Rx7 Ls1 Drift Race Car on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Mazda Furai concept designer talks about his car's passing

Last week, there was mourning at the Autoblog offices as word trickled in that the Mazda Furai concept - one of the coolest, best-looking showcars to grace an auto show stage since the wild and crazy 1960s -had been killed. It was killed on the track with the folks from Top Gear in attendance. We're sure the gods of driving would have wanted it to die on a circuit, but that doesn't make its fiery passing any easier to deal with.
The Furai is the rare concept car that had a lasting appeal with enthusiasts, partly because it was a real, functioning racecar, complete with a wacky three-rotor Wankel engine and cutting-edge Nagare design. Now that it's gone, though, Road & Track's Mallory McMorrow, who was an intern at Mazda Design when the Furai was being styled in 2007, has published an interview with one of the men who penned the Mazda showcar's striking exterior, Carlos Salaff. It's a great piece on the emotional connection between a designer and his creation, and one you should take the time to read. Click on over to R&T for the full story.

Mazda2 nets Japan Car of the Year, Cherokee first US model to ever crack top 10

The 2015 Mazda2 is quite high up on our must-drive list. Yes, the teeny, tiny successor to the 100-horsepower five-door is worth getting excited over, largely because the previous generation was one of the absolute best smiles-per-dollar values on the market.
While we eagerly await for our opportunity to take to the 2's helm, our expectations of the new car have just been heightened thanks to its win in Japan's Car of the Year competition. Called "Demio" in the land of the rising sun, Japanese journalists handed out Mazda's second COTY award since the CX-5 took the title in 2012.
In more surprising news, the new Jeep Cherokee has made the list of 10 Best Cars in Japan. The Jeep's triumph marks the first time an American car has cracked the top ten, finishing eighth. It's not, however, the first Fiat Chrysler vehicle to snag the title, following in the footsteps of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Fiat Panda. Still, the fact that an American brand can make such impressive inroads into the traditionally tough-to-crack Japanese market is a seriously big deal.

Mazda2 with extended-range hybrid rotary tech shown

Every story dealing with a new rotary engine from Mazda lands in a different place on the matrix of possibilities between "Coming soon!" and "Never gonna happen!" In 2011 it was speculated that the rotary engineering program would be shut down with the demise of the RX-8, in 2012 the program was still alive and taking lessons from the SkyActiv engines, in August 2013 a Mazda insider said a rotary engine called 16X would be here in two years, in November the CEO said the only way we'd ever get a new rotary is if Mazda could sell 100,000 of them per year. Meaning that, for the moment, you can forget about it.
And yet, last month Mazda was putting journalists in a Mazda2 RE Range Extender, an electric car using a 0.33-liter rotary to power its lithium-ion batteries when the charge runs down. With a 75-kilowatt, 100-horsepower electric motor turning the front wheels, the Wankel generator and its 2.6-gallon gas tank living under the trunk double the range of the electric-only Mazda2 to 250 miles.
There's been talk of using a rotary to assist an alt-fuel vehicle for at least seven years, with Mazda pairing an electric motor with a rotary that ran on gas and hydrogen in a Mazda5 in 2007. Since then, almost all of those stories debating its return or demise also spoke of the oddball motor's advantages, such as compact size and ability to run on various fuels, as an aid in an unconventional powertrain.