|  Mazda Motor Corporation will present an all-new concept car, the Mazda Nagare (pronounced na-gah-reh), for the first time globally at the Greater Los Angeles International Auto Show during its press conference at local time. Following on the heels of three very successful and exploratory Mazda design concepts – Sassou, Senku, and Kabura – from last year's show season, Nagare is the first indication of Mazda's future design direction.
Like all Mazda products, Nagare has the soul of a sports car. Its shape is sleek and aerodynamically efficient, as you’d expect of an urban cruiser for the future. Wheels are placed at the far corners and there isn’t an ounce of overhang wasted.
Access to the four-seater interior is provided by two double-length doors that hinge forward and up like the wings of a butterfly. The driver is centrally located for optimum control and visibility, while Nagare’s rear compartment is a wrap-around lounge offering relaxed accommodation for three passengers. The central front seat and expansive door opening facilitate easy entry to the roomy interior.
An advanced design concept needs an advanced powertrain, and Nagare could conceivably be powered by a hydrogen-fuelled rotary engine. Mazda’s work on this technology is among the most advanced in the world, with hydrogen/gasoline-fuelled rotaries powering RX-8s currently in service in Japan.
To give Mazda products sold in different global markets a common design theme, the three global design studios – located in Irvine, California, Frankfurt, Germany and Yokohama, Japan – are inspired, guided and encouraged by Laurens van den Acker, who is located at the company’s headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. Future concepts embracing the Nagare flow design discipline will evolve under van den Acker’s direction as this year’s show season unfolds
Nagare’s side surfaces provide a means of visualizing the air flowing along and over the car as it speeds through the atmosphere. Light and shadow combine to convey this feeling of motion even when the car is still. Similar hints of fluid flow are evident in the hood, wheel arches, LED head- and tail-lamp treatments. The same surface language plays throughout Nagare’s interior; the instrument panel, center console, and door panels all appear to be influenced by flow. Notes von Holzhausen of the vehicle, ''Beauty is not a clean sheet of paper. Nagare’s motion-influenced surface texture compliments its dynamic attributes. Because of Mazda’s sporty essence, we never wrap our customers in boxes. Our new surface language is car-centric. After studying the architectural approach, which tends to be strictly rigid, and the organic approach, which is highly fluid, we created Nagare to straddle those two disciplines. It is fluid, graceful, and dynamic. But the message it registers on the beholder is flow-motion.
|
