Mazda Furai Concept
Mazda has engaged in the mother of all teaser campaigns for the upcoming Nagare-inspired stream of design-language concepts said to foretell the look of future products.
Indeed, we have seen exactly zero of these future products in anything remotely resembling production form but instead some five different embodiments of the funky, organic, weeds-water-and-breezes design on vehicles ranging from sports cars to SUVs to the flying-saucer-like Taiki.
And now, this: the ALMS-inspired Furai to be shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, perhaps the one we like best.
Mazda says the Furai, whose name means “sound of the wind,” blurs boundaries between street cars and track cars. From Mazda’s preshow press release: “Historically, there has been a gap between single-purpose race cars and street-legal models—commonly called supercars—that emulate the real racers on the road. Furai bridges that gap like no car has ever done before.”
Certainly the Furai appears to follow a tried-and-true supercar format: mid-mounted powerplant; narrow cockpit; defined, protuberant wheels; and chassis more honed for track than road.
In this case, the chassis is the same “Courage 65” architecture that provided the basis of the racers Mazda used to compete in the American Le Mans Series two years ago.
Our favorite part, however, is the three-rotor Wankel rotary engine. Not only is it said to be capable of some 450 horsepower, but thanks to the inherent flexible-fuel capability of the rotary engine, it does so while burning 100-percent ethanol.
Mazda is mum on other details of the Furai, including whether or not this, like the Nagare, Ryuga, Hakaze, and Taiki before it, will spawn an actual production model. We certainly hope it does, whether it be for the road or, say, an amateur racing series. In any case, we don’t see why Mazda couldn’t stick a three-rotor engine like this into the follow-up to the RX-8.
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