Auto Car | 2008 Mazda Furai Concept | The market for high dollar exotic supercars is becoming crowded. It seems as though almost every major automotive manufacturer is interested in putting their own twist on a street vehicle that can perform like a race car. Even smaller, boutique car makers are once again stepping up to the plate to see if they can belt a 200 mile per hour car out of the park. With General Motors and Dodge duking it out in North America with the Corvette Blue Devil and the Viper, and Mercedes and Audi letting the SLR and the R8 battle in Europe, those who happen to be willing to spend the price of small mansion on a vehicle now have one of the widest selections in the history of motoring.
With so many competitors, you may start to think that it could be difficult for an automaker to convince buyers that their supercar is better or more desirable than any of the many other offerings. What method can a manufacturer employ to show a definite advantage over their peers? It would seem that with so many of these vehicles virtually indistinguishable when it comes to speed, quality and performance, that there must be some kind of intangible X factor that will tip the scales in one direction or another. Mazda has decided that they will take the ecological high ground and make their first contribution to the world of supercars an environmentally friendly fire-breathing beast. The 2007 Mazda Furai Concept is their vision of a street-legal race car that also has a social conscience. The Furai runs entirely on ethanol, and is a natural extension of the work that the company has put into their other hybrid sports cars, such as the alternative fuel RX-8 Renesis.
At first glance, the Furai looks like it came from the fevered mind of a science-fiction film director. The name means ‘the sound of wind’ in Japanese, and the car best resembles a cross between the Batmobile and a land-speed record holder. The car looks as thought it was carved out of a single piece of lab-grown material, with radically curved organic-looking air ducts dominating the front end. The car’s nose juts down at a sharp angle that extends back to the windshield, and the front wheels present a much wider track than the rear. Every exterior component of the Furai has been designed and implemented with the idea of optimizing aerodynamic performance. Even the headlight trim is included in the performance equation. The Furai is powered by a 3 rotor rotary engine that generates 450 horsepower.
Mazda got a leg up on the design of this car when they decided to base it on their American Le Mans racing template. This allowed them to incorporate the under car diffuser and high pressure zones above the front wheels, which are both a direct lift from the racing program. The carbon-composite tub that surrounds the passenger compartment is strong enough to resist impact at racing speeds, and provides rigidity, lightness and safety. Of course, using a race car design does entail compromises for the street, and even though the interior is slightly wider than the racing edition, it was necessary to use butterfly doors to make it easier for drivers to access the cockpit.
The 2007 Mazda Furai Concept is more likely to remain exactly that – a drivable piece of art that Mazda designers can refer to when asked about the general direction of the company’s styling future. The vehicle will also be put to good use as a way for engineers to test experimental technologies that could see their way into future Mazda street cars.
Source : www.sport-cars.org
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