The Mazda Furai concept celebrates 40 years of Mazda’s rotary engine and international motorsports heritage. The raciest interpretation of NAGARE design language to-date, Furai is the latest car in Mazda’s award-winning and highly acclaimed series of concept cars. Nagare is the Japanese for ‘flow’ and the ‘embodiment of motion’.
Furai (Japanese for ‘sound of the wind’) 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 renewable fuels. Consequently, Furai is initially tuned to operate on 100 per cent ethanol, while research with partner BP into other future fuels, including ethanol/gasoline blends like E10, continues.
The ‘Nagare’ ethos is how Mazda’s future production models will sustain the Zoom-Zoom spirit by exhibiting their strong affinity for motion.
Furai not only probes future design possibilities, it also ventures ahead with an alternative fuel. Consistent with the Mazda’s recently announced ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom’ initiatives, the Furai’s three-rotor powerplant has been tuned to run powerfully on 100-percent ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and ethanol/gasoline blends. There are exciting advances being made in renewable fuels, from current blends like E10 (10% ethanol/90% gasoline) with research ongoing into making ethanol from cellulostic materials, to future renewable gasoline components like Butanol – a ‘higher order’ alcohol which is fungible with gasoline.
John Doonan, Mazda’s manager of motorsports team development in the USA, explains the thinking behind Furai’s use of alternative fuel, “One of our key technical partners in motorsports, BP, helped facilitate our use of E100. In 2007, ALMS required use of E10 and E100 is now the only acceptable fuel in the Indy Racing League, so we’re projecting ahead with this application to gain experience and to improve Mazda’s environmental profile.
We are proud to partner BP which is a string leader in renewable fuels and recently announced a US$500 million investment in the Energy Biosciences Institute. BP also has a very green focus in the marketplace, and it’s Mazda’s intention to sustain its Zoom-Zoom performance image on and off the racetrack. While Mazda’s rotary has proven readily adaptable to various alternative fuels, including considerable work with hydrogen fuel, this is the first time it’s been engineered for other ethanol blends. The Mazda rotary engine is unique in its ability to run well on multiple fuels.”
