There are a few colors that just go hand in hand with certain brands: Mazda’s soul red, Renault’s liquid yellow and Nissan’s midnight purple. Thankfully, Nissan is finally bringing its iconic shade of dark purple to the Nissan Z, but you’ll have to win a lottery in Japan if you want to get your hands on one.
Midnight purple started life as deep metallic purple on the Nissan 316 Z32 and evolved into the shade we know and love today on cars like the Skyline GT-R and the R34 GT-R. The deep, unctuous purple color will now be available on the Fairlady Z in Japan, reports Carscoops.
From the 2025 model year, Nissan will add midnight purple to the Fairlady Z as well as 10 other colors for your dream Japanese sports car:
The updated color palette now spans 11 shades, with new additions including Wangan Blue, Vibrant Red/Super Black, Brilliant White Pearl/Super Black, and, of course, the aforementioned Midnight Purple. This new Midnight Purple is shared with the Skyline sedan, Ariya EV, Note Aura, and the outgoing R35 GT-R. Purists may argue it doesn’t quite recapture the mystique of the R34 GT-R’s Midnight Purple II, but its inclusion still feels like a respectful nod to Nissan’s heritage.
For those chasing more nostalgia, the 432 Orange hue from last year remains available. Buyers can also opt for the Customized Edition, which offers a sportier appearance thanks to its split grille, carbon rear spoiler, 19-inch alloy wheels, racing-style decals, and exclusive badging.
Nissan will build up just 4,100 units of the 2025 Fairlady Z in Japan over the coming 12 months, and it’s expecting demand for those cars to skyrocket. As such, the automaker is running a lottery of build slots for the car that prospective buyers will have to enter.
Build slots will then be dished out among winners, with Nissan assembling 3,100 examples of the standard Fairlady Z, 500 units of the Nismo, and another 500 demo cars that will be available for test drives.
Other than the new color options, Nissan has made little in the way of updates to the 2025 Z. Under the hood it packs the same three-liter twin-turbo V6 that kicks out 400 horsepower in the standard trim and 414 hp in Nismo spec.
That’s still paired with either a six-speed manual or nine-speed automatic gearbox, which is the only option if you go for the Nismo.
Pricing in Japan will start at 5,497,800 yen (about $36,000), reports Autoevolution, and will ramp up to 9,302,700 yen ($61,000) for the Fairlady Nismo Z.
Despite demand for the Z in Japan sparking a national competition for the car, sales of the Nissan Z haven’t been as stellar here in America. The automaker has delivered a little over 2,000 cars here in the U.S. this year, despite reviews for the car being, largely, pretty positive. Maybe the company needs to bring midnight purple here as well in order to bump up demand a bit?