As excited as it was to hear rumors that Nissan was bringing the successor to the 370Z sports car at the Tokyo Motor Show, it appears that the hype has fizzled out even before it had a chance to be worth anything. The latest word coming from former Nissan Australia Managing Director, Richard Emery, who has come out saying there are unlikely to be any plans for a new Z concept anytime soon.

Speaking with Motoring, Emery said that there are no plans to introduce a replacement study for the 370Z. His comments also came a few days after the automaker unveiled the 2018 370Z in Europe, packing some aesthetic improvements in the exterior and interior. Considering these recent developments on the front of Nissan’s Z sports car family, it does look like all those talks of a successor were premature. It doesn’t mean that they were unwarranted, though. The fact remains that the 370Z is eight years old and (should be) at the end of its lifecycle. It’s certainly possible that Nissan is giving the sports car one final facelift before officially launching the successor. Whether that’s a couple of years from now or not, it’s going to be a while.

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The Tokyo Motor Show Sports Car Concepts To Look Forward To

This is disappointing news if Nissan isn’t bringing any sports car concept to the Tokyo Motor Show. I’ve mentally prepared myself for the unenviable inevitability of dissecting the new Z sports car concept that the thought of not actually seeing one hasn’t sunk in yet. Still, I’m not going to discount the possibility that we could still see something from Nissan. Maybe Richard Emery is just downplaying Nissan’s involvement in Tokyo to keep the mystery alive. Maybe he just completely wrong. We’re going to find out one way or the other, so I’m still crossing my fingers that Nissan has something up its sleeve that it’s trying to keep from everybody else at the moment.

Still, Emery’s comments can’t be discarded altogether. The man knows his way around Nissan after serving as the managing director of the company’s affairs in Australia. There’s a good chance that he’s right about this, but that’s not going to stop me from hoping.

Either way, with or without a Z sports car concept, the Tokyo Motor Show should still play host to a lot of exciting concepts. It may not be a Nissan Z concept, but the event is still expected to host the world debut of the Toyota Supra and the Mazda RX-9. Both sports cars could come in either concept or production form so those are things that we can all look forward to regardless if Nissan is bringing the Z concept with it or not.

A big part of me wants to still see it, though I am now preparing myself for the possibility that it won’t be there. It’s too bad if it doesn’t show up because I do think that no amount of facelift will change my belief that the current-generation Nissan 370Z has run its course. At the very least, it’s going to need a next-gen model to be able to compete against a lot of today’s newer sports cars.

References

2017 Nissan 370z

Read our full review on the 2017 Nissan 370Z.

Next Nissan Z

Read our full speculative review on the Next Nissan Z.