Shinari (Japan, 2010)

At the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, Mazda North American Operations debuted the Shinari concept car.

The Shinari design concept was the first vehicle to feature Mazda’s new global design language, Kodo, or the “Soul of Motion.” The design had been conceived under the direction of Ikuo Maeda, the company’s Global Design Director and evoked lessons learned from the successful Nagare series of concepts, taking them to another level. Although people will never see a vehicle like this on the road, the designs works as a learning tool, offering new ways to explore form and surface language.

The Shinari is a pure design concept model of a four-door, four-seater sports coupe which expresses the Kodo design theme. In Japanese, the word shinari is used to describe the powerful yet supple appearance of great resilient force when objects of high tensile strength, such as steel or bamboo, are twisted or bent. It also refers to the appearance o...