The Drive to Carve in the Memory of the Wind--Masao Ono and the Ride of Electricity (Autumn, 1994)

The Drive to Carve in the Memory of the Wind--Masao Ono and the Ride of Electricity (Autumn, 1994)

In the fall of 1994, Masao Ono, a designer who had once made a name for himself in F1 and Le Mans, quietly began to talk about his experiences in the 1970s, when he challenged the world's most prestigious races with a chassis of his own design. He established Tokyo R&D and turned his ambition to electric vehicles. For him, F1 was not a race for money and speed, but a questioning of the limits of machines and human beings. He believed that a new car running on electricity would be the essence of technological elegance hidden in the quietness of the car. The ES600 electric scooter, which was selected by MITI, incorporates the wisdom of "weight reduction" and "aerodynamic design" gained in the field of racing in the past. Times change, and the winds of environmental technology blow. But Ono remains the same. Ono catches the wind, drives the car, and carries the will of mankind into the future. His footsteps are neither fast nor slow. They are sincere and straightforward.