Mazda's made a very attractive-looking concept to display at the LA auto show. Not the first such machine, there appears to be little chance of Mazda producing the low-slung vehicle -- even though the company's US boss reckons that the company develops such concepts "to demonstrate what we really intend to build and sell".
The concept is instead there, in Mazda's words, to demonstrate the process of evolving Mazda’s design and surface language for future Zoom-Zoom vehicles. Mazda’s design division has invented a new surface language called Nagare --Japanese for ‘flow’ and the embodiment of motion, apparently.
Global design director Laurens van den Acker called on his design team to invent a new way of registering motion in vehicles whether they’re moving or still. Nagare is the first of a series of design concepts – some closer to actual production vehicles than others – that Mazda will display over the next year at shows including Los Angeles, Detroit, Geneva and Tokyo.
Mazda's US boss Franz von Holzhausen said: “We’re looking well down the road with Nagare. We want to suggest where Mazda design will be in 2020. To do that, we redefined basic proportions and the idea of driving without losing the emotional involvement. Mazda’s driving spirit will be enhanced and intensified by Nagare.
“Mazda doesn’t produce concept cars to spin its wheels, and while some are more forward-looking than others, we simply do not create pure flights of fantasy. We develop these ideas to demonstrate what we really intend to build and sell. It took soul-searching along with basic research to invent the new surface language we’re calling Nagare. The dynamic qualities of Mazda products already do an excellent job of capturing the spirit of motion so our goal was to move our design language a major step beyond what we’ve already demonstrated with Sassou, Senku, and Kabura.
Von Holzhausen said: “We began by studying motion and the effect it has on natural surroundings: how wind shapes sand in the desert, how water moves across the ocean floor, and the look of lava flowing down a mountainside. Natural motion registers an impression in your brain and that’s what we hoped to capture with the new Nagare surface language.
“Once we started sketching our ideas, we weren’t surprised to find similar quests underway in other product design disciplines. We found examples of motion influencing the shape and surface of furniture, architecture, apparel, and artwork. Nagare undoubtedly proves our confidence in identifying a new and exciting visual language for Mazda as we lead the way in defining the interaction of motion and flow in automobile surfacing.
“We began by developing a surface or textural language that describes flow. The motion of the vehicle is defined by, and evident in, the texture of its interior and exterior surfaces. There is no right or wrong way to capture the impression of motion, so each of the concepts we present throughout this global show season will embody a different interpretation of our new surface language.”
Von Holzhausen described Nagare as “a concept of a concept.” It’s intentionally a celebration of proportions and surface language that will evolve in subsequent designs planned for presentation at future auto shows this season. In other words, design first, engineering later at this point in the process, in contrast to the classic ‘form-follows-function’ approach.
Van den Acker said: “It’s important to start with the vision first: Nagare is sculpture on wheels, our vision of what Mazda automobiles could look like in 2020. The concept we’ll present in Detroit is practical enough to produce in the next decade, while the model under development for Geneva will embody design ideas we expect to implement in the very near future.”
Look and feel
Nagare is intended to look like a sports car, sleek and aerodynamically efficient, with wheels positioned at each corner. Access to the four-place interior is provided by two double-length doors that hinge forward and up like the wings of a butterfly. The driver is centrally located, like a single-seat sports racer, for optimum control and visibility. The rear compartment is a wrap-around lounge offering accommodation for three passengers.
Nagare could be powered by a hydrogen-fuelled rotary engine.
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