Yamaha’s first foray into car design is small, light, and sporty. Yamaha does have experience with automobiles, starting with the development and manufacturing of the Toyota 2000GT and going through to today with development for Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Volvo, and more. But this is the first time they have attached their name to an entire car.
The two-seater concept has been created using a new version of Gordon Murray’s patented iStream production process (designed to make lightweight cars at a lower cost). Murray originally demonstrated iStream with the glassfibre T25 city car prototype.
At 3,900mm long, 1,720mm wide and 1,170mm high, it is shorter, narrower and lower than a Mazda MX-5, but at just 750kg it’s a full 250kg lighter. Yamaha claims the driving experience is close to riding a motorcycle. The Yamaha Sports Ride concept looks striking in its dark grey finish, especially with its saddle brown leather interior and carbon-fiber and metallic accents.
However the real revolution here is the carbon fiber chassis. By using F1-derived technology of sandwiching a honeycomb core between a pair of carbon fiber skins, it brings the technology within reach of mainstream manufacturers.
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