Yamaha isn't revealing much about the concept it's bringing to the Tokyo Motor Show aside from it has four wheels.
If the name Yamaha makes you think of something riding on two wheels, you’re not alone. But the compact perhaps best known for its motorcycles is out the change perceptions. It plans to unveil a new concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show later this week.
It’s not offering much insight, suggesting only that the show car is inspired by (its) motorcycles and “expresses the unique style of Yamaha.”
The teaser image would suggest the concept car is a sports car, likely a two-seater, though it might turn out to be a minimalist 2+2. It appears to feature a power bulge on the hood, flared rear fenders and an integrated rear spoiler.
Along with the concept sports car, Yamaha promises to reveal 20 different vehicles at the biennial Tokyo Motor Show, six of them world premieres. “The booth will offer an experience of ‘the growing world of personal mobility’ unique to Yamaha, a specialist in small vehicles for personal mobility,” the maker’s brief release says.
If Yamaha is thinking of dipping its toes into the automotive world, it wouldn’t be the first time it has tried. Back in the late 1980s, it developed the high-performance V-6 used in the original Ford Taurus SHO, and later came out with a V-8 for Volvo. It even sold a quirky tandem two-seat supercar called the OX99-11 two decades ago. And at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show it unveiled an electric city car concept dubbed the MOTIV.e.
If Yamaha really is serious about getting into the car side of the business, it opens up a number of questions, notably where and how it would produce such a vehicle. One possibility, several sources are suggesting, would be to work with Toyota with whom it has partnered on other projects.
(Toyota debuting three new cars at Tokyo Motor Show. For more, Click Here.)
But Toyota has its own small sports car coming to the Tokyo show this week. It will pull the wraps off the S-FR concept, a thinly disguised version of the base model set to anchor a new three sports car line-up. It will slot in below what Toyota currently sells in the U.S. as the Scion FR-S.
Among the other questions for Yamaha: who designed the mystery sports car. Some believe it could be the work of F1 designer Gordon Murray, who penned the little Yamaha OX99-11 concept.
(Click Here for details about what Honda is bringing to Tokyo.)
“Would I do a sports car based on i-Stream? Absolutely. I would love to do one, if it’s the last thing I do,” Murray told the Irish Times newspaper several years ago.
The MOTIV.e, set to go into production in 2019, will use Murray’s i-Stream production concept, which is meant to simplify automotive manufacturing and reduce its environmental impact. Among other things, it would migrate from conventional steel to the use of lightweight carbon fiber – a material that BMW is beginning to make more widespread use of with its battery-based i3 and i8 models.
(To see more about the GM-UAW contract settlement, Click Here.)
Could the Yamaha concept by Murray’s sports car, and could it help fill out a new production plant? We could find out later this week.