A subtle shift in direction with Mazda's latest styling exercise, the new Shinari Concept.
Anyone who has followed Japanese automaker Mazda for more than a few months knows it has made a name for itself by pushing the envelope, both with technology like the rotary engine but also with intriguing design statements.
Like the Shinari, the latest in a series of distinctive fantasies in chrome that have lent some of their more distinctive design cues to more mainstream production cars, such as the latest Mazda3 and Mazda6 models.
As with past models using what Mazda has dubbed the Nagare design language, the latest entry into the concept catalogue boasts organically flowing lines that suggest the way the wind shapes desert sand. But the Shinari, developed by design chief Ikuo Maeda, is a little less fanciful, if nonetheless a stretch using a new design theme Maeda calls Kodo.
There’s a bit more tension to Shinari’s shape, which actually brings to mind something more European, perhaps even an Aston Martin, with its long hood and gaping grille.
If history holds, the Mazda concept will not go much further, at least as it sits on the display stand at L.A.’s Staple Center. This is a pure concept.
That said, it is all but certain that some of the sweeping lines and creased sheet metal will reappear, at least to those with a sharp eye, on some of the next Mazda production cars.
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