Mazda opens the doors at Irvine

Most of the major players in the Japanese automotive industry have an American-based offshoot to design cars for international markets.

Mazda's is based at Irvine in California. The styling facility, which has been in operation since 1988, is located in an anonymous modern building that conveys little about what's going on inside. If there's a tell-tale sign at all, it's the MX-5 Spyder concept (pictured) parked inside the glassed-in lobby.

That car, created for the SEMA show (Specialty Equipment Market Association) in Las Vegas last year, has sustained a small dent in the bonnet, after an overhead banner fell from the ceiling above it, according to Ken Saward, the studio's Manager for Design. As Saward observed: "It could have landed anywhere, but it had to land there..."

Saward was taking a break last week from his normal program to guide Australian journalists around the design HQ after they had experienced the new Mazda3 on American roads. Our host informed us that among the design projects for which Irvine has taken the lead are the first (rear-wheel drive) MPV, both the NA and NB series MX-5, the third-generation RX-7, and the interior for the Shinari show car.

Currently the studio is working on the next CX-9 with some input from Mazda's European design studio. And no, we weren't allowed to peer over the balcony into the operations area, under threat of being thrown over said balcony.

Parked within the facility, but out of sight from the street were two more SEMA show cars, both based on the CX-5 SUV. It was the black and grey CX-5 Urban that particularly caught the eye.

Saward says that this particular CX-5, with its dazzle-camouflage presentation, was created entirely with paint and templates. No wrap or decals were used. He admitted that the graphics do tend to hide or play down the production car's sculpture lines, but he also said "that was not the intention".

And in a moment of refreshing candour, he acknowledged that the CX-5 Urban does bear more of a resemblance to Volkswagen's Tiguan from the oblique rear than the production car does. That's largely down to the wheel and tyre combination fitted, which led Saward to the point that the production CX-5 looks "a little under-tyred".

Irvine's basement garage contains many cars of historic interest for Mazda fanciers. There are a couple of Bonneville salt flat racers based on the RX-7, triple-rotor Le Mans cars, an original Luce coupe, a Eunos Cosmo and a swag of one-off show cars and prototypes based on the MX-5.

Many of the cars – even the iconic race cars – were left to deteriorate in Japan before management at Irvine raised a hand to house and restore some of them. One of the Le Mans cars has been fully restored, but another is still waiting.

And if it seems like Mazda in Japan has no sense of its own history, it should be remembered that the company's HQ in Hiroshima has its own museum, which is extensive and packed almost to capacity.

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