does anyone know the name of the (or a) lead designer of the fd?

 

Tom Matano
he is currently the ID director at Academy of Art college in SF.

 

^^Yep^^

 

Well.......Matano was one of three, really. He is more accurately known as the "father of the Miata", from what I have read, but obviously was heavily involved with the FD, as excerpted from the MPH MAGAZINE article seen below:


design and engineering To guide the new RX-7's development, Yamamoto chose a young engineer of unusual talent and charisma, Takaharu ("Koby") Kobayakawa. Koby and his group worked with Mazda's four international styling studios, all of which competed to come up with a world-beating design for the new car.

By 1989, the final shootout for the exterior shape had come down to two themes, one by the U.S. studio in Irvine, California, and the other by Mazda's main studio in Hiroshima, Japan. The California studio's exterior won: a design created mainly by Wu-Huang Chin and Tom Matano.

The interior design, though, originated in the Hiroshima studio, and it was Matano's job to integrate it and the exterior. "We had a philosophy of 'snug fit,'" he told me in a telephone interview. The curved door cut, he said, became the initial invitation to enter the car. Once inside, the concave door panel guided the driver's arm naturally to the steering wheel, and his other hand came to rest on the gearshift lever.

The third-generation RX-7 very much embodies the spirit of kansei. The design remains timeless and, in terms of engineering, it's one of the purest and least compromised sports cars ever developed.

 

rx7 concept this link tells a little about the body design, cheif designer was Yoichi Sato.

 

I quote from Tom Matano;

I've heard you have a nice collection of automobiles... what is your favorite and why?

My current collection consists of;

1996 M-Edition Miata, Starlite Blue. I modified the top and interior to light gray to match my gray hair.

- 1995 RX-7 Silver

- 1977 Lancia Scorpion

- 1967 DeTomaso Vallelunga

For the warm sunny days, I take the Miata. Cool crisp evenings, I take Vallelunga, Whenever I want to go fast, I take the RX-7. Lancia belongs to my wife. And it is more or less stationary at our front patio.

 

Wu-Huang Chin penned the exterior design.

 

uhh mx3 ?

 

oye,I'm glad the car turned out as beautiful as she did, this just shows that you shouldnt try and do anythign to overly concepted becasue man it can look ugly as alllll hell.

 

yeah! the others were ugly *** hell. like that old saturn hybrid (does anyone remember that POS?).