| Mazda Furai Concept | ||
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(Mon 14 Jan 08) The Mazda Furai which has been revealed at the Detroit Show is the fourth in the series of Mazda concepts known as nagare. These cars are united by the meaning of that word, which is a combination of "flow" and the "embodiment of motion".
The Furai certainly takes this concept to extremes, at least in road-car terms. The shape of its body directs airflow both to provide cooling where necessary and to keep aerodynamic drag and lift to a minimum. It does this to an extent which is almost unheard of in all but the most exotic supercars. However, all of the above will sound familiar to anyone with an interest in high-level motor racing, and no wonder; despite Mazda's insistence that the Furai "bridges the gap" between road-legal supercars and proper race cars, the Furai actually is a race car. Or at least it was. It's based on the Courage C65 chassis with which Mazdaspeed and B-K Motorsports used to contest (with reasonable success - one overall win and nine podiums from 15 starts) the 2005 and 2006 American Le Mans series. Even the 450bhp three-rotor engine is the same, though there are some changes such as the use of a roof over the cockpit. Not much about the Furai suggests eco-friendliness, but since its racing days the engine has been tuned to run on 100% ethanol (created entirely from crops rather than fossil fuels) or a variety of petrol/ethanol blends. |
