Mazda says it's planning to show off a new concept car for the Los Angeles show — and offers the above teaser image to whet our appetites for instruction. The Nagare, it says, will offer the first hints of the brand's next design direction to be pursued in the styling of future vehicles. Dig the master-class art school verbiage:
"Nagare is a celebration of proportions and surface language..."
— Laurens van den Acker, Mazda global design director"Inspired by the movement of nature's elements, our designers have captured motion, energy and lightness, translating into a beautiful language of lines and forms that are powerful yet effortless, provocative yet strikingly seductive."
—Franz Von Holzhausen, director of design for Mazda North American operations
Should we take pictures or try to get its phone number?
Press Release:
Mazda to Reveal All-New Design Concept at 2007 Los Angeles International Auto Show
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Mazda Motor Corporation today announced the global reveal of an all-new concept car, Mazda Nagare (pronounced na-gah-reh), at the Greater Los Angeles International Auto Show, during a press conference at 4:05 PM on November 29, 2006. Following on the heels of three very successful and exploratory Mazda design concepts - Sassou, Senku, and Kabura - from last year's show season, Nagare is the first indication of Mazda's future design direction.
Mazda NAGARE
According to Mazda's newly appointed global design director, Laurens van den Acker, Nagare sums up the future of Mazda design in one deceptively simple word -Flow. "Nagare is a celebration of proportions and surface language that will evolve into subsequent designs planned for presentation at future international auto shows. Nagare examines light and shadow, and begins to reveal the global design cues for the next generation of Mazda vehicles."
Franz Von Holzhausen, Director of Design for Mazda North American Operations, who headed the Nagare design team in Irvine, Calif., describes Nagare as an evolving expression of Zoom-Zoom: "Inspired by the movement of nature's elements, our designers have captured motion, energy and lightness, translating into a beautiful language of lines and forms that are powerful yet effortless, provocative yet strikingly seductive."
And there's much more to come, too, as Mazda continues to evolve flow through future models. For now, Mazda enthusiasts can experience Nagare as an indication of Mazda Design's confident step in a new direction.
Other vehicles on display at the Show include the recently launched Mazda CX-7 crossover SUV, the Mazda CX-9 three-row, seven-passenger SUV, which arrives in North American Mazda dealerships in early 2007, and the brilliantly designed Mazda MX-5 Miata Power Retractable Hard Top.
Related:
Frankfurt Premiere: Mazda Sassou Concept; Mazda to Show New Senku Concept in Tokyo; More on Mazda's Kabura Concept [internal]