Yoshihiko Matsuo

A clay model of a closed coupé

When development began on a successor to the open-top Fairlady roadster, Yutaka Katayama, then president of Nissan North America, repeatedly urged headquarters to make the successor a closed coupé. Matsuo, in the fourth studio, also submitted his own report on sports cars, pushed for a closed coupé and built a clay model. There is an anecdote that when Katayama came back to Japan and saw Matsuo's clay model, the successor was settled as a coupé. In fact, though, the actual design was based on Akio Yoshida's fastback proposal combined with the front face from Matsuo's proposal.