Nissan has confirmed that it is indeed planning a successor to the popular 370Z sports car despite some rumours suggesting otherwise.
During September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Nissan revealed its Gripz concept, created as a sporty and high-performance crossover and potentially the Japanese marque’s very first SUV adorned with the iconic ‘Z’ badge. Unsurprisingly, this led many to believe that the production-spec Gripz would ultimately replace the 370Z effectively killing off rear-wheel drive sports cars for Nissan.
While speaking with Australian publication Motoring however, the chief product specialist for Nismo, Hiroshi Tamura confirmed that the Gripz won’t in fact succeed the 370Z before going on to suggest that a next-generation ‘Z’ sports car is being developed.
Details about the successor to the 370Z aren’t yet public knowledge and it is likely to remain that way for some time. With that being said, Tamura did suggest that the new model could in fact be helped by the production version of the Gripz as the two cars could share components, including the same platform.
Elsewhere, it is likely that the next-generation 370Z will ditch the current model’s naturally-aspirated 3.7-litre V6 in favour of a smaller capacity engine likely utilising forced induction.
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