The Mazda MX-5 (Miata in the US) has been a success story for Mazda. Since the first model in 1989, it has become the best selling sports car ever. Having had an early model with the pop-up headlights, I too have been a confirmed fan of the model, despite it getting the middle-aged spread with subsequent versions.
However, Mazda has learned the lesson and has brought the MX-5 back to be closer to its original iteration. While the new MX-5 stays true to its front-engine, rear-drive, two-seat, open-top format, Mazda has drawn on its SkyActiv engineering technologies to strip more than 100 kg from the kerb weight of the two-seat soft-top in a bid to sharpen the MX-5’s “chassis first” performance characteristics that have drawn more than 940,000 buyers over the first three generations.
New MX-5
Mazda MX-5 program manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto said the development of the new generation became “a struggle with the model’s 25-year history. Each successive model of the past three generations has seen slight increases in body size and weight in response to demands,” he said.
More extensive use of aluminium and high tensile steel has assisted in the weight loss program and adding to torsional rigidity. The original weighed 940 kg, and the new car will be around 1000 kg. The weight distribution is reputedly once again 50:50 as the original.
And like the original, the new MX-5 returns to a lightweight folding soft-top in place of the folding three-piece hard-top of the third generation offered in Australia. The after-market hard top manufacturers will be rubbing their hands over that decision!
The new SkyActiv rear-drive floor pan – which will be shared with Italian company Fiat for a sportscar of its own – rides on double-wishbone front suspension and multi-link rear suspension, as before.
Mazda has gone for a modern electric-assisted system to reduce both weight and fuel consumption.
The main engine is expected to be a normally aspirated SkyActiv-G 2.0 liter unit, producing more than the 114 kW/200 Nm of the similar engine in the new Mazda3. However there may be a smaller capacity unit offered as well. The current car’s 2.0 liter engine produces 118 kW.
All engines are set to be offered with a choice of six-speed manual and automatic transmissions.
Code-named NA, the first MX-5 – distinguished by its pop-up headlights and double-wishbone suspension – had an 86 kW 1.6 liter engine. In 1993, a 98 kW 1.8 liter engine was introduced as part of a facelift. The second generation NB MX-5 was released in 1998 with modern style fixed headlights and a more powerful 100 kW 1.8 liter engine and later lifted to 109 kW in 2001. The current NC MX-5 introduced multi-link rear suspension, 118 kW 2.0 liter engine and six-speed gearbox in 2005.
