Car Extravaganzas: The Mazda Suitcase Car

When enthusiasts and experts discuss today's automotive world, a common critique is the lack of excitement and creativity, with designers and engineers often constrained by marketing demands and customer preferences. This has led to very similar cars, but fortunately, it wasn't always this way.

In the 1990s, carmakers invested heavily in prototypes and concept cars to showcase their technological prowess and style—or simply to amaze the public.

What’s a Mazda engineer doing with a Samsonite? It’s not just a suitcase.

Mazda, known for its innovation, thrived in the early 1990s, revolutionizing the roadster concept with the MX-5 and winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the 787B, powered by a rotary Wankel engine. To spark creativity, Mazda launched an internal competition called “Fantasyard”, inviting departments to design futuristic, imaginative vehicles, with the winning idea turned into a prototype. In 1990, a team of seven engineers from the manual transmission testing department won with a peculiar project: the Suitcase Car, aimed at autonomous travelers. What was it about?

The Suitcase Car combines a suitcase and a foldable bicycle with a motor, capable of reaching 30 km/h.

Using a foldable bike equipped with a 1.7-horsepower, 34cc two-stroke engine and a rigid suitcase, the team got to work. Their solution: tilt the front wheel vertically through a removable suitcase section, attach rear wheels, fix a seat over the rear axle, and voilà. The chosen 57x75 cm Samsonite suitcase could hit a top speed of 30 km/h.

Designed for quicker airport travel, the Suitcase Car became a major publicity success for Mazda.

Weighing 32 kilograms, it wasn’t practical, but the Suitcase Car gained massive media attention and became a traveling advertisement for Mazda. Two more units were built—one for the U.S. and one for Europe, where it debuted at the 1991 Frankfurt International Motor Show. A well-deserved win for the team and a proud testament to Japanese ingenuity. Long live creativity!

Innovation and creativity, two core values of Japanese carmaker Mazda.