Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Ford MA concept car
The Ford MA or Ford Focus MA concept car was a 2002 minimalist design exercice drawn by Jose Paris 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.
The MA was a treasure house of 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, aluminium and carbon fibre were held together with 364 titanium bolts. The total weight was said to be 900 pounds.
Some automotive columnists have presented the Ford MA as the fore runner to a small series kit-car, much like the Lotus Seven. Others have called it an IKEA -mobile.
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