Mazda Furai,Concept Car On The Circuit.

When Mazda was challenged to turn its stunning “Flow” concepts into a real car, they rose to the task — but not in the way one would have expected.



Every major auto show sees Mazda unveiling a new concept based on Nagare (Japanese for “flow”) design language. They are beautiful but clearly not practical, so the launch of a 450-horsepower race car based on their concepts was an unexpected but smart approach for the Japanese automaker to take.



Inspired by the fact that on any given weekend, there are more Mazdas and Mazda-powered cars road-raced in the U.S. than any other brand, the Furai (Japanese for “sound of the wind” and pronounced “foo-rye”) with its rotary engine makes a great deal of sense. The car runs on ethanol produced in partnership with BP.



Furai takes Mazda’s Nagare design language a step further as it is translated into a concept car based on an American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race car. The car utilizes the Courage C65 chassis the company campaigned in the ALMS series only two seasons ago.



Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda’s North American director of design, said Furai “purposely blurs boundaries that have traditionally distinguished street cars from track cars. 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.”