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Yutaka Katayama, 'father of the Z,' dead at 105

Yutaka Katayama, a former Nissan executive credited with being the "father of the Z," has passed away at the age of 105. He died in a Tokyo hospital Thursday as a result of heart failure, his son, Mitsuo, confirmed to the Associated Press. Katayama retired from Nissan in 1977, and for a time, ran the company's US division. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in both the US and Japan, and is most notably remembered as being the man who gave life to the original Datsun Z sports car. Within the Z fan club community, where he is known simply as "Mr. K," Katayama is widely revered and respected. "With a love of cars and a flare for promotion, he built the Datsun brand, Nissan's initial brand name in the US, from scratch," the Japanese automaker said on its website last year, according to the Associated Press. Katayama is survived by his wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. Our hearts go out to Mr. K's family, and the entire Z community. News Source: Associated PressImage Credit: Joe Wilssens / AP / Nissan Nissan Automotive History datsun nissan z

Dacia Duster to spawn inexpensive Nissan Terrano, will we get it?

When going to overseas auto shows, one can't help but spend an inordinate amount of time eyeballing forbidden automotive fruit. It's often of the seriously rare, criminally powerful and six- or seven-digit variety. But more often than one might think, the genuinely affordable overseas hero makes us swoon, too. So it is with the Dacia/Renault Duster, the cheap-as-chips, hard-wearing utility vehicle. We've often thought that its basic, rugged charms would play well in the US if saddled with a low enough price tag, but we've never seen much of a window for that to actually come true.
But now, Autocar India is reporting that Nissan will flex its alliance with Renault to spin off a Duster of its own, one that exhumes the Terrano nameplate, a moniker once used for overseas versions of the first- and second-generation Pathfinder. The new model will feature unique sheetmetal to give it a familial look, but the interior will be the same, and we expect the same goes for the powertrain, meaning there will be a range of gasoline and diesel four-cylinder engines with both manual and automatic gearboxes and front- or all-wheel drive.
So, does that mean we'll get a Nissan version of the Duster-based Terrano to call our own? Sadly, almost certainly not. Company spokesman Dan Bedore tells Autoblog flatly, "There are no plans to bring this model to the US." Bummer. Even if it isn't ultimately as capable as the larger, long-in-the-tooth Xterra (it's more on par with the now departed Canadian-market X-Trail), we think the Duster's archetypal SUV looks and low cost barrier would win it plenty of fans in our market. Our guess is that redesigning the model to meet US regulations (crash, emissions, lighting, etc.) would be prohibitively expensive, and the Dacia/Renault model is built in some pretty distant facilities - Brazil, India, Romania and Russia among them - making the business case harder still.

What does a world-class downhill skateboarder drive? Something very cool

Kevin Reimer has an interesting career and a fascinating car. The resident of Vancouver, BC is a professional downhill skateboarder - which we now know is a thing you can be - who sees a lot of commonality between his extreme occupation and his cherry 1991 Nissan Skyline GT-R.
The subjects of the latest Petrolicious joint, Racing Champions, Reimer waxes philosophical about skateboarding and driving down some of the same routes. You'll not be surprised to hear that riding the curves of a mountain slope, be it on a deck or in a bucket seat, both rely on grip and nerve in various measure. Scroll down to see for yourself, and don't miss the rest of our Petrolicious library when you're done.