Mazda Once Tried To Reinvent The Steering Wheel Into A Crazy Rectangle That Had A CRT Screen And A Belt

The steering wheel hasn’t changed much throughout most of automotive history. It’s a circle that you grab and turn; that’s it. Marques like Tesla, Lexus, and others have recently gone down the weird paths of yokes and other strange wheel shapes, but none of them are even remotely as crazy as what Mazda and Bertone did in the 1980s. This is the 1981 Mazda MX-81 Aria concept, and it has perhaps one of the coolest bodies, but also one of the worst steering wheels. Mazda thought that the future of steering would be a block with a screen in it and, instead of turning a wheel, you pulled a belt around the screen-block-thing.

This story comes to us from Classic Driver, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Designers have often attempted to reinvent the steering wheel. A great recent example is the Peugeot E-T16 concept, which has something that Peugeot calls the “Hypersquare” steering wheel. Well, it’s not a wheel at all, but a racecar-inspired yoke that uses thumb controls for steering.

This “wheel” is also completely electronic, without a physical connection to the steering. Take a look:

Strange wheels go back pretty far in history. The 1978 Lancia Stratos Sibilo had a steering wheel that looked like a toy, but was supposedly molded to fit perfectly in a driver’s hand. The 1965 Chevrolet Turbo Titan III concept turbine semi-tractor subbed the steering wheel for two rotary dials that, when twisted, activated the truck’s hydraulic steering system.

That same year, Ford announced the Wrist Twist. Invented by a rocket scientist and installed in a Mercury Park Lane, the yoke was stationary. Instead, you twisted one or both of the rings, which pulled or pushed roller chains that turned the steering shaft.

This is all to say that weird steering wheels are not all that strange in concept cars. They stand out and get people talking. Engineers also put a ton of work into getting them to work, too. Yet, most of the time, odd wheels don’t venture far outside of steering.

In 1981, Mazda and Bertone designed a wheel that did it all. The wheel in the Mazda MX-81 Aria wasn’t just for steering, but it also had a sizable CRT display for the instrument cluster and then an array of buttons to control the car’s functions.

Mazda eXperimental

The MX-81 was an important car for Mazda. It was the very first car to wear MX (Mazda eXperimental) branding, and came at a time when Japan wanted to show the world what it could do. Mazda had already become a darling in the automotive industry for its dedication to the Wankel engine and slick 1960s designs from Giorgetto Giugiaro. But Mazda wanted to go even further. The whole point of the Mazda eXperimental program was to build cars that pushed the boundaries and conventions of what was considered typical car design back then.

In 1981, Mazda wanted to create a concept car that would symbolize Mazda’s goals for future design, a car that answered the question of “what if?” To answer that question, Mazda pinched Marc Deschamps, then the head of Italy’s Bertone and known as the designer of the Citroën XM and the Camargue concept. Deschamps was reportedly set free to design whatever he wanted, but there was only one requirement, and it was that the concept car had to be based on the 323 compact.

Deschamps came up with a design that had the trademark Bertone wedge shape and excellent aerodynamics. The Aria employed tricks like flush windows, pop-up headlights, aero wheels, and hidden door handles. Even the windshield wipers were hidden away under a panel that pops up to let them out. The result was a coefficient of drag of just 0.29.

Apparently, this design wasn’t entirely from scratch. According to MotorTrend, the Mazda MX-81 borrowed some traits from designer Marcello Gandini’s 1979 Volvo Tundra, which ended up being rejected by Volvo.

The body was just the beginning, because it was the car’s interior that really went nuts. Everything was a bit weird, including the seats. There were four individual seats, and the front seats were on a swivel system that turned them 90 degrees for easy entry and exit.

Much of the car’s design focused on giving passengers a pleasant experience. The passenger side of the dashboard pulled out and turned into a vanity, complete with storage for makeup, a pop-up mirror, and a light.

Meanwhile, the vehicle was fitted with expansive windows for plenty of natural light. Since these windows couldn’t open, smaller secondary windows were added that could open for paying tolls or to let in some fresh air. The light and airy cabin is what gives the car its name. “Aria” is Italian for “air.”

The craziest part about the MX-81 was the technology. Bertone did away with the typical instrument cluster and the steering wheel. Instead, the MX-81 would have a control stack just in front of the driver.

This stack featured a CRT (cathode ray tube) screen that displayed all of the information that would normally appear in an instrument cluster. This screen was also supposedly for a JVC navigation system, which was operated through a wired remote control that sat in a compartment on the floor.

An array of buttons surrounded the screen, and they controlled everything from the turn signals and wipers to the fog lights and the horn. The only functions not located on the stack were the HVAC system controls and the radio. One more additional feature touted in the MX-81 was a radar system to warn the driver of rear collisions.

Like many concept cars, a lot of the bits inside of the car were fake. A secondary speed display is on the left of the steering stack, and that’s just a decal that forever displays 120 km/h (74 mph). The display above, which shows outside air temperature, shows 30 C (86 degrees Fahrenheit). The buttons for the HVAC did nothing. Even the digital clock above the rearview mirror was just a decal.

