Mazda MX-81 Aria: Look in the tube

Outside or inside? In the study Mazda MX-81 Aria (Italian for "air") is difficult to decide where to find the more interesting design ideas. In the creation of this concept car Marc Deschamps, freshly in charge of design boss at the body manufacturer Bertone, 1981 in top form: The car featured smooth body surfaces, the strict geometric delimitation of glass and sheet metal, a waistline of a dash and the fireworks of fantasy in the interior ,

This is evident, for example, in the ocher-brown Vichy check pattern on the seat covers. But that's just the beginning of the fun. The seats can be turned to make getting in or out easier.

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The punch line is the cockpit. It consists of a tube screen, whose displays replace the analog instruments such as speedometer, tachometer or fuel gauge. Deschamps anticipated today's digital instrument display virtually by several decades. A kind of frame protrudes from the dashboard on which control buttons are mounted - for lights, windscreen wipers or turn signals. Around the upper edge of this frame runs a movable, articulated band made of plastic. This will steer the car.

That this works in principle, one already believes. But that this bizarre steering mechanism should be pleasant, precise or safe, is hard to imagine. In any case, the system was not followed up. Which does not diminish the wow effect, because a study depends on inspiring ideas and unconventional solutions, less on their feasibility. Where: The band guide takes up less space than a conventional steering wheel. Maybe this idea takes on a manufacturer of autonomously moving car - as a kind of space-saving emergency steering.

Bridge from the wagon era in the eighties

The Mazda can at least be classified as a milestone in vehicle design. With its proportions, straightforwardness and light and airy interior, it bridges the gap between the uncompromising wedge-shaped cars that Bertone created in the 1970s and the more pragmatic models that hit the streets in the 1980s. Among them, for example, designed by Bertone Citroën BX from 1982.

Interesting in the Mazda unique is also that under the cover stink normal high-volume technology is. To keep costs down, Mazda took over the technology of the Model 323 GLC in the study. The wheelbase of 2.36 meters, a 1.5-liter turbo gasoline engine as a drive and all dimensions were so fixed. The creation of such an independent and extraordinary car shows the potential of the Turin design house at that time.

Eight years after the debut of the concept car, yet another detail of the study germinated in a series product. The flat, straight front part including the sleepy-eye headlights characterized the sporty compact car Mazda 323 F, which came in 1989 on the market. However, fans still have to wait for a renaissance of interior details.

But not on the study itself. After spending more than thirty years hiding in a garage on the grounds of the Mazda Development Center in Hiroshima, the car was only rediscovered there a few months ago - and brought to mind, as demand at Mazda showed. Now, Mazda's public relations department is planning a restoration of the concept car - whose condition, by the way, should be extremely pleasing, so that it can be presented again on different occasions.