Mazda and Clemson’s collaboration brings life to a new concept

In a special collaboration with Clemson University, automotive engineering graduate students helped bring life to a student designed concept named the Mazda Deep Orange 3. Students from Clemson presented the chassis at last year’s 2012 SEMA automotive show. Earlier this week, they were finally able to show off the fully dressed concept at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing. The exterior design is based off a concept that was created by Frederick Naaman coming from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

You can see a strong resemblance in the bodies of the Shinari and Deep Orange 3 concepts.

The Deep Orange 3 is strikingly similar to the Shinari concept car that Mazda introduced in 2010 that eventually evolved into the Takeri concept that influenced the 2014 Mazda6, CX-5 and soon to be released Mazda3. This student built concept is unique to any retail Mazda due to its special hybrid transmission that shifts between front, rear and all-wheel drive automatically. The Deep Orange 3 is able to switch to separate drive shifts with help from its gas engine to power the front and its electric engine to power the rear. While there is no plans to release a Mazda based on this concept, it is no doubt a piece of art for automotive engineers to draw inspiration.

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