Mazda Nabs LA Auto Show Design Award With KAAN Concept

Mazda managed to scoop top honours at the LA Auto Show Design Challenge a few days ago with the radical KAAN Concept, and If you thought Mazda's current Nagare design language was extreme, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

The KAAN - an all-electric sportscar that bears more resemblance to a recumbent bicycle than a performance vehicle - is meant to offer a glimpse at what shape sportscars may take 17 years from now. It's kind of hard to define the KAAN's shape using mere words, but the closest we can get is: "a scorpion, with wheels instead of claws". Cool.

The KAAN concept beat the submissions of nine other automotive design studios with its unique styling and innovative use of technology. Top speed is a projected 400kph (which will presumably be nothing special by 2025), and its electrically-driven wheels are designed to run on a special race track with an electrified surface. Kinda sounds like a life-size Scalectrix car to us - and that makes it about a thousand times more awesome.

Whatever you do though, just don't get out of the thing until you're back in the pits...