Mazda Nagare concept: first official pictures

By Ben Whitworth

First Official Pictures

29 November 2006 09:42

You're looking at Mazda’s RX-8 for the year 2020 – unveiled today at the Los Angeles Motorshow.

The Nagare concept car signposts Mazda’s new design direction for its next generation of sports cars. Japanese for ‘flow’ and pronounced ‘na-ga-reh’, the futuristic four-seater coupe follows on from this year’s Sassou, Kabura and Senku concepts and aims to depict motion and speed with dynamic proportions and unique surface treatments – key features of Mazda’s future models. Nagare is the brainchild of Franz von Holzhausen, head of Mazda’s American design team based in Irvine, California, and the idea behind the concept was initiated by Mazda’s new global design director, Laurens van den Acker. “We’re looking well down the road with Nagare,” says van den Acker. “We want to suggest where Mazda design will be in 2020.” The car features butterfly-wing doors, a hydrogen-powered fuel cell drive train and a novel one plus three seating arrangement – the driver sits alone up front, with the rear given over to ‘lounge-seating’ for three. “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,” says van den Acker, “so each of the concepts we present throughout this global show season will embody a different interpretation of our new surface language.” Nagare will be one of four new concepts that Mazda will roll out over the next 12 months at the Geneva, Frankfurt and Tokyo.

By Ben Whitworth