Nissan Fairlady Z gets R34 Bayside Blue, Midnight Purple

Nissan isn’t exactly doing well, but even a struggling company can toss a few bones to enthusiasts. At the Tokyo Auto Salon this year it unveiled a new Fairlady Z color for 2025. Bayside Blue, a hue made famous by the R34 Skyline GT-R over 25 years ago, is now available on a Z for the first time.

Bayside Blue, also known as Wangan Blue, was revived for the R35 at Nissan’s one-night 50th birthday bash for the Skyline GT-R and Z in 2019. Now it has migrated to the Z and it looks fantastic. It replaces the Seiran Blue debut color, which was only available as a two-tone with a black roof, which made it look kind of weird. Bayside Blue, on the other hand, is offered as a single-tone color that extends to the roof, making the car look much more cohesive.

At the same time as Bayside Blue’s announcement Nissan also revealed that another Skyline GT-R homage color, Midnight Purple, is coming to the Z lineup as well. There wasn’t a Midnight Purple car at the Auto Salon, but Nissan did provide one photo of the Z in it. The color first appeared on the R35 in 2021 as a throwback to the R33 and R34, though it was on the latter where the color-shifting properties were most pronounced.

Interestingly, the Bayside Blue display car at the Tokyo Auto Salon is a US-spec LHD model. Nissan says they will be available in Japan in 2025. However, Nissan’s US website makes no mention of either color. Hopefully they do make it stateside, because both are excellent additions to the Z palette that really class up the car.

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8 Responses to Nissan Fairlady Z gets R34 Bayside Blue, Midnight Purple

  1. BlitzPig says:

    The new Z needs more than just some new colors to make it a realistic choice in the US market. I think it’s safe to say that the new Z is a flop here in the US. You never see them on the road, or even in showrooms. Even the BRZ which Subaru only sold a bit over 3000 of in the US last year is more plentiful on the US motoring landscape than the Z.

    A sad state of affairs for Nissan.

    • Marc Lawrence says:

      Bang for the buck went out the window – At least the BRZ is a bit affordable and fun. I’ll keep my ancient 91 S13 and 85 Z31Turbo – they look better !

  2. Franxou says:

    Really nice colors, especially the midnight purple, and I wonder what they would look like with a color-matched bar instead of the stainlessy-chromey bar along the roofline?
    I actually went to a Nissan dealership yesterday to get my car checked and I sat in a 400Z, and WOW would I not buy that! This memory is from long ago but my Z32 of old was already a bit coffin-like and hard to manoeuver, at least for my early driver self and it being RHD, the waist line new Z makes everything worse, I cannot imagine trying to place that car precisely where I want it… But Hhhrng is it a good looking car! I don’t even like midnight purple and it looks amazing in it!
    It is great that this site and its following cares about both classic and modern (future classics, after all) japanese cars, but I will stick with old cars for fun cars!

  3. Taylor C. says:

    Agree. I think the car looks pretty good, but it is pretty claustrophobic inside. I was the local Nissan dealer, and in a sea of Altimas, Jukes, Rogues, Kicks, and Pathfinders, there were two Zs and some Leafs that they were trying to liquidate at MSRP as well as rebates galore. The Z just isn’t selling, according to the salesman. No markups, nothing.

    I know the magazine reviews on the Z, especially when compared to the Supra 3.0T 6MT, haven’t been that good. But what else has made it a flop here???

    • Darth Nobunaga says:

      Nissan’s cars flop because they don’t know what they’re doing without proper leadership.

      They botched their entire future by not following proper Japanese corporate protocol and instead extending the stay of aging, Boomer leaches. FYI: Retirement age in Japan WAS (akin to another famous gentlemen’s agreement) 60, but corporate would add pressure around 55-56 in the Showa era.

      It’s a corporate fact of life that’s been followed for practical purposes; and even applies to heroes. Kazutoshi Mizuno was on staff for too long when he should’ve been effectively an adjunct instructor/consultant for the next generation.

      Now, as evidenced by the Z, they don’t have a chief engineer with nearly enough savvy and capability to create exciting vehicles. A skilled chief engineer is equally adept at orchestrating their staff to build platforms as they are at cajoling management to push through new ideas.

      The culprits:

      Makoto Uchida-Munster (58): Poised for retirement, inept and passionless as a CEO and leader…Now, he’s simply eager to broker a fire sale of the company to the number one refrigerator manufacturer on Earth. Not hearsay. Financial Times reported on the lackluster CEO replacement situation back in 2020. He’s basically a puppet manipulated by his jilted rivals (who had seniority). He also has no professional background in engineering (check his resume). Ghosn did IN ADDITION to his managerial experience. Who would you expect to do a better job? Why?

      Alfonso Albaisa/The Borg Cuban (61): Aesthetically tone deaf design chief who’s NOT a car enthusiast, drives a Joke/Juke and was responsible for the painfully forced “Hyper Force” concept. Also, clinging on for dear retirement. Whatever the opposite of the Midas touch is, he has that. The Q50/Q60 were his best efforts and yet still managed to be incohesive and forgettable (with no manual option). Now, Infiniti is basically dead. He’ll ceaselessly make lazy, humblebrag posts on Instagram though.

