DETROIT, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As the latest in Mazda's award-winning
and highly acclaimed series of Nagare concept cars, the Furai P2 concept
vehicle celebrates 40 years of rotary engine and international motorsports
heritage with the raciest interpretation of NAGARE design language to-date.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071211/LATU110)
NAGARE: (pronounced "na-ga-reh"), Japanese for flow and the embodiment of
motion
FURAI: (pronounced "foo-rye"), Japanese for sound of the wind
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 renewable
fuels. Driving toward sustainability, Furai was initially tuned to operate
on 100 percent ethanol fuel, the first time a racing three-rotor rotary
engine has been fueled by ethanol. Research continues in earnest with
partner BP into other renewable and future fuels, including ethanol
gasoline blends like E10.
On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas and Mazda-powered cars
road-raced in North America than any other brand of car. This is because
every Mazda sedan, coupe and sports car really is developed with the
highest possible dose of the company's trademark Zoom-Zoom -- truly the
Emotion of Motion.
However, Zoom-Zoom is more than simply vehicle performance. The look
and style that is Zoom-Zoom can best be seen in previous NAGARE-based
efforts, including the Mazda Nagare concept that debuted at Los Angeles in
2006; Mazda Ryuga, which was first shown a year ago in Detroit; Mazda
Hakaze, which appeared in Geneva last year; and Mazda Taiki, the star of
the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.
"Nagare" is how Mazda's future models will sustain the Zoom-Zoom spirit
by exhibiting their strong affinity for motion.
Manufacturers commonly showcase design studies with little or no
intention of actually using the theme presented. Mazda's approach is the
opposite: All of the Nagare concepts, including Furai, help evolve this
evocative surface language for future use. Every vehicle Mazda sells
embodies the soul of a sports car to achieve a true Zoom-Zoom dynamic
character. Nagare is how this celebration of motion will be portrayed on
interior and exterior surfaces in future models. Instead of form following
function, the two merge as one.
Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda North American Operations' (MNAO) Director
of Design and the person who lead the team that created the Furai, explains
the concept behind the concept, "We were looking for a way to bridge the
gap between Mazda Motorsports and the production vehicles in our lineup.
The mindsets of road-car and racing car fans are quite different, so the
purpose of Furai is to find a meeting point for these disparate interests."
He continued, "Furai achieves this by purposely blurring boundaries
that have traditionally distinguished the street from the track.
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."
Track cars are, by their competitive nature, ill-suited for practical
highway use, as well as generally far from road-legal. Some supercars visit
the track on occasion, but they are primarily road cars not properly
equipped for racing. The aim of Furai is to bridge this gap.
That said, Mazda neither intends to race Furai, nor is it a supercar
the company plans to build and sell in the near future. Rather, Furai is a
design study that lives between those extremes. Without the restrictions
imposed by serial production models, and with the freedom of an autoshow
environment, Mazda is using the opportunity to evolve the company's Nagare
design theme one more step closer to reality.
Instead of mimicking racecar components and design elements in a road
car -- the strategy preferred by supercar manufacturers -- the "Mazda way"
was to begin this project with the real McCoy: a Courage C65 chassis that
earned its stripes during two seasons of LMP-2 endurance racing in the
American Le Mans Series (ALMS). This sports car was successfully campaigned
under the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development banner by B-K Motorsports
during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Drivers Jamie Bach, Guy Cosmo, Elliott
Forbes-Robinson, and Raphael Matos piloted the car to one victory and a
total of nine podium finishes in 15 ALMS events. B-K finished third in
championship standings both years; Bach and Cosmo were co-Rookies of the
Year in 2005.
"Anticipating future rules changes in the ALMS, we created a new closed
cockpit which would be more appropriate for a future production model,"
said von Holzhausen. "The major element we did not change is the
450-horsepower RENESIS-based R20B three-rotor rotary engine that provides
Furai ample Zoom-Zoom. The ultimate Mazda in our minds is rotary powered;
as a company, we have no intention of abandoning that valuable asset. When
people think of the very best sports cars in the world, the rotary powered
Mazda RX-7 is always on that list."
The Furai concept serves as a turning point in the Nagare developmental
process. While the four previous concept cars explored different ways to
express Mazda's emerging design philosophy and to explore an aesthetic,
this one is all about function -- every last texture and detail serves some
functional purpose. In essence, the Furai creative process boiled down to
guiding air over and through the body in fruitful ways. To prove that this
concept goes far beyond static aerodynamic analysis, Mazda's design,
motorsports and R&D teams worked together to construct Furai as a 180-mph
rolling laboratory to demonstrate its functional capabilities on demand.
"The basic proportions of contemporary race cars are every designer's
dream," enthused von Holzhausen. "Furai is less than 40-inches high but
nearly 80-inches wide."
While Furai strikes an incredibly strong presence, the real beauty of
the project -- and it's most valuable asset as a real-world test-bed -- is
in the details that von Holzhausen and his team incorporated:
-- The body surface provides ample opportunity to feature core design
elements such as aggressive headlamps and Mazda's trademark five-point
grille.
-- The headlamp trim pieces function as guide frames to help cancel
aerodynamic lift.
-- High-pressure zones just above the front wheels are relieved to serve
the same end.
-- The air flow package takes air moving under the front of the car and
guides it inside the body to the engine-cooling radiators.
-- Nagare textures incorporated in the side surfaces feed air to the rear
brakes, the oil cooler and the transmission cooler.
-- An under-car diffuser that begins rising aft of the cockpit helps draw
the volume of air flowing through the heat exchangers and engine bay
out the rear.
