1990-’96 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo

The 1990 model year was a watershed one for Japanese automakers. Seemingly overnight, Lexus and Infiniti were competing with the Germans, the Acura NSX showed that an exotic car could be an everyday car and Mazda's MX-5 Miata was as perfect a roadster as any Brit had ever dreamed of. It also marked the start of a slew of fast and capable sports cars with the Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo.

By the mid-Eighties, Nissan's Z car had changed dramatically since its introduction as the very sporting 240Z in 1969. The gizmo-heavy 300ZX (digital dash, talking warnings) had earned a reputation as a "boulevard cruiser" and had the sort of looks that only a mother could love. By 1989, the performance of competitors had passed it by.

For 1990, Nissan started with a clean-slate design. Though the 1990 model had a 5-inch-longer wheelbase and was 2 inches wider, it was actually just over an inch shorter than the model it replaced. Underneath the stunningly curved new sheetmetal lurked all sorts of new technology, along with a return to a proper set of white-on-black gauges.

At the heart of the 1990 300ZX was an all-new, 24-valve, DOHC, 3-liter V-6, in naturally aspirated form, good for 222 hp. With twin water-cooled turbo chargers, the engine produced an impressive 300 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque. A contemporary Corvette's pushrod V-8 was good for just 245 hp. Even the Ferrari 348—also all-new for 1990—made just 296 hp.

Priced starting at $33,000, the 300ZX TT stacked up nicely against the $1,000 cheaper Corvette (and nearly $90,000 less than the Ferrari). But Twin Turbo buyers also enjoyed a host of technologies long on performance and short on the gimmickry: four-wheel steering, cockpit adjustable suspension, variable cam timing, and variable power steering, just to name a few.

Nissan produced some 18,274 "Z32"-chassis 300ZX Twin Turbos for the American market between 1990 and 1996. All were two-seat coupes, and more than two-thirds of that total were sold in 1990 and 1991. Like most Japanese cars, the 300ZX TT proved reliable and long-lived. Most also depreciated to the point where many were bought and sold rather inexpensively, which, along with a thriving aftermarket bountiful in ways to make your 300ZX more powerful or alter its looks, led to a lot of cars being modified by novices or downright abused. Those results have left the market for 300ZX TTs split between a healthy supply of rough cars on the lower end, and a far smaller share of clean, unmodified examples on the higher end.

The price guides reflect this disparity, with values of #4-condition cars having increased just 37 percent since 2011, while #1 and #2 cars that collectors crave have seen values increase by as much as 125 percent. With far lower production and some slight running changes, the later cars, particularly from 1995 and 1996, also hold a premium of about 20 to 25 percent over the early cars, though with rough examples, that premium does not exist. As Japanese cars have gained significant collector attention in recent years, and with the Nissan 300ZX TT representing one of the high points of Japanese sports cars, we expect to see cleaner examples continue to climb higher while the rougher examples will probably keep pace with inflation as simply interesting used cars.