      Pee-Wee Hiroshi Tamura (62): When the “father” of the GT-R allows himself to be photographed literally sitting on the job and published with the headline “The Father of the Modern Nissan GT-R Doesn’t Like the Word Competition” (Road & Track 2023), you’re up a REALLY bad creek. Need I say more? I nearly broke my arms at the wrist pounding the desk after reading that. Utterly pathetic. Part of me actually wishes my wrists broke as it would’ve been less painful than that headline.

      Allyson Witherspoon/Legally Bland: In charge of global marketing, but have you been moved by ANY ad from Nissan since the 300ZX/Barbie mashup back in 1996? Yeah, didn’t think so. Should be fired. Yet, she’s still on the job effectively embezzling like every other unmotivated, underperforming worker they have on staff…likely too many to count.

      Carlos Ghosn/The Fugitive: Brilliant but troubled…and unfortunately isn’t the greatest brand ambassador as a criminal wanted by Interpol.

      GT-Remorse: No replacement GT-R in sight and they gut-wrenchingly killed its looks with current, god-awful front fascia. Any magic they had vacated the room once they announced the death of the R35 and left people clinging onto NOTHING. No hope that you’ll be able to buy a brand new R36 when you can afford it. May never see one before you die in a nursing home. That’s how Nissan serves inspiration. Cold.

      The OTHER cars: Gutless in a competitive marketplace and often end up also-rans against stiffer competition from Korea, etc. Without beating a dead horse, you’d never buy one for its looks. Not even its reliability. What, exactly, are you buying one for? Tough sell, huh!

      The culture: Corporate culture in Japan has changed drastically. Rather than innovate in the face of Western competition, its become easier for these large companies to put operations on cruise control while they hoard cash in the stock market, real estate investments, etc (there’s been numerous articles written on it). They’ve lost any sense of national pride as a result of going full Mickey Mouse.

      The consumer: Toyota is storming over every Japanese car manufacturer for a reason. They’re striving to make GREAT cars at a level that’s expected by a generation raised on Atari and Nintendo. People who viewed Japan as a beacon of technological innovation and ethics. By the same token, that crowd can’t be tricked into believing, endorsing and PAYING for subpar products. Brutal, but true. They’re innately scoffed by the inherent inadequacy and lack of integrity.

      Nissan doesn’t get that.

      The Devil’s deal: Every single domestic United States automaker is worse than Nissan. Yet, the US government bails them out when they inevitably go broke doing what they do worst (build quality cars). Rather than embracing Nissan and its legacy as a national treasure (lest we forget, Nissan = Prince = Emperor Akihito), they’ll watch it sink into the hands of a greedy competitor. One bent on the company’s ultimate failure. Ghosn has publicly alluded to that already. Look it up.

      Interestingly, Japan will pump its money into the weakening US economy instead of its own. Again, look it up! America is in a MASSIVE amount of debt to Japan and China…despite the endless xenophobic rhetoric Americans buy into.

      C’mon, in your most optimistic state of mind, do you REALLY think Honda will allow Nissan to outperform it—EVER? Especially, when they already have the upper hand and…UHHHH, I don’t know…they’re a BUSINESS.

      When your so-called revitalization plan entails selling your company to a more powerful competitor you’re putting yourself at the mercy of the gravity of the situation. For the record, I don’t believe Honda qualifies as a tax-exempt charity.

      Not to mention, Honda’s money cabal has already murdered Soichiro’s dream for quick cash. What’s stopping them from doing it again?

      Honda’s karmic recalls of late couldn’t have happened to a more deserving pack of vultures. If those dishwasher-safe, white, banal “0” concepts from earlier this month are any indication, buckle your seatbelts…as enthusiasts, you can anticipate a bullet train ride to straight to hades. They’re not even hiding it now.

      If you don’t demand better, you’ll NEVER get it. It’s cheaper and more profitable to sell you something that requires less investment of time and effort.

      Eventually, you’ll be buying replacement coffin hinges at your local Honda/Nissan dealership. Happy shopping.

  4. pete240z says:

    I actually like the blue shown here – it looks really nice.

    I also like the orange color on the Heritage Package but a $60,000 sports car is not in the cards. $60,000? I really meant $65-$70,000 with taxes and dealer fees. All of a sudden, a new Miata or one of the twins look a lot more reasonable to me.

  5. Jim Daniels says:

    I am glad that the Z is still offered. It does seem expensive. It seems the middle of the road sports cars do not sell including the Supra. Miata’s, BRZ, and well STI (I don’t consider a sports car as it is a sedan, but they handle like a sports car and have filled the gap price wise) The STI has probably done more to kill off the sports car other than sports car price. High end sports cars sell no mater the price.

    I have seen more Lambos, Ferraris, Porsche’s than Supras and Zs. I saw my first new Z about three weeks ago on display at Costco in Maui. It was white. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it looked great. My son did also.

    As a trendy color I like the midnight purple but I tend to like vehicles with colors the stand the test of time. That more than one generation thinks looks good. However, the white one I saw, I don’t think that body is going to look any better in any other color.

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