The Mazda design and R&D teams worked closely with Swift Engineering to
refine the aerodynamic characteristics, assuring that Furai remains glued
to the ground at high speeds. Through its existing relationship with Swift
Engineering, forged through development of the Mazda/Cosworth-powered Champ
Car Atlantic chassis, the team used complex Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) software to tune various Nagare design elements to function at a high
degree of efficiency. Drag, downforce, lift and overall esthetics were all
key considerations.
Sourced straight from the race track, the Courage carbon-composite tub
is essentially intact under the new Furai body, including the right-side
driver's seat. Instead of the stark interior typical of race cars though,
this cockpit is finished with more comfortable but still highly functional
surfaces. An electronic display screen and shift paddles are built into the
steering wheel.
In the chassis' original racing configuration, the passenger seat is
filled with electronic gear, so those components were relocated elsewhere
to provide adequate space for two occupants. The greenhouse is somewhat
wider than the original cockpit to provide adequate head and shoulder room
and suitable outward visibility. Doors attached with butterfly hinges
provide a very efficient means of entering the cockpit. In this instance,
the design team followed an approach that has proven very effective during
years of endurance racing.
"One thing we learned from CFD studies is that we don't need much rear
wing to balance the down force created by the front splitter and the Nagare
features we've sculpted into the body," offered von Holzhausen. "Combustion
air is provided by a variation of the Turbo Tongue device that Swift
developed for Indy car use a decade ago. It rises slightly higher than the
surrounding roof surface to ingest clean air above the boundary layer. Our
final design works so well that we applied for a joint patent with Swift.
Of course, it helps that it's a real piece of art, too, and one we had to
incorporate into the design."
Irvine, Calif.-based Aria Group was responsible for creating new
composite panels and they worked hand-in-hand with Mazda North American
Operations' own in-house fabrication team to mate them to the Courage
chassis. The dark matte finish with red and orange accents harkens back to
the livery worn by Mazda's legendary 787B when it won the 24 Hours of Le
Mans in 1991, making the company the first -- and still only -- Japanese
company to ever win the endurance classic.
Furai not only probes future design possibilities, it also ventures
ahead with alternative renewable fuels. Consistent with Mazda's recently
announced "Sustainable Zoom-Zoom" initiatives, Furai's three-rotor
powerplant has been tuned to run powerfully on ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and
ethanol gasoline blends. There are exciting advances being made in
renewable fuels, from current blends like E10 (10% ethanol and 90%
gasoline) with research ongoing in making Ethanol from cellulostic
materials, to future renewable gasoline components like Butanol, a higher
order alcohol which is fungible with gasoline. The addition of these
renewable components improves Mazda's understanding of how these fuels work
with the company's technology and reduces the consumption of fossil
hydrocarbons and the emission of harmful greenhouse gasses.
John Doonan, Mazda's manager of motorsports team development, explains
the thinking behind Furai's use of alternative renewable fuels: "One of our
key technical partners in our motorsports activity -- BP -- helped
facilitate our use of renewable fuels for this concept vehicle. Going
forwards, we are working with BP to determine appropriate renewable fuels
for the vehicle and potentially our team entry for the 2008 ALMS series. BP
is a strong leader in the renewable fuels areas, recently announcing a
$500M investment in the Energy Biosciences Institute, and we are proud to
partner with them."
Doonan continued, "In 2007, ALMS required use of renewable fuels, so
we're projecting ahead with this application to gain experience. BP 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 renewable Ethanol blends."
Through the BP partnership, Furai has been specially tuned to operate
on renewable fuels. BP engineers continue to work to optimize other fuels,
including investigating new future renewable fuel components. This is
Mazda's first experience with ethanol fuel in a three-rotor racing engine,
and the results have been convincing that, once again, the Mazda rotary
engine is unique in its ability to run well on multiple fuels.
Ethanol is derived from grains such as corn and wheat or soybeans.
Corn, the predominant feedstock, is converted to ethanol in either a dry or
wet milling process. Future advances for renewable gasoline components
include utilizing a wide variety of cellulosic biomass feedstocks,
including agricultural plant wastes (corn stover, cereal straws, sugarcane
bagasse), plant wastes from industrial processes (sawdust, paper pulp) and
energy crops grown specifically for fuel production, such as switchgrass.
But what Furai has shown the Mazda team is the real value of teamwork
and key partners:
-- Racing Beat worked tirelessly to develop the world's only ethanol
powered three-rotor rotary engine.
-- Mother's Waxes and Polishes supplies an extensive range of waxes,
polishes, and cleaners to keep the car looking its best at all times.
-- Together with Liferacing, AER developed a six-speed paddle-shift
mechanism.
-- Brembo worked with the Mazda team to ensure the brakes were as
effective on Furai as they were in competition.
-- Sachs and Eibach worked together to bring an aggressive, but
streetable, shock and spring package.
-- Nippon Paint provided the amazing three-feet-deep paintwork.
-- Castrol supplies all the high-performance lubricants.
-- Mazda's 2006 and 2007 ALMS tire development partner Kumho created the
special tread patterns necessary for Furai's tires.
-- Wheels are from partner BBS, and are 14-spoke, centerlock aluminum.
-- Seatbelts come from Sparco Motor Sports.
-- Data acquisition and powertrain controllers are manufactured and tuned
by MoTeC, one of the world's leaders in racing electronics.
Headquartered in Irvine, California, Mazda North American Operations
oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda
vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico through nearly 900
dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada, Inc., located in
Ontario, Canada, and in Mexico by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.
For more information on Mazda products, visit the online Mazda media
center at http://www.mazdausamedia.com.
SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
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Related links:
http://www.mazdausamedia.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071211/LATU110
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
CONTACT:
Danica Laub, +1-949-727-6220, or Jeremy
Barnes, +1-949-727-6844, both of Mazda North American Operations
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