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Back when Super Bowl commercials were actually worth talking about, Nissan showed everybody how it’s done. The 1990 “Dreamer” ad showed a Z32 300ZX racing a motorcycle, open-wheel race car, and a fighter jet—”enhanced” with CGI that looks terrible today, but was cutting edge at the time. It made a big impression on a generation of car enthusiasts, including YouTuber Chef Joni.
Joni tracked down the car used in the filming of that iconic ad, but with the owner unwilling to part with it, he recreated the ad using his own freshly restored twin-turbo 300ZX. He was able to book Radford Racing School for the shoot, using one of the school’s F4 cars and a hired driver. A motorcycle rider and remote-control airplane pilot were recruited to check off the other vehicular components. By Joni’s own admission, the shoot was rushed, but it’s still a faithful recreation of the commercial clearly made with love.
We Recreated Nissan Iconic Super Bowl Commercial – 300Zx Dreamer
In one way, the remake is more authentic than the original. The car in commercial is supposed to be a twin-turbo model—the narrator mentions the turbos kicking in, and it has the different front bumper of a boosted car—but was in fact naturally-aspirated. Nissan installed the twin-turbo front bumper and repainted the car from black to silver for filming. That bumper was ripped off during filming of the commercial’s famous jump sequence, and Nissan simply reinstalled a black bumper in its place. In this condition, the car was later donated to California State University Long Beach.
This information comes from an old eBay listing dug up by Joni (which include the VIN) and a conversation with the seller, who bought the car from Cal State Long Beach and later sold it to a California resident. That person still owns the car, telling Joni they paid $9,000 for it and wanted it specifically because it was the car from the “Dreamer” ad, which aired just once long before YouTube and TikTok made easy replays possible. Automakers still pour millions into Super Bowl ads—Cadillac just recently used one to debut its inaugural F1 livery—in the hope of inspiring this level of passion.
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Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he’s not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.
