The former President of Nissan Motors Co.’s US branch, Mr Yutaka Katayama, died last week at the age of 105. Mr K, as he became known to his colleagues, is the person who established Datsun/Nissan’s Z line sports cars in the USA. Without him, and his work in building a U.S. dealer network, the Datsun brand wouldn’t have been even nearly as popular as it was in the US.

Mr K catapulted the Datsun brand into the spotlight when he managed two Datsun 210s to victory in a race which circumnavigated the Australian continent. This victory is what widely opened the doors for export to the US and around the world. Later he became known as the Father of the Datsun Z as his contribution to the birth of the sports car was massively significant. The design of the car itself was led by Mr Yoshihiko Matsuo. Initially Mr K humbly approached the design team of the 240Z (known as Nissan Fairlady Z in Japan) and after a while they started listening to his input. He oversaw the project but expressed his opinions from the side lines.

Mr Katayama also promoted the first All-Japan Motor Show in 1954. In 1977 he retired and he was inducted in the American Automotive Hall of Fame in 1998, he was also inducted to the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame. Below is part three of a series of videos of Mr Katayama recorded last year in the Nissan Global Media Centre (for subtitles press the CC button). In this video he discusses how he became involved in the 240Z design process.