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Mazda will unveil a radical "environmental racer" concept at the Detroit Motor Show next month. The Furai is the fifth in a series of Mazda show cars that started with the Nagare ("flow") and showcases the company's design direction for the future.
The Furai is intended to be a racing car for road - inspired by the Japanese brand's massive popularity on racetracks in America. On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas and Mazda-powered machines on American circuits than any other brand.
Furai takes the Nagare design language a step further by translating it into a concept based on an American Le Mans Series racing car.
The car uses the Courage C65 chassis the company campaigned in the series two seasons ago, including the three-rotor racing engine. It runs on 100 per cent ethanol (E100) biofuel.
Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda's North American director of design, said: "The Furai purposely blurs boundaries that have traditionally distinguished street cars from track cars. 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 bridges that gap like no car has ever done before."
