Nissan Z back in blue

In almost 30 years of reporting on the Australian car scene, we’ve never seen a model update restricted to new colours.

But that’s the case with the new Nissan Z range which will see the introduction of new colours for the 2025 model year.

One of them is the iconic Bayside Blue, an evolution of Champion Blue that debuted on the 1995 R33 GT-R LM, a road-going homage to Nissan’s Le Mans-winning race cars.

Such was its popularity, that Nissan’s Kei Yoshitomi, Design Manager of Colour Design Group, Advance Design Department, knew “an evolved, vivid blue was demanded” and so Bayside Blue debuted with the launch of the R34 GT-R.

The colour takes its name from Tokyo’s Bayshore Highway, a road that holds deep significance for the city’s underground car culture.

It was a big hit and arguably the colour that is most associated with the R34 GT-R.

Unofficially retired, Bayside Blue was reintroduced in 2019 for the GT-R 50th Anniversary Edition.

Bayside Blue is just one of three new colour choices available on the 2025 Nissan Z range, joining Ivory Pearl with Super Black Roof and Plasma Red with Super Black Roof on the colour palette.

However, Bayside Blue ping with its heritage, Bayside Blue will only be offered only with the Z Coupe and only as a single-colour.

Slate Grey with Super Black Roof meanwhile remains exclusive to the Z NISMO.

“The new Z is an icon reborn, and it is only fitting that it now shares Bayside Blue with another Nissan legend, the R34 GT-R,” says Nissan’s Deputy Director Product & Retail Campaigns, Warwick Daly.

“Our performance heritage is a part of our DNA, and it’s so exciting to have this iconic colour live on as part of a new suite of hues available on the 2025 Nissan Z.”