Ford MA concept car

The Ford MA Concept concept car was a 2002 minimalist design exercise drawn by Jose Paris [http://www.joseparis.com/] and championed by Ford's VP of design J. Mays. It was exhibited as an art object in museums as well as a traditional concept car in auto shows. It received an IDSA Silver Industrial Design Excellence Award in 2003.

The MA displayed many unusual automotive practices. It had the shape of a low slung two seat roadster with no top, but it was powered by an electric motor. The design was flexible enough, though, to accommodate a small internal combustion engine.

Very few of the parts were painted and there were none of the usual hydraulic fluids or industrial adhesives common in most cars, making it 96% recyclable.

It was designed to be assembled and disassembled easily with a minimal amount of equipment. There were no welds holding it together: Instead, its 500 or so pieces of bamboo, aluminum and carbon fibre were held together with 364 titanium bolts. The total weight was said to be convert|900|lb|kg.

Some automotive columnists have presented the Ford MA as the forerunner to a small series kit car, much like the Lotus Seven. Others have called it an IKEA-mobile.

External links

* [http://www.conceptcar.co.uk/concept-cars/concept-car-56.php Coverage at ConceptCar.co.uk]
* [http://www.motortrend.com/future/concept_cars/112_0302_ford_ma/ Article in Motor Trend]