Mazda Ryuga news - Detroit show: Mazda Ryuga Concept - 2007

Mazda is going with the flow with its Detroit concept offering, the Ryuga.

While the Japanese firm has been turning out concepts at a rate of knots for recent motor shows, the Ryuga has been designed with the idea of 'gracious flow'.

Inspired by Japanese gardens and molten lava of all things, the Ryuga is a swoopy take on the sports coupe theme.

It features gullwing doors, which from almost any other manufacturer would be dismissed as show car fantasy, but then Mazda is the company that brought us rear-hinged doors on the RX-8.

The interior is no less fanciful, with an instrument binnacle that looks like something straight out of Star Wars. There's also a 'floating' centre console that curves out of the dash-top.

A 2.5-litre engine powers the Ryuga and can be run on standard unleaded or bio-fuel.

Mazda has hinted that the Ryuga will inspire yet another concept that may appear at the Geneva motor show in March and that this design theme will heavily influence future sports car from Mazda.