- 89,763
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Mazda Pair Concept (Tokyo Motor Show) 1987
Presented at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, the Mazda Pair was a car/trailer combo designed for pretty much the most niche audience imaginable: Japanese small business owners (and up to one passenger) who required transport for their wares in an urban environment but didn't want a kei truck/van.
This tiny, sub-kei car - just 2.7m long, 60cm shorter than the 3.3m kei regulations at the time - sported an asymmetrical design, with a roof-hinged hatch on the passenger side for accessing its own rear load area, and came with an additional trailer that was available in at least three different configurations each sporting roof-hinged access doors:
Mazda brought along the "Fashion" version of the trailer to the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, another asymmetrical design with a higher roof intended for the hanging - and display - of clothing, if you fancy a quick fashion show or deliver dry-cleaning, while a more conventionally designed and unnamed version of the trailer is shown carrying audio gear, for all those two-person city rock bands. A lower "Party" version - shown only in a Mazda brochure for the show, but looking pretty real - had no windows, but looks to store foldable tables and chairs, and hopefully food, for a mobile catering service. Presumably for very small functions.
At present I don't know that much more about the Mazda Pair. It's likely it had a kei-standard engine - 550cc was the maximum in regulations until 1990 - most probably the 547cc Suzuki F5B used in the Mazda Carol/Suzuki Alto from 1989 on, which produced a heady 39hp, and mounted at the back to drive the rear wheels. Mazda definitely made one example, but its whereabouts are unknown.
