Mazda Motor Corporation will showcase the world premieres of the Mazda Furai concept vehicle and the heavily revised new Mazda RX-8 sports car at the 2008 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), to (13-27 January 2008). 

Together with the Furai Concept, at the Mazda will showcase the new RX-8 with a freshned design and improved performabces as well as special display of racecars on during the press days.

From the official Press Release:

Inspired by the fact that, on any given weekend, there are more Mazdas and Mazda-powered cars road-raced in the United States than any other brand, the Mazda Furai is the sort of car that could only come from a company that incorporates the “Soul of a Sports Car” into everything it builds, but with an eye toward the future and the environment through the use of ethanol E100 produced by British Petroleum (BP).

Furai takes Mazda’s unique Nagare (Japanese for “flow”) design language a step further as it is translated into a concept car based on an American Le Mans Series (ALMS) racing car. 

The car utilizes the Courage C65 chassis the company campaigned in the ALMS series only two seasons ago, and the 450-hp three-rotor rotary engine that distinguishes it from anything else on the track.

Says 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.”

Mazda’s Nagare design language describes the flow of water, air, people or things moving in one direction.  Mazda Nagare is flow, with an insightful and spirited styling, which, in Mazda Furai, invokes a raw, unfettered desire to possess everything this car represents.

(Source: Mazda)