Mazda Hakaze
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
We love studying new concept cars. Especially if they tell us a thing or two about future designs that are bound to adorn our favorite automobiles. One such concept is the Mazda Hakaze, making its debut at the Geneva show, which demonstrates how a future Mazda crossover might look to us. We’d love the Hakaze even more if it hadn’t so quickly followed the lower-slung Nagare and Ryuga concepts from the Los Angeles and Detroit shows.
Indeed, the Hakaze is Mazda’s third nearly identical concept in four months, with yet another variation to be revealed at the next big show (insert groan here). This doesn’t even count last season’s Sassou, Senku, and Kabura concepts. Is it us, or is Mazda’s little peep show becoming somewhat long and tiresome? Enough with the vaudeville. It’s time to show us a real car, guys.
That said, the European-designed Mazda Hakaze is as cool as they come. Translated literally from Japanese, hakaze means “leaf-wind.” In Mazda-speak, it means “crossover concept with a roadster feel,” which Mazda expands on by invoking the sport of kite surfing as a character witness. Even more significant, perhaps, is that the sunny Hakaze is a crossover designed by and for Europeans, a sign acknowledging that segment blending is not exclusive to America.
The Hakaze’s exterior is characterized by flowing lines that mimic those found in nature, in this case those of sand dunes. Its big metallic shield-shaped bumper seems guaranteed to be a Mazda-ism, as do high-mounted mirrors leading into chrome roof elements. The huge tires and wheels complement its dune-buggy proportions, and the rearmost half of the all-glass roof is removable.
The nature-inspired lines aren’t limited to the exterior. “The basic form of the interior is like looking at sand dunes. It’s got all this movement, winds blowing,” according to Peter Birtwhistle, chief designer, Mazda Motor Europe. The super-cool instrument cluster is much like those found in the previous concepts, which is to say it sort of sprouts from the base of the windshield in what can best be described as a gauge bouquet.
The four-seat interior features an embossed leather floor, “great for bare feet right off the beach,” and is bisected by a center console that runs from the windshield all the way to the cargo area. Seats are covered in a techie wet-suit-like material. There’s even a separate compartment in the cargo floor specially designed to accommodate a kite surfboard. As for the engine, the Hakaze was conceived to handle the 2.3-liter direct-injection turbocharged four coupled to Mazda’s active-torque-split all-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic transmission.
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