Topic: 450 hp, mid-engined, organic bodywork...and no pistons

[Mitlov]

A fully-operational concept car.  Three rotor Wankel engine.  Runs on 100% ethanol.  Edmunds thinks it's a hint at a future Le Mans endurance racer.  But I'm hoping it's a predecessor to a street-legal supercar from an unexpected brand, a la Audi R8 and Nissan GT-R.

[rrocket]

Don't mind the shape at all.  Wonder how functional it is at this point?  eg.(GMs Camaro was functional...but only to 25MPH)

[CyberNick]

rrocket, thant is a nice shape...

Miltov, I'm with you hopin' that there'd be a "real-deal" zoom-zoom out from Mazda...

[Mitlov]

Don't mind the shape at all.  Wonder how functional it is at this point?  eg.(GMs Camaro was functional...but only to 25MPH)

Considering the Furai has never seen a wind tunnel, its ability to generate about 80 percent of the downforce of the original race-spec bodywork is respectable indeed. In fact, Mike Page of Swift Engineering is confident that the Furai could be made fully competitive without wholesale changes: "The overall form is solid. As it sits, it's a happy medium between form and function."

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/autoshows/detroit/2008/mazdafuraiconcept.html?tid=edmunds.il.home.photopanel..1.*

I'd go so far to say that this is the best-looking track car I've ever seen.  I'm absolutely infatuated.

[Railton]

Repost.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/topic,55587.0.html
Railton

[Mitlov]

Repost.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/topic,55587.0.html
Railton

So no car that happens to be revealed at the Detroit Auto Show is allowed to have its own thread?

 

[Wolfe]

It's a race car and a piece of art all in one. Wow!

[gotak]

Le Mans on ethanol? Wouldn't it end up making fuel stops more often the petrol cars? Not to mention how Audi won with a diesel based partly upon it needing fewer fuel stops.

[EV Dan]

I'm just curious, can u fill in say, half 87 gas and half e85 ethanol in a subie sti and thus get a higher octane number or is it gonna kill it somehow?