Back in 2007, Mazda re-skinned a rotary-powered Courage LMP chassis with their then-current Nagare styling language, called it “Furai”, and subsequently captured the hearts of all manner of fanboys.
The Furai caused rotary aficionados to require a trouser change. Lovers of functional concept cars misplaced their sanity. Those who believe the only sort of sports car worth a damn is a barely road-homologated racer leapt with a rare glee. The next year, the Furai was destroyed, a victim of a fire during Top Gear testing. And while Mazda’s been on a real-world product tear lately—lobbing two vehicles into our latest 10Best basket and launching a new Miata, while prepping the great-looking CX-3 and Mazda 2 for public consumption, it found time to build a Furai for today. Sort of.
The Mazda LM55 Vision Gran Turismo is, you guessed it, part of Polyphony Digital’s fantasy-car series, ginned up strictly for in-game use. Mazda claims great influence was drawn from the rotary-powered 787B, which won LeMans in 1991 while wearing number 55. The game car, however, resembles the simpler paint scheme of the other 787s entered in the race, rather than the winning vehicle’s memorably vibrant orange-and-green livery. (Which we nicked way back when for a LeMons RX-7, of course.)
Although the LM55 wears a giant “Skyactiv” decal on its digital dorsal fin, the soundtrack is more old-school than modern Mazda. Mazda doesn’t deign to denote what engine allegedly powers the LM55, but it sounds suspiciously like the old 787. It’s certainly no Skyactiv diesel with a block featuring a hybrid of ones and zeroes, that’s for sure. Regardless, it’s nice to see a Kodo-fied version of one of our favorite concepts of the past 10 years, even if it’s only in the virtual domain. It’s available now, so download and enjoy, rotor heads.
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