Nissan Z Has Finally Landed On American Shores

Recently, we reported on a trio of Nissan Z sports cars. They were, technically, the first ones to arrive in America. Those cars landed in Guam, a US Territory. They were also marked up a fair bit, with two cars priced at $61,287. Now, a full fleet of Zs has officially hit American soil, landing at a port in Newport News, Virginia. From what we can tell, the vast majority of these are early Proto Spec cars.

Those are the yellow ones in the photo. Nissan calls this “Ikazuchi Yellow,” a color reserved for the special Proto Spec Z. Those will also have bronze wheels and a matching yellow interior. In total, there appear to be 24 cars in the photo, with a mix of a few other colors in there as well. We see both white and black cars.

Allocations for the Nissan Z will be different. Dealers had to have met certain requirements to get an allocation, so they’ll also be rather hard to find, at least initially. Regardless, Nissan dealers had to have met certain qualifiers in order to be considered eligible for an allotment of Zs.

Allotments for Sport and Performance Zs are based on dealers’ sales of the 370Z from January 2018 to December 2020. More sales mean more allocations. However, Nissan says all dealers will get at least one car from the “launch period.”

The Proto cars you see here require a bit more. Dealers needed to have had ten or more retail sales of the previous 370Z to qualify for the Proto Spec Zs, which we’ll surely see on auction sites shortly. However, Nissan has said that “allocation is expected to revert to Nissan North America’s general ongoing allocation methodology after all trims have been available for approximately 90 days.”

That should mean things will go rather smoothly for the Z. Once more strict allocation requirements have ended, we may even begin seeing these at dealers for close to MSRP, if not at or below. For now, these cars will be ripe for markups given the current climate. Chip shortages and production delays continue to affect automakers, but it appears Nissan can at least make the cars it promised.

Should Nissan be able to tame that and keep the Z within its target pricing, the car will continue to be a home run for the Japanese automaker. We’ve loved every second of seat time we’ve had in the Z, and it poses a serious threat to the Supra and just about anything on the block making a similar 400 hp.