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REVIEW: Yamaha working on a new tune

Sports Ride Concept could be company's first production automobile
Yamaha
Yamaha is known for a variety of products ranging from pianos and keyboards to motorcycles and boats, but the Japanese company has never sold a car completely produced in-house. That may soon change, however, with the Sports Ride Concept car rumoured to be on the way to market, pending approval from Yamaha’s upper management. photo supplied

Have you ever asked the question, “what if Yamaha built a sports car?”

It seems like an odd question for people who may know Yamaha as the motorcycle, ATV, and marine equipment builder. 

And while Yamaha Motors’ main focus has always been in leisure and lifestyle products, it has made some considerable contributions to the automotive market over the years. In fact, Yamaha Motors has actually built engines for a number of manufacturers since the mid-1960s.

Yamaha first partnered with Toyota in 1965 on the historic 2000GT. It worked closely and most regularly with Toyota, but the company has also done business with Ford, Volvo and a number of other companies across the globe.

After experiencing amazing success in motorcycle racing, Yamaha decided to try its hand at producing Formula One engines. It supplied motors for five different teams between 1989 and 1997, but unfortunately these vehicles never won a race.

Even though Yamaha has never had much of a public presence in the automotive market, having never sold a car completely produced in-house, this may change in the future.

One of its newest automotive projects is a surprising entry called the Sports Ride Concept. Yamaha is going back to its sports car roots by developing the Sports Ride Concept car, aiming to make one of the most exciting and enjoyable sports cars ever produced – if it does get a greenlight from the management.

Yamaha first unveiled the exciting Sports Ride Concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show last year. Not much was revealed about this compact supercar at the time, especially in regard to whether it will ever see production, but it created a lot of publicity and excitement. I was there to witness this debut and felt that I had to find out more about this sports-oriented brand.

Thanks to the open-mindedness of Yamaha, I was able to tour Yamaha’s state-of-the-art production facility in Japan several times. Despite building niche products such as motorcycles and snowmobiles at these factories, Yamaha has incorporated a wide range of world-class manufacturing techniques that are second to none in the transportation industry. In particular, Yamaha’s focus on people development and process management allowed them to implement advanced levels of process improvement methods (often called kaizen in Japanese).

It was obvious that these flexible, “lean” manufacturing techniques would allow Yamaha to easily change its product line and introduce new models with ease. This could then be the basis for achieving “stretch” targets such as creating and building something like the Sports Ride Concept car.

So let’s get back to this amazing little sports car.

The Sports Ride was designed completely in-house. Yamaha’s approach focused on creating the active feeling of riding a motorcycle into a vehicle with four wheels. Overall, it is about the same size as a Mazda Miata, but weighs only 1,650 pounds (750 kilograms).

Like the Motiv city-car concept unveiled at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show previously, the Yamaha Sports Ride is built around the iStream structure. iStream is a manufacturing and design process developed by Gordon Murray Design Limited and has origins in Formula One technology.

The concept is to create lightweight, high-rigidity vehicle structures by bonding composite panels to a tubular frame. It can be adapted for this rear-wheel drive sports car, to a front-wheel drive compact, and even a longer wheelbase SUV.

Borrowing from its motorcycle experience, Yamaha used its “Elementalism” design philosophy on the Sports Ride Concept. This is where each part is complete on it own, yet fits in harmoniously with the overall design.

This is apparent when you consider that the cabin, front and rear cowls are separate, similar to the tank and cowl of a sport bike. Also, the headlights are reminiscent of the YZF-R1 motorcycle, as are the high, central-exit mufflers at the rear.

Unfortunately, Yamaha didn’t give any details regarding what will power the Sports Ride. One could imagine, however, a small turbo engine, or maybe a reworked version of one of its motorcycle mills.

Knowing better than anyone else the close relationship between a rider and a motorcycle – and what creates that bond – Yamaha went to great lengths to achieve an exhilarating driving sensation in the Sports Ride.

The Sports Ride’s advanced construction allowed the designers a lot of freedom to be creative with materials. Transparent panels were used in the roof, doors, and in the floor to bring the outside world closer.

Furthering the Sports Ride’s motorcycle-like experience, Yamaha gave the driver’s area a symmetrical design. The entire interior is unique and leather upholstery contrasts with the carbon fibre and metal components.

Inspired by Yamaha musical instruments, the built-in speaker case behind the driver’s head is made from wood and features the same sunburst finish used on guitars.

Yamaha’s press information concludes with this sentiment: “We hope you look forward to the day when you can get behind this wheel.” We couldn’t agree more … we are eagerly waiting for Yamaha to bring it to production someday.

editor@automotivepress.com