07 Jan 07
Mazda's new design direction is edging closer and closer to reality. At Detroit, the second of four concepts united by the idea of nagare (Japanese for 'flow') was revealed, and if you squint just the right amount you can see past the showboating frippery and get a pretty clear idea of where Mazda is heading.
Sharpening some of the themes embodied in the less plausible Nagare revealed at Los Angeles last autumn, the Ryuga (Japanese for 'gracious flow') is a neat, compact four-door sporting coupe, with a 2.5-litre engine and six-speed automatic gearbox.
The Ryuga was designed in Hiroshima, and the graphics on the bodywork were inspired by the raked pebbles in a Japanese rock garden and the morning dew on a bamboo leaf.
Mazda's design chief Laurens van den Acker said the Ryuga is a foot lower and a foot shorter than the Mazda 3 hatchback - yet when you take a look inside you see there really is room for four adults. You can probably forget all about those gullwing doors, though.
'We are sowing the seeds of an entirely new generation of vehicles,' said van den Acker. The Ryuga was, he added, 'vibrant, confident and fun at heart. It's athletic and sporty, emotional and exotic.'
Stay tuned for two more nagare concepts this year: one at Geneva this spring, the other at Tokyo in November, by which time we should be getting even closer to the look of future showroom Mazdas.
