14 Jan 08
Mazda's concept for the Detroit Show is called Furai: the 'sound of the wind'.
It's an evolution of the Nagare concept shown in Los Angeles last year - now built on the Courage C65 chassis as used in an American Le Mans Series racer. Power comes from a 450bhp, three-rotor version of Mazda's rotary engine, adapted to run on 100% ethanol fuel.
'Furai purposely blurs boundaries that have traditionally distinguished street cars from racing cars,' says design director Franz von Holzhausen. 'Historically, there has been a gap between single-purpose race cars and the sportiest of street-legal production models - commonly called supercars - that emulate the real racers on the road. Furai bridges that gap like no car has ever done before.'
Mazda may not actually be planning to put such a supercar into production, and if it does, it'll be a good few years off, but it is overhauling its much-acclaimed RX-8 small sports car as well.
Check out the rest of our Detroit Motor Show coverage
