Mazda Furai concept. Click image to enlarge |
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Mazda Furai concept
Detroit, Michigan - The Furai P2 concept vehicle is the fifth and raciest interpretation of Mazda's ongoing series of Nagare concept cars. The first Mazda Nagare concept debuted at the Los Angeles auto show in 2006; the second version, the Mazda Ryuga was first shown a year ago in Detroit; the third, the Mazda Hakaze appeared in Geneva last year; and the fourth, the Mazda Taiki at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.
Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda North American Operations Director of Design and the person who lead the team that created the Furai, explained the concept behind the Furai: "We were looking for a way to bridge the gap between Mazda Motorsports and the production vehicles in our lineup. The mindsets of road-car and racing car fans are quite different, so the purpose of Furai is to find a meeting point for these disparate interests. Furai achieves this by purposely blurring boundaries that have traditionally distinguished the street from the track. Historically, there has been a gap between single-purpose racecars and street-legal models - commonly called supercars - that emulate the real racers on the road."
The Furai P2 is based on the Courage C65 chassis that earned its stripes during two seasons of LMP-2 endurance racing in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). This sports car was successfully campaigned under the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development banner by B-K Motorsports during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Drivers Jamie Bach, Guy Cosmo, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, and Raphael Matos piloted the car to one victory and a total of nine podium finishes in 15 ALMS events. B-K finished third in championship standings both years; Bach and Cosmo were co-Rookies of the Year in 2005.
"We created a new closed cockpit which would be more appropriate for a future production model," said von Holzhausen. "The major element we did not change is the 450-horsepower Renesis-based R20B three-rotor rotary engine." The engine was initially tuned to operate on 100 percent ethanol fuel, the first time a racing three-rotor rotary engine has been fueled by ethanol. Research continues in earnest with partner BP into other renewable and future fuels, including ethanol gasoline blends like E10.
Mazda neither intends to race the Furai nor build and sell it in the near future. "Without the restrictions imposed by serial production models, and with the freedom of an autoshow environment, Mazda is using the opportunity to evolve the company's Nagare design theme one more step closer to reality," said a Mazda news release.
