MAZDA FURAI CONCEPT 2008

The Mazda Furai Concept was presented at the NAIAS Detroit Motor Show 2008. The Furai concept fits in the line of recent Mazda Concept cars where flowing line styling are translated in different model types providing some clues for the production models. This time, Mazda North America Design has worked with Mazda Motorsports to produce a project of endurance racing car. Franz von Holzhausen, Director of Design explains "we are looking for a way to bridge the gap between Mazda Motorsports and the production vehicles in our lineup. The Furai project 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. Track cars are, by competitive nature, ill-suited for practical highway use, and generally far from road-legal. Some supercars visit the track on occasion, but they are primarily road cars not properly equipped for racing. The aim of the Furai project is to bridge this gap. That said, Mazda neither intends to race Furai, nor is it a supercar the company plans to build and sell in the near future. Furai is a design study that lives between those extremes."

The Mazda Furai concept was build around a Courage C65 chassis that earned its stripes during two seasons of LMP2 endurance racing in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). This sports car was successfully campaigned under MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development banner by B-K Motorsports during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. "Anticipating future rules changes in the ALMS, 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 ultimate Mazda in our minds is rotary engine powered. Mazda Design, Mazda Motorsports and R&D's teams worked together to construct Furai as a 180 mph rolling laboratory to demonstrate its functional capabilities on demand."

Furai's three rotor powerplant has been tuned to run on ethanol and ethanol gasoline blends. A partnership with BP helped facilitate the use of renewable fuels for this concept car.

MAZDA FURAI CONCEPT 2008 Wallpapers