Secret Weapon.(Z car to be unveiled)

As Nissan's new chief designer, Shiro Nakamura, walked among vintage Japanese sports cars jammed bumper to bumper into the Las Vegas convention hall, it was obvious how he earned the nickname "Fingers": he inspected each one of the sleek machines with respect, intensity and more close physical contact than you'd ever expect to see from a Japanese auto executive. Later that evening he demonstrated another unlikely skill: showmanship. At a dinner hosted by fiercely loyal fans of Nissan's Z-car, who have never stopped hoping that Nissan will resurrect the car it deep-sixed in 1996, Nakamura handed out illustrations depicting a sliver of rear tire, a bit of fender and a gas cap. "It was a tease, says "Mad" Mike Taylor, a Z-club head who organized the gathering. "But it was enough to whet our appetites. Everyone at the convention went crazy." Nakamura stayed late signing autographs.

That was six months ago. Next week, at the Detroit Auto Show, Nissan plans to raise the curtain on its much-anticipated road rocket. Artists' renderings of the new Z-car show a low-slung beauty with fat wheels, triangular headlights and a huge rear window that slopes toward a raised tail. Although the performance specs remain top secret, Nakamura has promised a "pure sports car": fast, nimble and, like the original 240-Z that established Nissan's image as a cutting-edge car company in the 1970s, a "poor man's Jaguar" built for a mass audience. "We want people to feel the old DNA," he says. "We will position the new Z as a symbol of Nissan's revival."

The Z, though, is more than a symbol. Nissan is betting nothing less than its future on the new two-seater. After years of declining sales and market share, the company faced bankruptcy when French auto giant Renault took a controlling stake in May 1999. According to the new corporate bosses, Nissan's chief problem is poor brand identity: not only are the company's cars and trucks bland, but they don't look like they belong together. This means, according to the branding experts, customers can't be sure what they're getting in a Nissan product.

The Z is intended as a blandness antidote, a clarion call of design inspiration for the entire Nissan fleet of products. In the next three years, Nissan plans to launch 22 new vehicles, everything from mini- cars to sub-compacts to luxury sedans and full-size trucks. Each one will bear design elements introduced next week in the new Z. "Our first message," says Nissan executive vice president Patrick Pelata, "is that Nissan is back to making new and bold things."

It falls to Nakamura, 50, the designated architect of Nissan's revival, to summon up the new and the bold. Nakamura's personal mission to erase Japan's reputation for bland cars began in the mid-1990s, when, as Isuzu Europe's chief designer, he created a radical concept truck, the VehiCross. Its futuristic design melded touring-car comforts with off- road utility, pleased critics and created a new niche in the marketplace: the hybrid SUV. The success got Nakamura promoted to head of Isuzu's global design team. When Renault bought a stake in Nissan last year and went shopping for a new chief designer, Nakamura jumped off their short list.

"What surprised us most," says Pelata, "was that he is more Latin than Japanese in his way of communicating." Translation: he says what he thinks, even if it's not what others want to hear. In his tastes, he is nothing if not flamboyant. He hates ho-hum cars. His favorite right now is Audi's TT, a roadster that, he says, borrows its lines from Japanese architecture. Nakamura is out to prove that Japan can lead the world in auto design, rather than borrow from trendsetters in Europe and North America.

Can Nakamura fix Nissan? Some industry watchers are beginning to think he has a shot. Nakamura "knows he has to develop a strong image for Nissan and not just sell hot dogs like the rest of the guys," says auto consultant Michael Robinet of CMS worldwide in Farmington Hills, Michigan. "Nissan's renaissance will be led by the Z-car. You need a halo car like that to lead your comeback."