The Top Gear DISASTER that destroyed Mazda's rotary supercar forever

You may not believe me but here it goes… From what I was told by a man who worked or works at Mazda’s North American Operations in Irvine, CA. The car was received back in January 2009 and was assessed by both Mazda’s head of finance and insurance services. The car was then placed under “Special priority” and then sent back to Japan via ship in March 2009. As of sometime in Mid 2012 the car was quote “Being rebuilt for Mazda’s private collection.” That’s all I got. Edit: Wow! Thanks for the likes! I got this information in speaking to a guy from Mazda’s American Operations at the Le Mays Car Museum in Washington State. I honestly can’t remember his name as he was with a few other people overlooking an exhibit but he was quite older. I just remember the topic of the Mazda Furai came up because I mentioned my favorite race car was the #55 787B and then he told me a concept car called the Furai had the same #55 too! And the info I got came from that…

That is absolutely legendary. A car that was completely totalled while Top Gear had it during the peak years, and Hammond wasn't even driving it. There can't be many in that category.

I remember that car only because I played Forza Motorsport 4

I remember being asked to do a customer research piece for Mazda. They bundled us into a room with tea and biscuits and had lots of Qs about the style of cars I liked etc etc, then images of various concepts and asking which we preferred and why, emotions felt etc etc. I still remember when I saw the image of (essentially) the Furai. It was jaw dropping, so much better than the other images they'd had. I remember leaving and thinking Mazda were going to have some very special looking cars if they changed their design language to something like that. When I saw the Furai itself online I immediately recalled that Research session. What a car, what a sound. Bravo Mazda.

Hate the fact that he mentions the 787B being slow despite the facts it had ballasts, restrictors and was usually placed last in line as well as having faced some mechanical issues during the race slowing it's pace, leading it to where it ended up. Shame how this car gets looked down upon despite it's immense potential.. smh.

Research efforts : one email ✅

I would like to thank this car for its help in the Like The Wind championship in GT5, I couldn’t beat it without it.

As a proud owner of an RX-8, I pray for a true RX-9 in the future. For the flaws of the rotary engine, it truly is a dream engine

FD RX-7 is one of the best looking cars out there. First time I saw one parked up in a garage in the early 90s I had to check it out because it didn't look like anything on the road.

I still think about this car at random. I think it has the best looking backend I’ve ever seen on a car.

As an elderly man of 76 I remember when German NSU came with first the small and absurdly expensive NSU Spyder, based on an NSU Printz and later the gorgeous NSU RO80! But they never managed to make it function and constantly changed engines on the warranty!!! A Swedish journalist had 3 engines in his RO80!! It seems that only Mazda could make the engine function?

Going from memory here, so might get this wrong. Wasn't there a few grainy photos around 2009/10 of it being unloaded from a ship? Mazda went nuts and wanted the photos destroyed, and took legal action. I only recall it because of the many debates. Some thought the grainy picture were actually a 757 or 767 prototype, whilst others said it was Furai. The car was matt black, so details were not fantastic. I also think it was missing wheels. I remember this because I was hanging around some Mazda forums looking for details about the autozam/mazda AZ-1, and info about importing.

The other interesting stat is that Franz von Holzhausen (Teslas chief designer) was working at Mazda at the time and was involved in the design of the Furai

Given Mazda's size and operating budget, we should count our blessings we still even have the MX-5 available, and it's far simpler and more affordable by comparison to the old rotaries that were highly specialized. They've been teasing upscale grand touring concepts for over a decade with nothing to show for it, and until they can fully leverage their relationship with Toyota, there won't be a new halo model. All you have to do is walk onto a dealer lot to see they really just want to sell luxury CX models now anyways, so any specialty model would be extremely low volume, not to mention enormously expensive; if the old FD RX-7 was still around at the prices it sold for brand new 25 years ago, that would be the equivalent of about $60-80K USD today.

The Furia is currently at area 51, hence the abrupt answer😮

10:16 Whoever laid that skid mark, can thank their ABS and traction control for saving their lives. If that front wheel had locked, the car would've gone up and over that ramp-shaped bank. Crazy to see ABS at work so clearly, even after the fact.

I saw it at its debut at the North American International Auto Show I probably spent an hour photographing it. the thing you might not get unless you saw it in person is that every single angle of the car looks amazing

Maybe the answer was that 'abrupt' because the press office person doesn't know anything about the car, because those people tend to move through jobs quickly and you'd be talking about 'an old concept car' that they'd never heard of? Or maybe they think Drivetribe is related to Top Gear and having a concept destroyed by or with the mags involvement is still painful?

If one person can revolutionize the rotary engine then it is Rob Dahm. Taking the engine apart, analyze it, realize its problems, use dowels & CNC machines to make it bulletproof, tune it on Haltech ECUs, understand how a rotary engine wants to be tuned. And share it all transparently on YouTube. 😎🤘 Btw: Rob Dahm has currently a triple-4-rotor boat engine in his shop to make it run properly, he is tasked by its builder Tyson Gavin. It's a 12-rotor engine with 15.7 litres displacement and modular E-shafts. It was developed to replace a Chevy big block in a racing boat. ✌

The likely outcome of the fire on the Top Gear track may have shown a design flaw of the body; inadequate cooling may have been the reason for the fire. This could be the reason Mazda doesn't want to show case the Furai and don't want to admit to the design flaws of the car; that's one reason. Another reason, is Mazda may have trust issues with motor journalists since then, and they wish to avoid further criticism relating to the fire incident.