This Is Yamaha’s Sports Ride Concept With iStream Chassis Technology
By Paulo Acoba
Yamaha launched its sports car concept to the world at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show and its got a carbon fiber chassis designed by McLaren’s own Gordon Murray.
Releasing concept cars without performance specs seems to be the theme at this 2015 Tokyo Motor Show (cough*Mazda*cough.) Although Yamaha unveiled its revolutionary new sports car concept earlier today ( Oct. 27, 2015) little in the form of hard data was unveiled.
#Yamaha impresses with new sportscar concept! Yes a car from Yamaha! @sidpatankar #TokyoMotorShow pic.twitter.com/9DMH01hqwV
— Bala (@balabroadcast) October 28, 2015
A big piece of news that we did learn was McLaren F1’s designer Gordan Murray had a big part in the production of the chassis of this Sports Ride Concept which they’ve dubbed iStream technology which sets new standards for “Chassis light weighting, rigidity and safety. “Murray hails iStream technology as being the next big stepping stone in terms of efficiencies to cars.
"“Light weighting is the final frontier in the automotive industry fight to lower emissions,” he said. “There have been great strides forward in engine design, electrical control systems, tyre design and transmission technology. But we are now experiencing a plateau in the advance of technology, where the law of diminishing returns comes into play."
Due to the lightweight chassis that iStream provides, estimates of total weight under 2000 pounds have been thrown around. And although specific production numbers weren’t revealed, Murray himself stated that the economies of scale bode well for iStream technology and production numbers between 1000-350,000 cars were well within reason for small cars that utilize his chassis. This Sports Ride Concept very well may compete against the likes of the Mazda Miata and Lotus Elise.
As far as powertrain options go, yet again nothing from Yamaha on what they expect will be powering this light weight canyon carver. However, if we look back two years ago when Murray and Yamaha last collaborated on a project, its Yamaha Motiv was powered by a 1.0 liter ICE engine good for 80 HP or a 8.8 kWh battery pack with 33 HP. Either power unit would be more than enough to move around this sports car.
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