YOKOHAMA, Japan – In honor of INFINITI’s 35th anniversary, today we look back on the J30, sharing lesser-known details about the sleek and daring sedan.
The J30 arrived with a design that literally exemplified INFINITI’s approach to thinking “outside the box”.
Avoiding the ‘tyranny of the wedge’
At its launch in 1992, INFINITI executives said the J30 was designed “to break away from the tyranny of the wedge”. Unlike many of the boxy and angular sedans of the early nineties, the INFINITI J30 presented a sleek alternative.
The North American brochure for the J30 proclaimed the model to be “A car that reflects, rather than defines, the personality of its owner.”
Like its design, INFINITI’s approach to bringing the J30 to market, was anything but conventional. Positioned as a “Personal Luxury Sedan” ahead of its arrival in showrooms, potential buyers in the U.S. could sign-up to receive a free VHS videocassette titled “A curious journey” along with an invitation for a “personal guest drive”.
Alfonso Albaisa’s first involvement with INFINITI
Back in 1992 there was no mistaking the INFINITI J30 for any other model on the road, and its memory lives on, particularly for current Senior Vice President of Global Design, Alfonso Albaisa,, who played a role in its exterior design.
The J30 was the first INFINITI Albaisa worked on and the first full-model design program that he was involved with from start to finish. Designed at Nissan Design International (NDI) in La Jolla, California, the J30 sort to cut through the cluttered sedan segment with design that was deliberately provocative.
Nautical influence
As a fresh-faced member of the team in San Diego, Albaisa was tasked with evolving the styling the J30’s front and rear. In finessing what could be considered the most controversial element of the vehicles’ exterior design, the rear, Albaisa recalls how a completely unrelated project of a nautical nature helped inspire his design.
Albaisa states “While nearing completion of the design for a luxury yacht called Motali, studio director, Jerry Hirshberg watched me drawing arched lines that crossed over - side to side, creating reversing wedge volumes and said that’s it, try that on the J30 model! “
The rest as they say is history, with Albaisa applying the same approach to the rear of the J30 and in the process, helping create a rear end unlike anything else on the road at the time.
As for the Motali, the 33-meter, three-story luxury yacht that helped inspire the J30’s rear, it was commissioned on behalf of a client in Turkey. Albaisa, who grew up on the ocean, cruising around Miami’s coastline in the 1970s had a deep fascination with water and retains fond memories of the assignment – even reuniting with the vessel in 2017.
"Imagine Motali backing into its bay at Monaco," said Albaisa. "The rear view of this vessel should be like no other. With any yacht, the look and shape are so important. For Motali, it was clear from the beginning that the most important thing was to create something truly beautiful. That's why I designed it with a bullet-like expression and with romantic tapering at the stern that tumbles inwards, similar to the classic vessels of the 1950s."
While the J30 was a relatively short-lived addition the early INFINITI range, extending just a single generation from 1992-1997, its daring spirit, and INFINITI’s long-held desire to channel the power and beauty of nature into its designs, remains.
Stay tuned, as we share more insights from behind the scenes of INFINITI’s early product range - next up, the pioneering INFINITI FX.
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