---

---

---

---

---

Thank goodness it's an open-decibel day at Laguna, where we're summoned to check out the Furai in all its flowing glory. Still, I bet the track guys got some calls -- if not about Furai's furious phwooooaaaaarr, then about the chopper buzzing low around the track grabbing video.

---

---

It's called Furai, and designer Franz von Holzhausen says it's supposed to look like streamers fluttering in the wind. It's the fifth concept in Mazda's Nagare (flow) series and the visual realization of zoom zoom. If you say so, Franz.

But then the car comes roaring down Laguna Seca's pit lane. I can't find the words. It looks so...so...bitchin! I've regressed to sputtering seventh-grade superlatives.

Wicked. Sick. Badass, yo.

---

---

In addition to the aerial assault, the video team also brought along a Porsche 911 GT3 as a camera car. Mounted to the hood in a complicated arrangement of gaffers' tape and suction cups is a massive HD camera. Off the back bumper is a duplicate camera mount for lead/follow footage. It's an impressive setup that manages to raise eyebrows even amongst the jaded crew of journalists in attendance. As the Furai starts to flow over Laguna's twists and turns, it's clear the GT3 will be doing a lot of following today, with the Porsche arriving in the pits some 5-10 seconds after the Furai during its shakedown laps. And from what we're told, the Furai's driver is taking it easy.

---

---

I manage to wedge my feet between the firewall and fire extinguisher as a friendly Mazda engineer straps me into the six-point harness with double crotch straps! Bach and I are shoulder-to-shoulder, so it's a good thing the X-trac six-speed transmission has paddle shifters. If he wants to change gears the traditional way, we'll have to stop at San Francisco City Hall first. We nearly bump visors as he turns to see if I'm ready to go. Am I ready for some hot laps in an unproven concept car running on an invisible, highly flammable race fuel? You bet your ass!

---

---

The MazdaSpeed R&D Advanced Technology arm of MNAO is the outfit responsible for Furai's powertrain and making it run as well as it does. But they can't take all the credit. To get to this stage, partners including BP (ethanol race fuel), Motec (engine management), Swift (aerodynamics), and Brembo (brakes) -- over a dozen in all -- were enlisted to help with the car's development.

---

---

It certainly feels like a top tier race-car setup as I'm first lifted at the entrance of Laguna Seca's famous corkscrew and then immediately flattened by the gs exiting turn nine. The only thing bending and compressing in this car appears to be my spine.

---