Street Garage: Mazda Furai ! Zoom Zoom...

The Mazda Furai is a concept car revealed on 27 December, 2007 and manufactured by Mazda.

The Furai, meaning Sound of the wind, is the fifth and last of the Mazda Nagare line of concept cars that have been made by Mazda since 2006. The chassis is based on the Courage Compétition C65 Le Mans Prototype that Mazda last used to compete in the American Le Mans Series, two seasons previously and is designed to use E100 ethanol fuel, it is powered by a new generation 3-rotor wankel engine that puts out 450 brake horsepower (340 kW). The engine is developed and built by renowned rotary tuner, Racing Beat, who also built the car's rotary-shaped muffler canister. Sounds like the perfect engine for an RX-7, doesn't it?

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.

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.

It has run at Laguna Seca and Buttonwillow. Head designer, Laurens van den Acker, has stated in an interview with Top Gear magazine that there are possibilities of the Furai being used for racing in Le Mans, and he also has strong hopes that the car could be brought to the market