Onto another subject, I'm not a big fan of in-your-face marketing and especially find zoom-zoom irritatingly passé, but I love Mazda's cars. Nobody else seems to care that while BMW gets derided all the way back to the Black Forest for their flame surface styling, Mazda quietly and unpretentiously applied some very similar details on the Mazda3 and even the Protegé5. Maybe it's just the fact that they didn't name the design language? Anyhow, the Sassou sees an even bolder and more adventurous foray into molding body panels in such a way that under certain lighting conditions, they create the suggestion of flames rippling
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| The overall effect of the Sassou is one of futuristic fun-loving playfulness. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
over the surface of the cars body. In fact, the Sassou's side panels remind me of BMW's XCoupé concept of several years back, when Bangle first sparked debate with his flamed surfaces. Maybe the fact that the Sassou was penned in Mazda's design centre in Frankfurt has something to do with the similarities?
But truly, that's just a passing detail, and the overall effect of the Sassou is one of futuristic fun-loving playfulness. The front end resembles a wildly laughing Pokémon character with a mask-like clear plastic cover (or possibly some sort of electro-luminescent or reflective surface?) over the 'face' set against the teal metallic colour of the hood, fenders and lower fascia, while the severely tilted headlights serve for eyes. The bumper, looking
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| The top of the car is almost entirely glass, except for the two wide strips of satin-finish metal that emanate from the A pillars. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
like a wide open cackling mouth, is surrounded by a knocked out area to allow for airflow into the radiator. Serving for eyebrows are some tricked out turn signals that point back in an inverted V-shape to a definition crease over the wheel arches.
That definition crease disappears just under the rear view mirror, and another one starts just below it and trails all the way back into a similar shaded plastic cover over the taillights and license plate housing. The top of the car is almost entirely glass, except for the two wide strips of satin-finish metal that emanate from the A pillars, forming a truncated V when seen from an aerial view. Rounding out the package is a set of oversized V-spoke alloy rims in a matching satin finish. And peeking through those are some seriously oversized disc brakes.
