The bronze-colored trophy flew in a shockproof wooden box from New York to Tokyo, then transported about 500 miles through high-speed exercises to be delivered at a special centennial birthday party rite at Mazda’s Hiroshima headquarters. This is the reformatting delivery procedure for the World Car Design of the Year trophy for 2020, a prize won through The Mazda3, following the cancellation of its general platform, the New York International Auto Show, this year. Could these awards mark the long duration of awards ceremonies in the automotive industry in a post-pandemic world?
The trophy would originally be presented to Mazda’s global design director, Ikuo Maeda, and Mazda3’s chief designer, Yasutake Tsuchida, in a high-level awards rite that opens at the New York International Auto Show in April. But after the exhibition was postponed and finally cancelled, a new approach had to be discovered to deliver the trophy to its rightful owners. As a representative and director of the Executive Committee of the World Car Awards, I traveled last week the 500-mile adventure in the 170 km/h Shinkansen high-speed exercise to Hiroshima to present Maeda and Tsuchida with their long-awaited award.
To make the most of the ceremony behind closed doors, WCA and Mazda collaborated to broadcast the Centennial presentation and The Zoom Live Birthday Party to its more than 90 jurors worldwide.
Conducted with social estrangement protocols in the lobby of the company’s headquarters, Maeda said: “I am extremely happy to get this design award for our Mazda3, especially when you think it has been voted through juries around the world, making it an award. . And of course, we are also revered that our CX-30 has been placed among the 3 most sensitive in the world in the same category. Since this is our centenary, I will have to say that 2020 was Mazda’s year, even if the times are to celebrate the festive atmosphere, Mazda presented a special Nardi edition of the 1989 Mazda MX-5, the 1969 Luce Rotary Engine Coupe and the newer CX-30 SUV, in addition to the Mazda3 design trophy.
In a global where the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of almost all automatic exhibitions and trophies, being able to organize a trophy presentation in the user a rare convite. This year’s cancelled exhibits come with the Geneva Motor Show, Detroit Motor Show, New York Motor Show and The Los Angeles Motor Show scheduled for November, is dubious. As for 2021, the Geneva Motor Show has already been cancelled, casting an additional shadow over car shows.
If the fact is known, automotive displays were already facing demanding situations before the pandemic, as a growing number of automakers discovered more effective tactics to use their multimillion-dollar marketing budgets to advertise new cars and new technologies. When Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and others retired from the Geneva Motor Show for more than 3 years, the organizers began to worry.
However, what surprised the industry when the organizers of the Frankfurt Motor Show announced that its exhibition would be completely removed from the foreign calendar after the news that the exhibitors at the Frankfurt 2019 exhibition had increased from 994 in 2017 to 800 in 2019. almost no Japanese car manufacturer presented the cars at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show in 2019, questions about the long life of car shows and trophy presentations that invariably accompany them,
We in the industry, and also thousands of car enthusiasts, expect situations to happen and a vaccine to be discovered until November, which will allow the L.A. display to continue. If that’s not possible, let’s hope to return to the general at least in the spring of next year, to allow the New York Auto Show and the 2021 World Car Awards.
Over a 30-year career, I have written about automotive, innovation, games, luxury lifestyles and gastronomy. Based in Tokyo since 1988, he was at the forefront
During my 30 years of automotive experience, I have written about automotive, innovation, games, luxury lifestyles and gastronomy. Based in Tokyo since 1988, it was in the front row to tell stories about Japan’s Golden Year of 1989 when local automakers introduced legends such as the Mazda MX-5, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Subaru Legacy, Toyota MR2, Nissan 300ZX, Mazda. . RX-7, then opened the first Lexus and Infiniti showrooms in the United States. I presented a global television exhibition on automotive culture called Samurai Wheels in Japan, won a Japanese oratory contest, co-piloted a Lexus V8 in the 24- Nurburgring Race with Gran Turismo author Kazunori Yamauchi, finished fourth in a team I created with the former driving force of F1 Ukyo Katayama to co-drive an MX-5 race car in the annual 4-hour race of Mazda , drove a first-generation Porsche 911 at The Hill in Goodwood, drove Jeremy Clarkson’s leading car in his “GT-R vs Bullet Train” race for Japan for Top Gear, co-starred in a World War II Japanese television series playing a Russian baseball pitcher, published a Japanese e-book on automotive culture, and sang in a men’s choir at the Vatican (but not in a men’s choir. Vatican to the Pope). I have also scribbled on everything similar to Japanese for publications such as Car and Driver, Edmunds, Top Gear, Autoautomobile, Auto Express, Quattroruote, The Sydney Morning Herald, Herald Sun, The Japan Times, GQ Japan, Japan Airlines and Forbes Japan. I am co-chair of the World Car Awards and a member of the jury of the Japanese Auto of the Year and The International Engine of the Year.