János Tasi
by Paul Negyesi
"I might have been even a racer" - admitted Tasi during the interview. Yes,car-drawing started as a substitute activity for this 29-year-old, who is thefirst design student (to be precise: the Mazomoto Group deserves the credit as a whole) ever in Hungary to complete a 1:1 scale model of a passenger car. Tasi is an individual. I still can't forget the sight, when we roamed through the halls of the Geneva show and he suddenly stopped at the Bertonestand. He spoke only Hungarian, so he started to shout loud Hungarian curseson the Bertone Slalom. I was frozen and got out of sight immediately. He never hides his opinion. But You can comfortable chat with him about the current trends in automotive design, just be prepared for harsh criticism:there was not a single car in Geneva, which he praised. He isn't totally satisfied with his own designs either. After he finished the secondary school on the furniture faculty, he worked asa joiner and then as a stage-designer. He got a driving license, but wasn't able to maintain a car on a daily basis,so he turned his attention to the design. In 1990 he started his studies at the University of Crafts and Design.
In 1991, while he started to form the Equus from clay he met with Péter Kukorelli. Equus is the latin word for horse. Tasi paid the clay from his own packet,using only the workshop of the University, but paid everything on his own. During the early stages the Equus had a more sharper roofline and Kukorelli made some comments about it. A teacher, Lóránd Fodor also heard about the Equus and he felt the talent in Tasi. The three started to get together and in late 1992, early 1992 the Mazomotoname was born. At the end of every semester, there's a big "exhibition" to the teachers about the works of the students during the term.
At the spring of 1992 the first public appearance of the Mazomoto group was held on this event: the Equus and some drawings showed up. After the"exhibition" was over, the presentation of the Mazomoto group might be seen in a small room, which was the headquarters of the group until recently. Words started to spread about the existence of a small circle loving car-design but it was Hungarian Opel design competition which really brought together the current members. Tasi competed with the Atlantis, which is based on an Opel Astra.
In front the Atlantis, behind it the Equus
This is the favourite work of Tasi: "every curve represents my ideology".Others say it's kind of baroque: it's overdecorated. The competition showed another bad side of Tasi: the rules asked for 10 detailed A2 size drawings. "I hate to express myself in drawings" - claims Tasi, so he just ignored it. PéterÜveges was the only one who fulfilled the requirements perfectly. In 1993 and 1994 there wasn't anything exciting in Tasi's life until a truck hit him on his way to the University. While he recovered some ideas lurked in his head which led to the 424.
The 424 project ran parallel with other designs: A spaceship model for theÜrgammák TV series and the modification of Országh's Opel Kadett. By the October, 1995 everything came to an end: the spaceships were finished, the Opel remained in the hands of Országh to finish.
When I first visited the Mazomoto headquarters, a not-so-small room in the building of the University in a corner stood a motorbike. Tasi waved his hand, it's a project currently halted. But Tamás Mike, who comissioned Tasi to rebody his Honda CBR900RR didn't give up so easily. He showed how he imagined the paintings of the Honda: they were some art pictures from a magazine showing different angles of MiG 19 fighting airplanes:
At that time Tasi didn't have a clue on the shape of the Honda. But those photos gave him new ideas, so he visited a MiG cemetary and brought some MiG parts.
From that point the Honda rebody went smoothly:Tasi and the bike during the build-up
On the 20th of February at the Interwheel motorbike exhibition the AirBlade as the rebodied Honda was named appeared. IIt attracted lots of visitors. When I saw it on the road afterwards ifwas just out of this world: it cut the air like a knife, with its sharprear unit (which includes the seat and the lamps). The front scoops were taken over from a MiG 19 as well the color and patternof the painting. The bulk before the seat gives a more aggressive and comprehensive feeling.
It'll remain in the hands of Mike and will be a one-off.
The latest project of Tasi is a GT racer. It was comissioned by a German enterpreneur. Details are sketchy but here are two provisional graphics:
What'll happen to Tasi? He dreams about being designer at the Chrysler Design Studio. "Yeah, I could live with that".