Retro Futurism In Cars

     At the 1985 Tokyo Motor Show there was one car that everyone was talking about, a small concept car called the Nissan Be-1, shown in pumpkin yellow and designed by Naoki Sakai of Water Design. Two years later Nissan would produce the concept car as the first of a limited series of cars called Pike Cars, in 1987 and 1988 they produced 10,000 Nissan Be-1s, in 1989 and 1990 they produced more than 51,000 Paos, and in 1991 they produced 20,000 Figaros, all designed by Naoki Sakai. Yet when Naoki Sakai designed his first car the Nissan Be-1 he had never designed a car before and in fact didn't even have a driver's license. He had worked in fashion and industrial design, and designed the Olympus O camera in 1988, and a retro-futuristic motorcycle called the Suzuki SW-1 in 1992.

     In the early 80s Nissan held a contest between three teams, one an all under 30 Nissan team, one Italian design team, and Naoki Sakai's Water Design. Naoki Sakai is a pioneer of retro-futurism and designs through what he calls emotional marketing, retro-futurism can also be translated as, "future memory," or, "neo-retro," and it is the genius of Naoki Sakai that he brought the beautiful curves of the Nissan Be-1 back to automotive design in 1985 so that when it was produced in 1987 when almost all vehicles were boxy and square the Nissan Be-1 revolutionized auto design. The Be-1, the Pao and the Figaro stunned the major auto manufacturers, even though they were JDM and limited productions every major auto manufacturer bought and imported one of each to give to their designers, and across almost all makes and models the square bodied cars of the 1980s were replaced with curves by 1992. In 1995 plans were made among the Germans at Volkswagen, Audi and BMW to do something retro-futuristic, BMW having just purchased the Rover Group.

     In 1998 the New Beetle was released and sold 1.7 million cars thru 2019, the Audi TT was also released in 1998 and was produced thru 2006. In 2001 the BMW Mini Cooper was released and is still in production with more than 5 million cars sold, and the PT Cruiser was also released in 2001, selling 1.35 million units before it was discontinued in 2010. Ford released a retro Thunderbird in 2002, the 11th generation Thunderbird was produced from 2002 - 2005. The Chevy HHR went on sale in 2006 and was produced through 2011. In 2007 Fiat released the Fiat 500, with over 2 million cars sold in just the first 10 years, around 3 million should have been sold by 2022. Totalling over 11 million retro-futuristic vehicles, some were hits and some were misses, some are still in production, but all of retro-futurism in cars is due to Naoki Sakai and Water Design.

     Even though the Pike Cars only totaled a little over 81,000 units and most Americans have never even heard of them, more than 11 million retro-futuristic cars have been produced so far and it all started in 1985 at the Tokyo Motor Show with the Nissan Be-1, the little JDM car that changed automotive design forever. [In 2021 the Nissan Be-1 was inducted into Japan's Automotive Hall of Fame.]