese cars knowledge) had the opinion that Goerzt designed the 240Z.
I collected a few documents to tell them the truth.
During my hunt for a few things to prove it, i realized that the original signed letter by Nissan has never been broadly published. Only a transcript of it, without theofficial header, signature, etc. So here we go.
It can be found in the german book "Autos die geschichte machen - Datsun Nissan Z-ZX-ZXT"


I wouldn't say the book covers the story fully correct, but at least the copy of the original letter is nice:
Special thanks to Florian for reminding me where i can find it in my documents 🙂

Also Florian has researched a lot on this topic and you can find all about Goertz and the Z (and involvment in other cars he claimed to be his design) on his special readworthy website only about this topic:
http://www.graf-goertz.de/

Nice work on the website Florian! Thank you for the crediting me.