What does the "Z" in car model names stand for?  Like in the BMW Z3,
Z4, Nissan 240Z, etc.  Someone told me it had to do with the name of
an inventor.

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Request for Question Clarification by landog-ga on 03 Aug 2005 23:36 PDT

Hi,
I have a feeling it was Albrecht Graf von Goertz, who designed the BMW
507 sports car in 1955 and also was  contracted by Nissan Motors of
Japan in 1963. His first assignment at Nissan was to work on a Sports
Coupe based on the Fairlady 1600 chassis.
Dr. Goertz is credited with helping the Nissan design team establish
design parameters related to the physical size and configuration of
the Z Car. In fact, Dr. Goertz is considered the "Father of the Z Car"
by "Car and Driver" magazine.

http://www.bmwworld.com/models/vintage/albrecht_von_goertz.htm

http://zhome.com/History/Truth/GoertzMyth.htm

A little about the Datsun 240-Z :
"In my opinion, Datsun 240Z was the most outstanding Japanese sports
car ever made of it?s size. Before it, there were several tiny
Japanese sports cars, which attracted considerable admiration, e.g.
Honda S800. However, Japanese manufacturers still lacked the courage
to make a normal-size sports car to compete on head with the Western.
Nissan rewrote the record by introducing 240Z in 1969. Unlike previous
Japanese sports cars including the first Fairlady, it was designed to
meet the requirements of Western markets, especially the United
States. Development was difficult, since engineers had to start from
drawing board. German Albrecht Goertz (previously designed the BMW
507) was employed to design a beautiful 2-seat body, while engineers
in Japan were working hard to develop all-wheel independent
suspensions, 5-speed transmission.."
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/32190.html


Do you agree?

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 04 Aug 2005 06:36 PDT

Dear petitfleur-ga;

Ok. How?s this for an answer?

Where Chevrolet?s are concerned the "Z" stands for ?Zora? (for Zora
Arkus Duntov,a member of the Chevrolet design team). Duntov also
worked on the limited edition corvette. (The Dunto Crovette was
limited production of about 67 cars.)

Z06 = Corvette
Z22 = Cheap Cavalier (Z22 a also the nickname of a first generation Camaro RS)
Z24 = not so cheap Cavalier
Z26 = Beretta
Z28 = Camaro
Z34 = Monte Carlo and Lumina
Z51 = Corvette w/ suspension package
Z66 = Avalanche
Z71 = Silverado and Sierra

Where some other cars are concerned, the Z stood for Zagato, a company
that partnered with the parent manufacturer on some models:

BMW, Alfa Romeo (41 different models since 1919), Fiat (43 model
sice1919), Abarth (12 cars since 1957), Lancia (31 models since 1928),
Maserati (8 models since 1932), Ferrari (13 models since 1950), Aston
Martin (6 models), Lamborghini (4 models) Jaguar (2 models), Volvo (2
models) and Nissan (4 models).

Concorso d'Eleganza
http://www.concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com/inglese/ed04/ed04-zag.asp
http://www.bmwworld.com/models/vintage/2004_concorso.htm


Please let me know if this sufficiently answers your question
sondieraing the price assigned to the research (and since I doubt that
anyone can round up ALL the ?Z? car histories for you)

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by petitfleur-ga on 04 Aug 2005 08:24 PDT

Thank you Tutuzdad! You answer is much more complete and came faster
than I expected. And Landog, to answer your question, yes I do agree,
love the 240Z!

Dear petitfleur-ga;

Since you are agreeable to my research I am reposting here in order to
officially close your question:

Where Chevrolet?s are concerned the "Z" stands for ?Zora? (for Zora
Arkus Duntov,a member of the Chevrolet design team). Duntov also
worked on the limited edition corvette. (The Dunto Crovette was
limited production of about 67 cars.)

Z06 = Corvette
Z22 = Cheap Cavalier (Z22 a also the nickname of a first generation Camaro RS)
Z24 = not so cheap Cavalier
Z26 = Beretta
Z28 = Camaro
Z34 = Monte Carlo and Lumina
Z51 = Corvette w/ suspension package
Z66 = Avalanche
Z71 = Silverado and Sierra

Where some other cars are concerned, the Z stood for Zagato, a company
that partnered with the parent manufacturer on some models:

BMW, Alfa Romeo (41 different models since 1919), Fiat (43 model
since1919), Abarth (12 cars since 1957), Lancia (31 models since
1928), Maserati (8 models since 1932), Ferrari (13 models since 1950),
Aston Martin (6 models), Lamborghini (4 models) Jaguar (2 models),
Volvo (2 models) and Nissan (4 models).

Concorso d'Eleganza
http://www.concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com/inglese/ed04/ed04-zag.asp
http://www.bmwworld.com/models/vintage/2004_concorso.htm

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



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Names

?The letter z?

?z stands for?

?z means?

Maybe the BMW Z series is named after Ulrich Bez ?
"On the 1st of January 1985 BMW AG founded the subsidiary company 'BMW
Technology GmbH'. Internally the company was known as ZT. The mission
statement of the company was 'to execute and enable developments in
the area of automobile technology that reset or modify the basics of
automobile design. Therefore, enable trend setting'. These
revolutionary technologies and techniques were to be developed without
commercial influences, that is, without the requirement that they be
used in production at some later date. Ulrich Bez was the first
director of BMW Technology GmbH."

http://www.bmwz1.de/e-index.html

These car interest web sites state that the BMW Z stands for Zukunft
(German for Future).

?Zukunft is German for 'future'. Just to make things confusing, BMW
uses Z codes in three different ways:
  - Z codes used for prototypes (e.g. Z11),
  - Z codes used for concept cars (e.g. Z9), and
  - Z codes used for production models (e.g. Z3)?
http://www.zroadster.net/tim/future/

?The Z code is also used for the Company's development test bed cars,
where Z stands for zunkunft or future. ?
http://www.bmwnation.com/tech/glossary/tech_ecodes.html

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tintelen/BMW_Z-series.htm
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fred.brossaud/pdf/bmw_z1_eng.pdf
http://www.automobile-portal.com/Pages_fr/PrivateP_fr/PP_Peugeot_fr.htm