But there were some surprising parts that did work. The screen did turn on, though it’s unclear if what it displayed was live data or a static picture. The car’s tape deck and radio tuner were also real. Then there was the steering. Since the steering wheel was gone and replaced with a CRT and a bunch of buttons, Bertone tried out a new way to steer the vehicle.

Directional control was handled through a plastic linked belt that was topped with rubber blocks and a fabric pad. The driver was supposed to grab these blocks and drag them left or right to steer the car. Mazda says that the steering system was fully functional, though I could not find any video of someone actually turning the car in motion. The best I could find is a very short clip in a video showing the vehicle’s restoration, where someone moves the links a little bit.

Power came from a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that was good for 130 horsepower. That mill drove the front wheels through an automatic transmission. The car featured a traditional floor-mounted shifter, but Bertone made it low-profile enough to effectively hide it in the center console.

The Mazda MX-81 Aria went on display at the 1981 Tokyo Motor Show, and Mazda was upfront that the car itself wasn’t being made. However, it said that the technology that was in the car would likely be seen in future Mazda models. While features like smooth aero, pop-up headlights, navigation systems, and radar systems did go on to be found in later Mazda models, the novel steering system was not. Bertone also never repeated the idea after the MX-81. A decade later, the Subaru SVX, which was designed by Giugiaro, did get the weird secondary windows that the MX-81 had.

Mazda Kept Making MX Concepts

Mazda enthusiastically kept printing out MX concept cars. In 1983, it made the MX-02 hatchback, which had huge windows, four-wheel-steer, and a head-up display.

After that came the 1985 Mazda MX-03, which was a sports car powered by a triple-rotor Wankel tuned to 315 HP.

That car also featured all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, a yoke steering wheel, digital displays, and a head-up display. Its drag coefficient was 0.25.

Finally, in 1987, Mazda came out with the rotary-powered MX-04, and its whole deal was that it was designed with swappable fiberglass bodies. One body was a coupe with a glass dome roof. The other body was a roofless and doorless buggy.

Eventually, Mazda did away with the MX concept cars and actually put some of its wild ideas into production. The most famous of them, of course, is the MX-5 Miata roadster. There was also the MX-3, which was famous for its pint-size V6, and the MX-6, which promised sport coupe luxury for family sedan money. Mazda also made an MXR-01 prototype racecar, which had a Judd V10 engine.

Mazda’s standard procedure was to destroy concept cars. However, after the MX-81 got done with the auto show circuit in 1981, it was stuffed away in a Mazda warehouse in Hiroshima. It was later joined by the MX-02, MX-03, and RE-Evolve concept cars. Together, they sat under tarps, never seeing the light of day again for decades.

How The MX-81 Was Brought Back To Life

Then came 2019, when Mazda was ramping up marketing efforts for the MX-30 crossover. Wanting to celebrate nearly four decades of MX cars, Mazda reached out to MX-5 program manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto, hoping to get the status on the MX-81. Yamamoto searched the archives and found that, somehow, the MX-81 and a couple of its siblings were still around.

Mazda sent a team out to the site, where they found that the car had suffered from some minor body damage, and moisture in the warehouse had led to deterioration of the car’s interior. But it was all there and in good condition, overall.

About 39 years after it went into the warehouse, the MX-81 was extricated and rolled into Mazda’s shops in Hiroshima, where engineers rebuilt the engine, cooling system, and fuel system. The car was mechanically sound again by March 2020, and it was put on a boat and shipped to Italy, where SuperStile of Moncalieri gave the car a full steam cleaning, preserved most parts, and replicated every part that was too damaged to be saved. Replicating parts of the one-off car required more than one digital scan of the vehicle. Even the pop-up headlights got new glass and new mechanisms.

The finishing touch was a new paint job in the original gold that the concept was painted in. Once finished, Mazda grabbed the MX-81 and an MX-30 and took them to Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, the same place the MX-81’s press photos were taken back in 1981. Now, it was nearly 40 years after the launch of the MX-81, and it was back where it all started. For Mazda, the occasion was great, as the restoration was done in time for its 100-year anniversary in 2020.

Since then, the MX-81 has lived a cushier life, one that doesn’t involve it sitting under a tarp all wet. Since July 2021, the MX-81 has been on display for everyone to see at the Mazda Classic – Automobil Museum Frey in Augsburg, Germany. As for Marc Deschamps, he passed away at the age of 82 on October 4, 2026, and was buried in Bertone’s hometown. He had been in a care facility since 2023 after a serious fall. Luckily, Deschamps got to see his baby return from the darkness.

While some of his most bombastic ideas did not reach production, Deschamps certainly created one of the most striking concept cars of the 1980s. I bet if a car company put something out like it today, enthusiasts would go nuts over it. The icing on the cake is that the MX-81 was not a static concept car. It had a working drivetrain and steering system, which is so awesome. It’s a shame that I cannot seem to find any driving reports for the MX-81; I would love to know what that steering system was like on the road.

Top graphic images: Mazda