Design Development: Yamaha Sports Ride concept

Yamaha is known primarily for its motorbikes and musical instruments, but at the 2013 Tokyo show it debuted the Motiv concept – a city car, designed in collaboration with Gordon Murray Design. The Sports Ride is the next phase in its car story, and very different, having been designed entirely by Yamaha’s Motor Design Centre Team in Japan. It is the company’s first sports-car project since the Formula 1-engined OX99-11 of 1992.

Inspiration and themes

“We don’t have a history [in sports cars],” says Satoshi Nakamura of the Sports Ride’s design team, and as such the car leverages Yamaha’s heritage in other vehicles as well as musical instruments.

The key themes of the project were centred around the keywords ‘elementalism’ and ‘live-and-ride’ as illustrated in these moodboards. “Anything we do – whether it has four, three, two or no wheels – must sit happily in this space,” says Nakamura.

But the ‘live-and-ride’ theme has a second string to its bow: “Between us and the music division, we have a similar feeling towards finessing of craftsmanship and wanted to communicate that in design,” explains Nakamura. “We looked at the relationship between a musician and their instrument and wanted to give that same feeling in our car – we saw it as ‘playability’ rather than just a driving object.”

Sketches and concept development

Much of the sketch process focused on trying to communicate the idea of ‘elemental’ design, without looking toy-like. The key sketches for the project (below) show two separate themes: “Although these look different in their own right, to us they are the essence of the project,” says Nakamura, who used these as the step-off point for design refinement in the clay.

“On the door, from the beginning we were talking about something see-through but weren’t sure how to achieve this. At one point we talked about punching through holes in a patterned way. This [honeycomb pattern] is more an homage to our bike frames.”

Clay and build

The other element to change during the modelling process was the B-pillar: “We were [initially] going for something like these sketches – thick and significant. But we wanted to give airiness – this ‘live and ride’ feeling. So considering the rear visibility, we decided to go for this final solution where it is covered in glass.

“We were looking more at how a motorcycle tank was sculpted,” says Nakamura of some of the clay images. “This really deep negative surface suggests a rider gripping with their knees, and this was the direction for the sculpting.”

One of the challenges for the design team was creating a face graphic from scratch: “When we look at our range of products, we have created some unique characters that people recognise as Yamaha. So at the front we have this Y-shape with a really sharp headlight at the end. With the R1 (motorbike) we have this expression called ‘glaring eye’ – comprising a really thin position light and strong beams at the bottom that are tucked away. So we took inspiration from their and applied it to the car.”

Unlike some sports-car manufacturers, for Yamaha’s design team the clay development was one of the most important parts of the process: “We needed something tactile that we could touch, see and manipulate,” says Nakamura.

Interior sketch phase and foam models

The interior philosophy is to show the frame, bringing the elementalism theme to life. “In the key sketch (left) you should almost be able to see a bike in plan view,” says Nakamura. “The construction of the other components is symmetrical – air vents, dials – like that of a bike.”

Like many modern sports cars, the driver and passenger are treated differently – “the passenger is treated like a parallel, tandem rider. Which is why the seat shape is different on the passenger side, the rider is always the main character in this vehicle.”

The interior foams were happening in parallel to the exterior clays – “There was a lot of close refinement that happened after this,” says Nakamura with reference to the foams, which were used to check layout, driver-passenger relationship and the layering coverage the leather provided.

Ultimately, the team were reassured of what they were trying to do: “We had this knee grip area in the centre of the seat – it’s not so common to see that in a car and we wanted to see how it felt – if it’s too big it gets in the way, if it’s too small it doesn’t function well.”

Colour and trim

“The tan leather is actually a damaged leather. You can see the wrinkles of it – and that comes from the idea of staying true to what we use,” states Nakamura.

“The blue is one of our brand image colours for motorcycles. “We used this on the brake callipers too – we’d keep this Yamaha colour together with this authentic finish.” At each touch point, ‘equestrian’ upholstery was chosen to add to the idea of riding.

Details and HMI

One of the most notable elements of the interior is the music-inspired detailing. Sound-system controls look lifted from one of Yamaha’s amplifiers, while the top case behind the driver’s seat has dual functions as storage (as there is none in the IP), and as a speaker. “We found this guitar with a wooden finish on top and sunburst paint finish around,” says Nakamura. “So the final item in the car is actually painted and finished by musical instrument craftsmen from Yamaha music.”

Flanking the top case is a cornet, sat behind the passenger. “It expresses the playfulness people enjoy while driving a sports car,” believes Nakamura. “There isn’t a specific target group for this car but it’s for someone who enjoys the essence of something truthful and real. So to depict that image, we chose the cornet.”

Coming from a modern brand, the Sports Ride’s interior feels surprisingly analogue. “That comes from the motorcycle heritage,” says Nakamura. “We tend to be more direct – we do use digital displays, but looking at café racers [the dials are] one of the jewellery pieces on the front of the bike.” These take direct inspiration from the SR400 bike dials seen on the moodboard.

Elementalism abounds in other details too – the brushed aluminium structure support that holds the dials in place on the IP and the screen on the top; and the single unit air vents, whose vanes are made from brass. The idea came from the valve in an engine.

Model build and final car

“In rear view you can see the cabin dives from the front and pulls out quite far in the Y-section,” says Nakamura. The elementalism idea dictates a central cabin volume with front and rear sections covered by “really dynamic sculptures, which come from how we construct bikes.”

Yamaha’s body-in-white images show just how different the car looked in Tokyo. “The photos show certain parts that were not so obvious in the final vehicle, especially the doors,” says Nakamura. “You can see how clearly it was see-through before it was painted. With the doors being completely see-through, it gives an airiness to the vehicle which we liked, but at the same time it gives it a toy-like look which we wanted to avoid. So we stepped away from it, and found a way to paint the door which made it seem see-through from the inside but not so much from the outside. It’s a special kind of paint and application.”

“The biggest challenge? Creating a unique Yamaha car. I hope we’ve achieved something that’s different from other brands and that people can recognise as Yamaha right away,” concludes Nakamura.

Tech Spec

Project started November 2014
Project completed October 2015
First shown Tokyo Motor Show 2015

Chief general manager & design director, Yamaha Motor Design Centre Akihiro ‘Dezi’ Nagaya
Design team Hyunchoul Jeung, Teppei Maezono, Satoshi Nakamura

Length 3900 mm
Width 1720 mm
Height 1190 mm
Wheelbase 2450mm