After much anticipation, the Nissan Z Proto was unveiled yesterday, providing the best picture yet of what Nissan's new Z car will be like when it arrives in production-ready form. Expected to be called the 400Z, it will replace the fun but seriously dated 370Z.

But what about a Nismo version of the new 400Z? Well, although Nissan hasn't had much to say about this just yet, render artist KDesign AG went ahead and envisioned what an even more powerful version of the 400Z could look like. We've got to say that we like what we see, as the various mods add some more menace to the Z Proto, a design that some have found a bit tame.

Using the Z Proto as a base, the designer added distinctive red detailing along the lower portion of the Z's body and on the wing mirrors. Along with bigger nine-spoke wheels in a black finish, the square grille remains but with Nismo badging. A more aggressive lower front lip and more prominent side skirts, both in carbon fiber, contrast well with the white paint job.

At the back, a huge rear wing is the biggest change over the regular Z Proto (pictured below in yellow), along with quad exhaust outlets with the tailpipes finished in blue. Overall, the changes were clearly inspired by the mods on the Nissan GT-R Nismo, and they work just as well on the more modern shape of the Z Proto.

Considering that the Z Proto will use a twin-turbocharged V6 engine producing around 400 horsepower, the future Nismo version can reasonably be expected to improve on this.

With a rumored Toyota Supra GRMN on the way that could produce over 500 hp by using the engine found in the imminent new BMW M3 and M4, that would make it a lot quicker than the base 400Z, which is where the Nismo could step in to fill the gap. It all points to an incredible resurgence of fast Japanese sports cars, and boy, have we missed them. Here's hoping that Mazda is inspired enough by it all to bring back the RX-7.