Sometimes you stumble across something so wonderfully weird that it completely derails your day. That’s exactly what happened when I was researching another Mazda and came across a random image of the MX-81 Aria.
One look at this angular oddball from 1981, and I was hooked. But the more I learned about it, the stranger it got — including the fact that it literally vanished for 39 years.
The Original MX
Here’s something I didn’t know: the MX-81 Aria was the very first vehicle to wear Mazda’s MX badge. You know, that designation they’d later slap on the legendary Miata? This funky concept started it all at the 1981 Tokyo Motor Show, establishing MX as Mazda’s label for experimental vehicles that pushed boundaries.
Mazda partnered with Italian design house Bertone for this project, continuing a relationship that had started back in the 1960s. Designer Marc Deschamps crafted the wedge-shaped body, drawing inspiration from the Volvo Tundra concept that Marcello Gandini had penned a couple years earlier (which Volvo had passed on, by the way).
Built on a humble 323 platform and painted in eye-catching gold, this four-seat, wedge-shaped hatchback packed about 130 horses from a turbocharged 1.5-liter engine. But the styling was pure Italian drama: massive glass greenhouse, pop-up headlights, flush windows for better aerodynamics, and those futuristic vertical taillights mounted on the C-pillars.
Design Details That Were Ahead of Their Time
The MX-81 was full of clever touches. The side windows were mostly fixed, but had small sections you could lower — similar to what Subaru would do with the SVX years later.
There was an all-glass rear hatch and just one side mirror on the driver’s side. Even the windshield wipers retracted completely when not in use.
Inside, the front seats rotated and wore multi-tone suede and leather that screamed late-’70s disco vibes. But the real showstopper? That steering wheel.
A Steering Wheel With a Built-In TV Screen
Forget everything you know about steering wheels. The MX-81 featured a rectangular, Formula 1–style steering controller that didn’t rotate like a normal wheel. Instead, it used a belt-style mechanism running around a fixed housing, with all controls integrated into the wheel itself.
A TV. In the steering wheel. In 1981. This was radical stuff.
The 39-Year Disappearing Act
Here’s where the story gets even better if you like a bit of mystery.
After its Tokyo debut, the MX-81 would normally have faced the fate of many concept cars—being scrapped or dismantled once its show duties were over. Instead, it got tucked away in storage at Mazda’s Hiroshima headquarters and was promptly forgotten.
Fast forward to late 2019. Mazda Italy reached out asking about the long-lost concept because they wanted to feature it at the launch of the MX-30 electric crossover. This sent Nobuhiro Yamamoto, a rotary engine developer and MX-5 program manager, on a treasure hunt through Mazda’s warehouses.
On Valentine’s Day 2020, Yamamoto found it! Buried under a dusty blue tarp, along with several other forgotten concepts, the MX-81 had survived nearly four decades remarkably intact.
Back From the Dead
Mazda didn’t waste time. They completely overhauled the mechanicals — engine, radiator, water pump, fuel system, electrical components, steering, brakes, everything. Within weeks, they had it running and even took it for test laps on their track.
Then they shipped it to Italy, where restoration specialists matched the original gold paint and carefully preserved most of the original materials while fixing humidity damage to the upholstery. The pop-up headlights got new glass and were restored to working order.
The grand finale? Mazda parked the fully restored MX-81 alongside the new MX-30 in front of Milan Cathedral—recreating a photograph taken at the same spot nearly 40 years earlier. It was a perfect celebration of 60 years of Italian design influence on the Japanese automaker.
Why The Concept Matters
The MX badge has appeared on only a handful of production road cars—the MX-3, MX-6, MX-5 Miata, and today’s MX-30. But it all started with this bizarre gold wedge with a TV in its steering wheel.
The MX-81 Aria was never meant for production, and it shows. It’s too weird, too impractical, too wonderfully out there. But that’s exactly what makes it special—a reminder that the best concepts aren’t always the ones that make business sense. Sometimes they’re just pure automotive fever dreams that happen to survive long enough to tell their story.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m now on a deep dive into concept cars that I wish had become a reality.