Father of Nissan Z-cars dies at 105

TOKYO, Japan - Yutaka Katayama, the man widely credited as the “father of the Z” – a  reference to the Datsun Z sports car that was first released in 1968 – has died aged 105.

Katayama, a former Nissan executive who was simply known as “Mr K” in the Z-car community, retired from the company in 1977 after running the US division for some time.

He is also credited with building the Datsun (and later Nissan) brand in the US as well as having influenced the automaker to build and bring the 510 - the Datsun Bluebird - to market.