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Tokyo Flow: Mazda Taiki Concept

Flow is serious business for Mazda. It's the new design language that has

Pretty wild, even for a concept car. (Photo: Mazda)

almost taken over the brand, and in some ways, it's so strong within the automaker's designs already you might even be forgiven if you forgot about the whole “Zoom-Zoom” thing ... sort of. “Flow” has been the key ingredient to all of Mazda's concept cars as of late, but none is quite as interesting as the Taiki sports car concept vehicle, which will be shown at the Mazda's home auto show in Tokyo later this month.

The Taiki is a two-seat, two-door sports car which some very intriguing bodywork said to mimic the flow of the air (Taiki in Japanese means atmosphere). Inspiration was drawn from climbing carp streamers (you know, those big, cartoonish paper fish streamers) and a dress that allowed mythical maidens to fly. The end result was a glass canopy with some very unusual fenders and detailed rear styling. But insiders have already hinted that besides the unusual placement of the rear wheels and the two-seat layout that this is the direction

The rotary engine is safe in the hands of Mazda. They're continuing to build it up. (Photo: Mazda)

that Mazda will be headed in for the next-generation RX-8. Mind you, it will have four proper seats just like the current vehicle.

For Mazda fans, the Taiki is also a taste of things to come for the next generation rotary engine. The Japanese brand promised that it wouldn't give up on this unique powertrain, and if the Taiki is anything to go by, their word is good. The car features the brand new 16X engine, which continues the evolution of the Renesis engine. One of the key upgrades with this rotary is its size; it's grown from two rotors with a displacement of 1.3 liters to a two-rotor unit that has a displacement of 1.6 liters. This should give the engine a much broader torque band which is bound to improve its in-town drivability.

Curves galore! (Photo: Mazda)

The next major enhancement of the engine is direct injection. It's pretty big news when a mainstream manufacturer puts direct injection into a regular car (as Mazda did with the Mazdaspeed3 and Mazdaspeed6), but since they're the authority and the only producers of the rotary engine, they've technically made a world's first. Despite the displacement being bigger than before, the physical size of the engine is smaller than the current Renesis motor, plus it is made out of aluminum so it's lighter too. Finally, these changes make the engine more efficient, and enable it to produce fewer emissions – all very good things, as these are areas that the current engine is lacking.

The Taiki will be a part of Mazda's display at Tokyo this year alongside other vehicles that convey the theme of “Sustainable Zoom-Zoom”. Other vehicles on the floor will include cars sporting Mazda's new “Clean Diesel” engine, vehicles with idle-stop systems and a hydrogen-powered version of the Mazda5.

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