The road to becoming "one of the most successful sports cars in the world" was not easy and certainly did not begin as one would expect when looking back at the history of the Nissan Z models.
The 240Z wins almost all rallies. The 260Z races at Le Mans. The 300ZX wins the IMSA GTS. The 350Z becomes a legend, especially in the tuner and drifting scene.

But where does this fame and hype for these vehicles come from? How is it that these cars bring home so many trophies and how did the racing history with the Z begin in the first place?

That's exactly what this series is about.

So let's start in 1969 with a big bang!

Specifically, with the Japanese Grand Prix.

When people talk about the Japanese Grand Prix today, they often mean the Formula 1 race.
But there was a time, from 1963 to 1969, when this meant a different race, the biggest and most popular in Japan; and which, with 6 races a year, represented a huge effort for all participants! It's hard to imagine something like that today.

The first Japanese Grand Prix was held on May 3, 1963 at the newly completed Suzuka circuit, which was actually Honda's internal circuit built in 1962.

However, the main race was monopolized by foreign sports cars.

A situation that was not to be tolerated, which is why Nissan in particular made every effort to dominate all subsequent races.
They were victorious in 1966 (R380), 1968 (R381) and 1969 (R382). A remarkable success!

But in 1970, Nissan and Toyota announced that they were concentrating on safety and environmental protection measures and would therefore not participate, which led to the events being canceled in 1970.

1969 was therefore the last year in which the original Japanese Grand Prix was held.