I've had enough of the teasing now! First we had the little Sassou in Frankfurt, then the sleek Senku coupe in Tokyo, now Mazda tantalises car nuts with yet another sports coupe at Detroit. The latest concept car is called the Kabura, loosely meaning 'the first arrow into battle' in Japanese. So, will it lead to a new battle of small, sporty coupes such as the Nissan Urge concept?

The Kabura looks more production ready than the outrageous Urge, though we're not convinced that it will come to anything. In size, the Kabura sits between the new Mazda MX-5 and the four-door RX-8, but surely there is not a big enough market for this? It is more likely that Mazda will launch an MX-5-based coupe, although it would then be difficult to retain the concept car's '3+1' interior layout as that platform would only really fit in two people.

Some of the design features will hopefully make their way onto a possible small coupe in the future though, with a distinctive and pretty glasshouse and unusual rear glass treatment echoed in the front grille. Mazda's characteristic protruding front wheelarches are exaggerated further in the Kabura, which really suits the sportscar aspirations. You'll also notice the see-through bonnet panel. Underneath is a normal 2-litre four-cylinder engine as found throughout the Mazda range. Encouragingly, drive is to the rear wheels, promising serious driving fun. If only...

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