Our love for automotive renderings is strong at motor1.com, as is our desire to share as many of our favorites with readers as possible. We often create our own renderings (like this one) or display some of our favorites from others (like this). Today we’re sharing some of the best with somebody who designs actual roadgoing cars to see how he reacts.

The guest of honor is Mazda Head of Automotive Design Ken Saward, who spends his days overseeing a team, approving concepts, and pushing forward the brand’s love affair with making pretty cars. During our chat with Ken, we show off three very different Mazda renderings, each of which should get brand enthusiasts excited. 

The first is an in-house Motor1 design that revives an icon and brings it into the future, the Mazda RX-9. With traditional coupe proportions and plenty of room under the hood for a rotary masterpiece, the RX revival has us dreaming about a sports car-filled Mazda future. Maybe the coolest part about it for us – the design actually made it to Ken’s desk when we first published it.

Next is the Mazda 9 concept, created by artist Joseph Robinson. The Soul Red beauty imagines what a mid-engined Mazda could possibly look like and is absolutely wild, too. Saward himself was a fan upon first seeing the car, saying “It’s got a real Mazda feel to it … you can really see the strength of the front end.”

Finally, we turn our attention to a Le Mans racing prototype rendering called the RX-10, done by Maximillian Schnieder. As a racing driver himself, Saward immediately admired the design. Although he said most of the aero wouldn’t necessarily fly with series regulation, the car’s overall design would work for a Mazda racecar. And as the lead designer of the Mazda3 TCR project and consultant on the DPI racer, Saward has first-hand experience.

Ultimately, none of these three come relate closely to Mazda’s immediate future, but it’s still fun to hear a designer talk about what works and what doesn’t. Either way, we look forward to what Saward has in store for Mazda’s upcoming vehicles – which look very promising based on things we’ve reported on.

If you have a rendering that you would like to share, please sent it over to info@motor1.com or DM us on Instagram @motor1com.

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