Over the past year, Mazda has been parading a series of in-the-sheetmetal expressions of its evolving Nagare, or "flow," design language around the auto show circuit. So it's not surprising that the Japanese automaker's latest Nagare-inspired creation -- the racecar-based Furai concept -- will also make its world bow at the 2008 Detroit show.
But Furai, which will be joined on the stand by the revised 2009 Mazda RX-8, is much more than just a design exercise. It is also an emphatic statement by Mazda that its relentless "zoom-zoom" (sorry, we tried not to use it) message really means something. According to the automaker, on a given weekend in the U.S., more Mazda-powered vehicles are ripping around tracks than any other brand. That's a lot of sports cars with soul.
Underpinned by a Courage C65 chassis the company campaigned in the American Le Mans Series series two seasons ago, Furai is powered by a 450 horsepower, three-rotor rotary engine, a development fans of the rotary are bound to appreciate and endlessly speculate about. Sounds like the perfect engine for an RX-7, doesn't it?
From the teaser shot of the car, you can definitely make out the Nagare-style gills on top of the front wheel housing and an exaggerated cutline along the bodyside. It definitely has the look of an LMP-type ALMS car with a closed cockpit design. What seems to be a cooling vent setup along the top of the car indicates a mid-engine layout. The fuel for the Furai's rotary is 100 percent pure ethanol, which has been produced in a partnership with oil giant BP.
According to Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda's North American director of design: "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. Furai bridges that gap like no car has ever done before." Sounds great to us, Franz. Anything that can be done to make a supercar even more super, we're behind 110 percent.
As for the 2009 RX-8, Mazda was much less forthcoming, but says the car will be freshened visually, will feature improved handling, acceleration and overall quality, and will come with new features. The RX-8 will continue to be powered by the automaker's Renesis rotary engine, although it is unclear at this point if Mazda's next-generation, direct fuel injected version of the rotary it unveiled at October's Tokyo auto show will be on board for 2009.
Joining Mazda's rotary-powered parade at Detroit will be the Taiki, first seen at Tokyo. The fourth of the Nagare concept clan (Ryuga, Hakaze and Nagare were the others, all four are pictured) Taiki is sporting the automaker's next-gen rotary engine under its flowing robe lines. Mazda's trio for this year's Motown show is a major statement that the brain trust in Hiroshima is committed to the rotary for the long haul.
Stay connected to MotorTrend.com for all the latest leading up to and during the 2008 Detroit show press days, Jan. 13-15, 2008.