Simanaitis Says
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MAZDA MIATA AT QUARTER CENTURY
MAZDA IS celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Miata at the New York International Auto Show, taking place April 18 – 27, 2014. Given my personal involvement with Miatas, it’s only fitting that I celebrate it here at SimanaitisSays.com.
The Mazda MX-5 Miata made its debut in Road & Track, March 1989.
Even before its debut, I was one of the journalists invited to confidential one-on-one clinics at Mazda’s Hiroshima headquarters in 1987. And I was the lucky guy who went back for the long-lead preview of the car, culminating in a March 1989 Road & Track split cover with me at the wheel of both a Miata and the all-new Nissan 300ZX. Exciting times, back then.
A Mariner Blue Miata and I corner around Mazda’s Miyoshi test track. Image by John Lamm.
This particular cornering photo also appeared August 13, 2012, in the first SimanaitisSays.com (http://wp.me/p2ETap-1C). The Mariner Blue photo car is identical to Miata VIN …0100348, originally the R&T Long-Term car, the Simanaitis’ and Bornhops’ honeymoon car and wife Dottie’s since 1992.
I’ve had other Miata adventures, one of the more memorable earning the headline “What’s a Nice Little Car Like You Doing in a Place Like This?”
In 1990, the car made its European debut as the Mazda MX-5. (Its Mazda Miata moniker was North American only; in Japan initially, the car was known as the Eunos Roadster.)
I was in Europe at the 1990 Monaco Grand Prix (see http://wp.me/p2ETap-TD for a similar trip in 1992). For wheels, I arranged with Mazda to borrow a red MX-5 to drive from Frankfurt to Monaco and back.
The R&T group stayed at what was then the Lowes Monte Carlo, later named the Grand, now the Fairmont. Its location was (and is) prime, at the steep downhill hairpin of the Monaco circuit.
My borrowed MX-5 mixes with the mighty at primo parking in front of Lowes Monte Carlo, 1990. Image by the author, originally appearing in September 1990 R&T.
Lowes reps were amenable to my idea of a photo shoot, the MX-5 flanked by the Ferraris and Lamborghinis ordinarily warranting prominent spots out front. In fact, the valets took a liking to this non-exotic and kept it there until Saturday’s onslaught of exotica nudged the Mazda into below-level parking.
The chassis of the 2016 Miata, as seen at the 2014 New York International Auto Show.
Maybe the Miata’s fourth generation will earn similar fame. Mazda showed its chassis at the 2014 New York International Auto Show, in advance of its dual introduction in Mazda Miata and Alfa Romeo Spider form as 2016 models.
The chassis shows a continuation of Mazda’s lightweight sports car theme. Its SkyActiv philosophy, front engine/rear drive and independent suspension all-around promise the nimble handling we all appreciate in earlier Miata generations.
Another view of the 2016 Mazda Miata chassis, as seen at the 2014 New York International Auto Show.
A chassis weight loss of 100 kg (220 lb.) is an official word from Mazda, as is a claim of a lower center of gravity.
Plenty of spy renderings of the Mazda/Alfa roadster have appeared, though insiders say they’re all widely off the mark. The second and third generations of Miata design have been evolutionary (as are the renderings). I predict the fourth generation will be strikingly different, more edgy, with an entirely new design idiom. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2014
Simanaitis Says 
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