When Mazda was developing the FD RX-7, they asked for design proposals from their studios around the world. The winning proposal was from a Taiwanese-American working in their California office, Wu-Huang Chin, who was also somewhat involved in the original MX-5.
Anyway, there\'s not much about him on the web, but I found some interesting info here on his career and the styling of the FD.
http://www.carart.us/Products.aspx?x=2&f=artistID&v=1&t=i&ttl=artistName&tmp=2&menu=C1373
http://www.carart.us/Products.aspx?x=2&f=artistID%2cmake&v=1%2cMazda&t=i%2cs&ttl=artistName%2cmake&tmp=1&menu=C2086 (http://www.carart.us/Products.aspx?x=2&f=artistID%2cmake&v=1%2cMazda&t=i%2cs&ttl=artistName%2cmake&tmp=1&menu=C2086)
My favourite bit is that the vents behind the front wheels were originally intended to draw hot air out of the engine bay. However, the powertrain engineers informed him that this wouldn\'t be necessary, which was a problem for him as the vent was part of his aesthetic vision for the car. Luckily, the brake engineer said he could use something to draw hot air from the brakes, so the vent was reinstated.
Given the well-known heat issues with the FD, I\'m inclined to think that the Mazda engineers were being somewhat short-sighted, and that Mr Chin (who had a Mech Eng degree before he became a stylist) probably knew best!
You can also buy a painting he did of his work:
(http://www.carart.us/userImages/WC-RX7-M.jpg)