Yutaka - Brazasia
In sad news for the automotive world, Yutaka Katayama, the first president of Nissan Motor Corporation USA and father of Z Car, died Feb. 19 at age 105 Affectionately known as Mr. K, its impact not only Nissan and the Japanese car industry, but the global industry, can not be overestimated.
The impact of Yutaka Katayama can be summarized in three numbers and a letter Z 240 In the 1960s and early 1970s Previously heard Littler European brands such as Jaguar and Ferrari have made their name on the race tracks of the world and used this name in branding and recognition that is still the envy of the world established brands such as Ford and Chevrolet responded to the initiatives as the overall performance and the GT40, and in the case of Chevrolet the door using stealth to Jim hall and his incredibly innovative Chaparrals.
If you want to be taken seriously as a car manufacturer, you have built sportscars And if you want to be taken seriously as a sports car manufacturer, you run no ifs or buts.
By entering this circus higher speeds and higher profits is the nascent Japanese auto industry late 1960s, it exports a small collectively offer cars that are lightweight, fuel efficient, cute-limit occasionally funky the rest of the time, but especially were considered derisively and made the butt of jokes by major US and European carmakers.
In 1969, the Japanese auto industry in the form of Datsun, fired a shot that changed every 240 Z Fairlady Z nicknamed the market of the house The man responsible for Mr. Z 240 K, and the car was the source from which flowed more, bigger, faster cars Z and they ran they ran through the factory, and they were packed by corsairs and they won.
The bottom line for Mr. K and the company was very good, but the bottom line for the rest of the Japanese auto industry was better Yutaka Katayama hadn t just built a world beater, he had lit a beacon that showed the way forward after the Z-cars, there came a Banzai charge of Japanese performance cars.
It seems that in a twinkling, Japanese cars were suddenly dominated the racetracks of all kinds, everyone crushing McLaren Hondas Grand Prix, destroying the field by full turns in Le Mans Mazda, obliterating the small sedan in the competition north American race BRE Datsun 510s and more or less have the World Rally Championships for decades Subaru and Mitsubishi, when we come to today, the most popular pure sports car all the facts is Japanese Mazda MX-5 Miata .
And all this success flows from a guy Yutaka Katayama Yes, there were many contributing factors, and many important staff from other Japanese manufacturers, but it was Mr. K who was inspired to say: We can do it and led the drive to actually go out and make it happen.
And we, the car buying public, are much richer because if Katayama and the rest of the Japanese auto industry has given us anything, it was cars that cost less, were more effective, and fortunately, most of all, the cars were reliable, it was inspiring and exciting and joyful driving Ferraris, Jaguars, Alfas, aston and back in the day, they had reliable rope swings built by teenagers.
The subsequent flurry of reliable performance was started by a man of the world that many of us today can hardly imagine living.
When he was born in September 1909, 90 percent of travel was done either by walking or riding, and a large part of the cargo was still delivered by ships with sails electricity and phone were found news in rich people's homes and his birth was as close to the frères Wright that we are at last flight of the Space Shuttle during his life, he saw two world wars, the second that devastated his country, the invention of jazz, the invention of rock and roll, television, color films, women's suffrage, basically anything that can be considered modern.
Curiously, Yutaka Katayama did not start as an automotive engineer, he joined the automotive company in 1935 and was delegated to the Department of Administration, where he began to handle advertising before moving into the advertising Katayama been one of the first color films of a Datsun on Japanese roads, and then filmed motor racing around the world which gave him an intimate knowledge of what the race had to offer, both from the point of view of engineering, and marketing.
In 1958, he was responsible for the team with a pair of Datsun 210S entered punish Mobilgas Rally that goes around the entire continent of Australia's upstart team has done more good, he won, and Mr. K was immediately able to propel the brand on the global stage and rev the company for the Datsun exports.
Given his natural flare for promotion associated with fat by now continuing under his fingernails, the company sent him to America, where he built the name of the original brand Datsun Nissan brand in the US from scratch and it was in America that he collected the key concepts that need to be Z-car to be a success in the important US market and in each key area, hit the eye of a bull.
Suddenly Datsun dealers who have long suffered in the United States had a reason to smile, as more and more people entered and left concessions behind the wheel of a Datsun Bluebird 510 or 240 Z.
Citation given when he was inducted into the American automobile of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1998, he was also inducted into the Japanese automobile Hall of Fame underlines its importance to the US auto industry that has made many great achievements in the United States, where motorization is very advanced, because of his passion for cars, the prospect of long-term management and experiences, and especially because of his integrity that he loved, understood and cooperated tirelessly with the people supported regardless of nationality, ignoring borders.
Thus, with the deepest respect and gratitude that we announce the death of Yutaka Katayama.
Last year, in his 105th birthday no less, Mr. K reflects on his life in the automotive industry in an interview in three parts with Nissan Global Media Center, which can be seen below with subtitles via the CC button.
Yutaka Katayama, aka Mr. K, who was in charge of the key concepts of the Z-car.
Aeromobil s.r.o. aeromobil to launch a flying car production next week.
paper thin membrane would pick orbital space junk.
Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Internet, won the Turing million price.
Dad speaks sonar cyborg implants Lovetron9000 and the struggle to keep her children.
Zoltan Istvan on transhumanism, politics and why the human body has to go.
Churchill space travel, living and exoplanets extraterrestrial life.
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning.
Yutaka Katayama father of the Z car dies at 105, Yutaka, Katayama father.