Sculpting steel: How Mazda translates design to production

CONCEPT cars are the highlight of every major auto show. Their sleek curves gleam in the spotlight as they revolve on stage. Then, six months to one year later, the production version of the car is released, but it’s invariably different, and usually disappointing.

 

Whiz-bang features like scissor doors and laser headlamps may not be suitable for mass production, but often, curves and silhouettes are lost, and with them the very character of the design.

 

Enter Mazda. In trying to gain new customers after ending its technical tie-up with Ford Motor, it decided that one key feature would be styling. This meant a high level not only of pure design but also of execution, unprecedented not just for the Mazda but for the industry.

 

The first vehicle to use Mazda’s new design language, dubbed Kodo-Soul of Motion was the CX-5 crossover.

 

Although The CX-5 was attractive within its class, the first knockout design using Kodo was the Mazda6.

 

The Mazda6 began its design life cycle as the Shinari concept, first shown in 2010. Like many concept cars, it featured swoopy lines, huge wheels and futuristic lighting.

 

What is remarkable is that when the production Mazda6 was revealed two years later, the production 6 carried the swoopy lines and sleek silhouette of the Shinari. Components like lighting and exhaust were changed to suit production, but little was lost in the translation to production.

 

Mazda highlighted its design process during a recent tour of its facilities in Hiroshima, Japan. Mazda’s capabilities in design are at par with the world’s best. Mazda has dedicated artists to conceptualize the vehicles and bring them to life via innovative techniques.

 

The Kodo-Soul of Motion design language, in contrast to the nature-oriented previous theme, is meant to capture motion at the moment when it happens. It is more aggressive and dynamic. The oft-quoted cheetah in motion is also cited as an inspiration.

 

That sense of movement is captured in the MX-5 roadster’s design. Mazda’s design team uses three-dimensional clay models, which allows the artists to make subtle changes in the surfaces and edges of the design.

 

The way the surfaces reflect light is a key factor in the car’s appearance. The artists known as takumi play a vital role here. The takumi sculpt the clay, making steady improvements in the design.

 

The next vital step is to translate the design faithfully into a mass-production model. A one-off clay sculpture means painstaking work for the takumi, but even that is rather simplistic compared to the effort to manufacture thousands of vehicles using that template.

 

Mazda’s manufacturing prowess kicks in here. Its engineers and skilled workmen, the diemakers, are consulted early in the design process, to make sure that they can replicate the shapes in metal.

 

The MX-5, for example, has complex curves that require painstaking effort to produce. High-precision machining and simulation are necessary to predict variables like the tendency of the metal to spring back after being stamped.

 

Even the paint receives special attention. To achieve the Mazda’s current signature Soul Red hue, engineers developed a technique to align even the particles within the reflective layer of the paint. The reflective layer beneath the color layer, which in turn is below a translucent layer, allows Soul Red cars to seemingly shift in color depending on how the light hits the metal. As a bonus, the entire paint process became more environmentally friendly.

 

In the metal, the MX-5 simply looks stunning. It seems larger than it really is, which is nearly the same size as the original 1989 car, just wider.

 

The MX-5 loses its trademark cute design, in turn inspired by the British sports car Lotus Elan. Instead it gets a markedly more menacing-looking face. It also looks more distinctly Japanese, with the soft curves contrasting nicely with origami-like sharp folds in the skin. Score another win for Mazda’s takumi and its manufacturing team.

 

At the 2015 Frankfurt motor show, Mazda debuted the Koeru concept. As a crossover that looks bigger than the current CX-5, the Koeru feels almost production-ready, with few outlandish touches.

 

We’re hoping Mazda will roll out a large three-row crossover next year that is the spitting image of the Koeru, and bring some sport back to the large SUV.