is a Japanese automotive engineer who was responsible for the development of the ninth generation

Nissan Skyline (R33) The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in ...

and the tenth generation Nissan Skyline (R34).

History

Early days

As a boy, he was a car enthusiast who loved motor sports. He saw the

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

cars being completely defeated at the 1st Japanese Grand Prix held at

Suzuka Circuit The , the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka, Mie, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda, Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. It is most well known by i ...

in 1963. In March 1967, one month before he joined

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

, he went to Europe to watch a

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

race.SEIBIDO MOOK "Japan's Memorable Car - Skyline GT-R, from PGC10 to R33" July 10, 1997, SEIBIDO SHUPPAN CO., LTD. (Japanese) He wanted to join

Brabham Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham ( ), was a British race car, racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Ta ...

or another F1 car manufacturer. In Japan, he wanted to join the

Prince Motor Company The Prince Motor Company (Japanese language, Japanese: ) was an automobile manufacturer, automobile marque from Japan which eventually merged into Nissan in 1966. It began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes fo ...

which produced the R380 racing car.

Joining Nissan

He joined

in April 1967 and was assigned to the Prince Division, which had recently been merged into Nissan in August 1966, located in

Ogikubo, Tokyo is a suburban, residential area of Tokyo in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, Suginami ward, approximately 8 km west of Shinjuku. Ogikubo has the Ogikubo Station on the East Japan Railway Company, JR Chūō Line (Rapid), the JR Chūō-Sōbu Line, the Toky ...

, as he hoped.The Designer's Emotion Over the Skyline - Kozo Watanabe Interview
Nissan Official Website (Japanese) The main building was the former

Nakajima Aircraft Company The was a prominent Japanese aircraft manufacturer and aviation engine manufacturer throughout World War II. It continues as the car and aircraft manufacturer Subaru Corporation, Subaru. History The Nakajima Aircraft company was Japan's first ...

's Tokyo Plant facility. He was assigned to Design Group No. 2 of the Design Department No. 1 headed by two managers. One of them was Shinichiro Sakurai, the other was Ushio Fuyuki.『「プリンス」荻窪の思い出 II』荻友会編私家版 1997年11月16日 "Prince - Memories of Ogikubo" Private press by Tekiyukai (former Prince engineers)Association, Nov. 16, 1997 (Japanese) One of Sakurai's subordinates Naganori Itō held direct responsibility over Watanabe. Itō who would later take over Sakurai's responsibilities.Sakura Mook 21 "The Legend of the Mighty Skyline GT-R" July 10, 1997, KASAKURA PUBLISHING Co., Ltd. (Japanese) Itō instructed Watanabe and allowed him to design some parts of C10 Skyline GT-R's suspension. One day, Watanabe said to Sakurai that he would like to design a racing car.
Sakurai said, "Come on. No way. You must learn about the

production car Production vehicles or production cars are mass-produced models of automobiles offered for sale to the public and can be street-legal vehicle, legally driven on public roads. Legislation and other industrial rules define the production vehicle ...

s first. It's impossible for you to design a racing car now." But gradually, Itō allowed him to design some parts of the suspension of the racing cars such as R381 and R382.

Collision safety (Experimental Safety Vehicle Division)

In 1970, he was assigned to the ESV ( Experimental Safety Vehicle) Division in Tsurumi,

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

to research collision safety.

Return to Ogikubo

In 1973, he was once again assigned to the Chassis Department in

Ogikubo is a suburban, residential area of Tokyo in Suginami ward, approximately 8 km west of Shinjuku. Ogikubo has the Ogikubo Station on the JR Chūō Line (Rapid), the JR Chūō-Sōbu Line, the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line (terminus) and the T ...

, a department to which Itō had been promoted to manager. As a result of many engineers being assigned to the

vehicle emissions control Vehicle emissions control is the study of reducing the emissions produced by motor vehicles, especially internal combustion engines. The primary emissions studied include hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ...

project, Itō and Watanabe were one of few people who designed or improved the chassis of the former

vehicles such as the later version of Skyline C110,

Pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...

and Nissan Prince Homer truck. (On the other hand, genuine Nissan vehicles were designed at Nissan Tsurumi Design Center in

.) One thing he can never forget during his Ogikubo days is that he had a chance to repair the

Nissan Prince Royal The Nissan Prince Royal is a large Japanese limousine made for the Imperial Household of Japan. History The Japanese auto industry was expanding rapidly in the early 1960s, and the Imperial Household Agency sought a Japanese auto manufacturer ...

limousine. After he repaired it and sent it back to the

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

, he was presented a pack of Imperial Gift Cigarettes with the Chrysanthemum Seal printed on them.

Assigned to plan the strategies

In 1985, he was assigned to the Strategy Department of Nissan headquarters.
At this time, he wrote the "screen play" for each of the Nissan cars. For example, the character and image of the cars. He also discussed which cars should be exported and which cars should be sold domestically.

Assigned as the Chief Experiment Engineer of R32

In 1985, he was assigned to the Vehicle Experiment Department. He tested N13 Pulsar, and its variants Exa, Langley and Liberta Villa. In 1987, he was sent to Nissan Tochigi Plant in Kaminokawa, Tochigi to test the R32 Skyline under the command of Itō, the chief engineer. He tested the R32 carefully and with insistence. He collected the data and provided them to Itō. He brought an R32 to the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

with his test team. The event marked the completion of the R32, paving the way to its début.

Chief engineer of R33

Just after the R33 Skyline project started, he was assigned as the chief engineer of R33. Nissan headquarters told him to make the R33 wider and longer than the R32 to improve passenger comfort. Consequently, the R33 would be heavier than the R32, but Watanabe was aiming to produce a faster car having declared that " R33 GT-R has to be faster than R32 GT-R". In particular, he carefully designed the suspension. When the a BCNR33 GT-R was taken to the Nürburgring to be tested, the lap time finally became twenty one seconds shorter than that of BCNR32 GT-R. Consequently, the slogan "Minus 21 Seconds Romanticism" was used for the television advertisements.

R34 - the last straight-6 Skyline

He was again assigned as the chief engineer of the next (tenth) generation R34 Skyline. One of their long-time concerns was weight distribution. Watanabe once tried to abandon the heavy RB engine and tried to use a lighter

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six- cylinder piston engine where the cylinders and cylinder blocks share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, ...

. However, it was cancelled, because it would cost too much to change the layout of the vehicle. So, he continued to use a

straight-six engine A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

. Although in late 1990s and early 2000s, the GT car and the

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

were not popular in Japan, Watanabe and his team completed the R34 as the ultimate Skyline. Furthermore, the BNR34 GT-R is the last "Skyline GT-R" so far. (Nissan separated the GT-R from the Skyline line-up.)

Recent years

In 1999, he was promoted to the Executive Director of

NISMO , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

and supervised the entire Nissan motor sports project. Whenever NISMO sold the Z-tune R34 Skylines to the customers at the NISMO headquarters, Watanabe was present to congratulate the new owners.Z-tune Information - NISMO official website (Japanese)
/ref> He retired from NISMO in 2006. He is currently the advisor of the Prince & Skyline Museum in

Okaya, Nagano is a Cities of Japan, city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,616 in 19,257 households, and a population density of 570 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Okaya is located ...

. He often appears at the Skyline festivals or the Skyline talk shows with Itō.Prince & Skyline Museum Official Website
(Japanese) Incidentally, the fifth generation C210 Skyline is the only Skyline which he was not involved in until he being assigned as the Executive Director of NISMO in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Kozo 1942 births Living people Japanese automotive engineers Nissan people People from Osaka Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni