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The theme of the Tokyo Motor Show according to Mazda is going to be ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom- Mazda's showroom today and in the future’. The Tokyo stage will be shared by Taiki along with the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid and the all-new Mazda Atenza.
One gets the impression that Mazda is going concept car crazy because of its current design fetish of ‘nagare’ or flow which had three versions earlier, namely, the Nagare, the Ryuga and the Hakaze, and now the Taiki up for display at the Tokyo Motor show.
It will debut at the Tokyo Motor Show this year - the Mazda Taiki is the newest in concept cars from the Japanese. The Taiki has set a new trend for a rear-drive, front engine sports car of the future.
The Taiki follows the flow design concept, incorporating real world technologies. The design is said to represent a theory that has been inspired from patterns of natural movement and by organic shapes.
Mazda says the inspiration for the new design of the two-seat Taiki came from the image from the legends of Japan, of a pair of Hagoromo or the flowing robes that allow a celestial maiden to fly or float down from the sky.
The Taiki is a next generation concept two-seater with an under the hood Renesis rotary 1.6 L engine where Mazda is experimenting with rotary engines that run on hydrogen and a rear wheel drive.
The Mazda concept has a stretched cabin with a glass canopy and short overhangs and the name Taiki which means atmosphere is used to describe this look similar to that of a protective cover around the earth.
A dual-fuel Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid will be on display at Tokyo where the engine runs on hydrogen and on unleaded fuel. It will convert hydrogen into electricity to power the turbine engine on the H2 mode. But rest assured that this is no pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Mazda plans to commence leasing such vehicles in 2008.
This car differs from other concept cars. This is evident from the rear wheel structure which, in the Mazda Taiki seems to stick out a little but from behind it looks integrated. The rear wheels are covered by a simulated wheel well which gives an impression that the wheels remain unprotected by the chassis which is not the case in reality.
While the Taiki is a long way from becoming a production reality, the vehicle does give you a peek into probable future designs. The new look grill is being put forth as Mazda’s new facial expression.
The Mazda Taiki echoes a potential path for Mazda sports cars of a future generation and is intended to help build a sustainable society.
In the interior of this concept car you will find that inspiration came from the Japanese koinobori also known as the decorative ‘climbing carp streamers’. The concept word for design of the interior was the notion of creating an air-tube.
Keeping this notion in mind one then sees that from the dashboard to the seats right down to the trim on the door, the space inside produces the vibrant sensation of a visual depiction of the flowing wind.