2024-03-03 05:05:00
The story of the MX-5 begins with a “press trip” on the occasion of the presentation of the first Mazda RX7 in 1978. The Japanese manufacturer invited all the automotive press to come and discover its latest sports car. Among these journalists, the American Robert Hall made the trip. Hall, who speaks Japanese, is used to covering these kinds of events and speaks regularly with Kenichi Yamamoto, chief engineer at Mazda. At the end of the presentation, the two men have a conversation during which Yamamoto asks Bob Hall what the next sports Mazda might be.
The roadster, a forgotten art
At the time Bob Hall was nostalgic for small English roadsters. The Austin Healey, Triumph and MG rocked his childhood and disappeared from the market one following the other. The Italians are also deserting this low-volume market, and it would not occur to any manufacturer to launch into the small two-seater sports roadster. However, Bob responds to Kenichi Yamamoto that Mazda should enter this market, since they will soon be the only ones.
A drawing on a board
To put words into action, Bob Hall grabs a piece of chalk and begins to draw on a blackboard the profile of a small two-seater convertible, which will obviously have to be rear-wheel drive, light and easy to manufacture. Bunzo Suzuki, head of press relations at Mazda, immortalized this sketch, without suspecting that it would become historic.
Do it in your free time!
Three years later, in 1981 Bob Hall joined Mazda USA. The American branch of the Japanese manufacturer has a design office which creates its own models intended for the US market. He first worked on the B200 pickup. One day, during a visit from Kenichi Yamamoto, the latter reminded him of his suggestion of a small roadster. The Japanese asked Bob Hall to work on this project. But on one condition: the future MX-5 being absolutely not a priority for Mazda, and not planned in the program for the moment, he will have to work on it, outside of working hours.
An inimitable face
After validation of the project, the Japanese and American design teams are put into competition. But it is the Californian project which will win the right to design the MX-5, thanks to a model with perfect proportions and a real personality. During its first public appearance in February 1989, at the Chicago Motor Show, the MX-5, also called Miata in the United States and Eunos in Japan, was unanimously acclaimed. With its proportions, its characteristics and its look, it is the heir to the Lotus Elan or Triumph Spitfire, with Japanese reliability to boot. The retractable headlights have finally captivated car enthusiasts. Order forms are filling up at high speed, forcing the manufacturer to postpone the European launch.
Driving pleasure
Apart from its successful design, the MX-5 has another advantage. Its rounded design hides a particularly successful chassis. The MX-5 is a rear-wheel drive vehicle offering unique driving pleasure. Light, reliable, easy to maintain and affordable from $14,000 at launch, the MX-5 has it all and will quickly invade the west coast of the United States. The success will be worldwide, upsetting all the analysts who thought the roadster market was finished, because it was out of fashion. The MX-5 replaces classic roadsters in the hearts of enthusiasts, while offering ease of use and incredible Japanese reliability.
A fashion that never fades
Today the MX-5 has been produced for 35 years. An MX-5 NB succeeded the first generation, abandoning its retractable headlights, then an NC and an ND, code names of the third and fourth generations. The Mazda MX-5 still offers the same sensations. Fun driving, hair in the wind. It still symbolizes, four decades following the discussion between Bob Hall and Yamamoto, what a sports car should be. A story that should continue. At the last Tokyo Motor Show, Mazda presented the concept of a sports car, foreshadowing the next MX-5.
Technical Sheet Mazda MX-5 1.8
Engine type: 4-cylinder in-line longitudinal front
Distribution: Double overhead camshaft
Number of valves: 4 per cylinder
Displacement: 1840 cm2
Power: 130 horsepower at 6500 rpm
Torque 15.5 mkg at 5000 rpm
Type : Propulsion
Length: 397 cm
Width: 168 cm
Height: 124 cm
Trunk: 135 liters
Poids : 990 kg
Vitesse max 198 km/h
Period price for a Mada MX-5 NA in 1990: 139,900 F in 1990 or €32,981 (Source INSEE. Purchasing power of a sum in euros or francs of a given year in an equivalent sum in euros or in francs from another year, corrected for inflation observed between the two years.)
New price of a Mazda MX-5 ND in 2020: From €33,000
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#years #happiness #hair #wind
