Soul Red Premium Metallic:
Ultimate Color for Mazda’s Passion (Part 1)
Deep, intensive red that radiates emotional energy. The soul red premium metallic color has been created as an embodiment of Mazda’s passion for cars. It has been adopted for the body of Mazda models, starting with the new Mazda6 that was launched in 2013.
“In our minds, red was the only color that could express Mazda’s strong passion and dedication to the creation of cars,” the color designer Akihiro Hosono (pictured below) said. “With that as the premise, we aimed to create a color that blends intensiveness and depth so that we could give a breathtaking presence to the car by emphasizing the dynamic lines of Mazda’s ‘KODO – Soul of Motion’ design.”
Takeri
At critical junctures in its history, Mazda has used red as the symbolic color for its mainstay models, such as the Mazda 323, MX-5, RX-8 and the second-generation MPV. The RX-Evolv, a rotary engine-powered concept car premiered in 2000, was painted with a variety of red called vermillion Japonesque. The color designers also pursued the ultimate red for each subsequent concept car, including the Ryuga, the Kabura, the Minagi and the Takeri.
The ultimate red that best expresses Mazda’s strong passion is a concept that has lived on from generation to generation within Mazda’s design team. However, arriving at an ideal color in the design studio is just the start line on the road to actual painting work on the factory floor. (To be continued)
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