Aug Car and Driver MX-5 Spy Photo

ya, ROUGH!

It wouldn't surprise me though if Mazda borrowed some RX-8 family resemblance. They've got it through the rest of the family! At least Mazda has so far maintained family resemblance and not just cloning all it's cars and adjusting the scale factor up and down. Volkswagen / Audi has almost completely made it's cars generic 'Audi / VW' You can't mistake them for other brands too much but you can hardly tell them apart!

Sorry to rant, Chris

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There is a small photo in the August Road and Track too. Page 49. Just looks like a white Miata with an RX-8 nose super glued on the front. The blurp said the car will be slightly larger and more powerful since it's built on the RX-8 floorpan. I'm hoping they redesign the top with a solid boot or something that folds similar to the MR-S and Z4. In this day and age do we really need those snap on top covers??

That figures. The Miata was already much larger than the 60s British sports cars, so the thing to do is obviously to make it even bigger. Which also means heavier. Put in a big engine to deal with all this bulk, give it an ugly contemporary Ford face, and tell the dealers it is not competing with the Ford Mustang.

In this day and age, do we still need Miatas?

To offset this bit of news: Lotus is finally selling a US version of the Elise. That is certainly a move in the right direction!

Ken

"Mike Gortych" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

it's obviously disguised using readily available 8 parts. Anybody that thinks this is what it will look like is really funny..........

Actually, I had already seen it yesterday when checking caranddriver.com. My two biggest concerns about it are:

1) Did they *have* to make it so gadful ugly? It is worse than an S 2000, though I don't know whether the doors will be over your ears like in that car. There *was* a time that Lotus turned out some good looking cars. Emma Peel's Elan, my father's Europa spring to mind. 2) Bozo *is* getting older and less reliable, mostly due to all the aftermarket stuff. But I really wonder, is a brand new Elise any more reliable than a Miata who has seen 122k highly abusive miles, who has run with an aftermarket supercharger for 118k, and who has had countless parts replaced by aftermarket stuff, much of it by a highly talented, but amateur mechanic? Somehow, the obvious "yes" answer does not seem that obvious to me. Doubts nag.

I am really thinking the best would be to try to find a mint condition white 95. I just can't imagine getting all the tons of aftermarket stuff re-installed.

Anyway, Bozo still seems reliable enough to allow any decision to be postponed for a looong time. :))

Leon

No way, Leon. I mean, can you even IMAGINE driving an Elise to Alaska??! The Toyota engine will probably be OK, if not up to Mazda standards, but the rest of the car is English. Stuff will fall off.

I don't like the idea of making the car bigger and heavier, but what is wrong with improving the design of the top? I don't like the Toyota, but the MR-S that Scott mentioned has a top that I like much better than the miata's. It is so simple that I can't believe it took an auto maker this long to figure it out, just leave the the exterior part that is normally exposed to the sun in the exposed position while the top is down and protect the vulnerable underside interior from sun damage and dirt. This is much better, imho, than dealing with strapping and snapping a separate piece of vinyl every time I want to raise and drop the top.

Pat '96M

The styling is a bit radical. I saw one parked on a street a couple of years ago in London. Up close and personal, two immediate impressions were: 1. This thing is a lot smaller than I imagined and 2. It's not nearly as ugly.

Someone mentioned the Elan and Europa. Interesting comparison. I was immediately taken by the beauty of the Elan (still am) and, upon seeing the first photo of a Miata, immediately categorized it as an "Elise reborn". Someone said it looked like an Elan pumped up to about 60 psi. Good comment. And yea, there is the Emma Peel factor.

The Europa always seemed like an ugly duckling to me. It's style was clearly a departure from the norm back then and is still so today. Frankly, I never warmed up to it. I do have a story about test driving a used one in Phoenix in the summer.

People who buy Lotii probably fall into one of two major categories: Those who think the car is "cute" or "cool" and those who go into it with their eyes wide open. The former will dump the car in about a year or so (I predict a healthy secondary market for the Elise in the USA) and the latter will collect stories to tell fellow enthusiasts and fix the car a lot. It's not at all a Miata. Oh yea, it will be the closest thing to a race car you can buy for the street and probably the best handling production car on the planet.

Ken

Make that "Elan Reborn".

KWS wrote: > Make that "Elan Reborn". >

I can't find my C & D at the moment, but the only "spy photo" I recall recently was a white roadster with a Mazda "family" air intake.

A close inspection reveals an Rx-8 front clip attached to what appears to be an otherwise stock Miata- and not fitted very well. This thing looks to me like a development "mule", possibly fitted with Rx-8 front suspension and/or an engine that didn't fit under the stock bodywork.

I doubt this car is any hint of new Miata styling.

Joe Silver '99

I believe you are exactly correct. It will be interesting to see if the new miata goes the 'family resemblance' / RX-8 direction or goes the Ibuki direction. I for one, can't wait to see! Right now I just wish I could rationalize a mazdaspeed turbo!

Chris

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