A journalist's offhand wish in 1976 became the best-selling two-seat roadster ever
In 1976 a Motor Trend writer named Bob Hall told Mazda's research chief that nobody built the cheap, wind-in-your-hair British sports car anymore, and somebody should. The executive remembered. Thirteen years later that idea appeared as the MX-5, and more than a million have since been sold.
Hall spoke Japanese and knew the country's cars well, which is how he came to be chatting with Kenichi Yamamoto and Gai Arai. By 1981 he had joined Mazda's American product planning team, and Yamamoto, now chairman, gave him the go-ahead in 1982 to study a small roadster. Hall brought in designer Mark Jordan at a new studio in Southern California. In 1983 the concept was approved under an internal programme called Offline 55, and Mazda turned it into a contest between its Tokyo and California design teams.
The Californians wanted the engine up front driving the rear wheels, like the old British cars. Japan preferred front-wheel drive or a mid-engined layout. Paper sketches were judged in April 1984, but when full-size clay models were compared that August, the Californian design, codenamed Duo 101, won. Its styling borrowed freely from the 1960s Lotus Elan, down to the door handles and tail lamps. A consultancy in Worthing, England, built a running fibreglass prototype, finished in August 1985 and filmed drawing smiles around Santa Barbara.
Final approval came on 18 January 1986. The finished car debuted in Chicago in 1989 weighing 940 kg, guided by the phrase Jinba ittai, unity of horse and rider. It was meant to be affordable, yet American dealers added up to US$10,000 to the sticker price and some buyers crossed state lines to find one. Near-even weight distribution makes it easy to slide under control, a big reason it dominates amateur club racing.
The name Miata comes from an Old High German word for reward. Guinness called it the best-selling two-seat sports car in history in 2000, and Jeremy Clarkson wrote in 2009 that he only gave it five stars because he could not give it fourteen.
Source: Mazda MX-5
