This is why the Mazda MX-5 is so good

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(music - Sunset Strut - Dan Lebowitz) YouTube Audio Library Everyone knows the MX-5. It’s that fun little  roadster that you always promised yourself,   and so much has been written about it already.  But it’s hard to over emphasise the impact this   car had when it launched. At a time when cars  were focusing on more and more horsepower,   supercharging to ever more extreme levels,  Mazda proved that you don’t need an exotic   engine to have a lot of fun. Cars already had  enough power for public roads where you spent   most of your time anyway. It wasn’t about  miles per gallon, but smiles per gallon!  So, where did the vision for the MX-5 come from,   and has it stayed true to that founding vision? This is the Mazda MX-5 Story. (music) In the 1970s small open top roadsters were  dropping like flies. The US had impending   legislation that would effectively ban them.  The 1960s and 70s had been a loud, Saturday   night party, but the US Government was turning  on the lights and telling everyone to go home.   In this atmosphere any car company would be  mad to invest in a small open top roadster,   even if they were produced outside the US,  as their main market was North America.   After all roadsters seemed to be designed  for those warm, eternal summer days in states   like Florida, Arizona and of course California. But the impending legislation didn’t stop some   from dreaming of a next-generation roadster.  Bob Hall worked for Motor Trend magazine,   and in 1979 suggested to Kenichi Yamamoto, Mazda’s  head of Research and Development that they should   create their own simple roadster, something like  the British used to build in the 1950s and 60s.   A car that wasn’t focused on power,  but on how much fun it was to drive.  By 1981 Bob was working for Mazda’s US  operation and again bumped into Yamamoto,   who was now chairman of Mazda Motors.  They reminisced about the conversation   and thought a small roadster might be a  good idea. The impending US legislation   concerning roadsters had gone nowhere, other  than to scare car makers away from making one.   Mazda could tap into a deep  public desire for a fun open-top,   something that reminded them of the classic cars  of old, but by using modern mechanicals it would   be reliable. Like how drivers remembered cars  of their youth, through rose-tinted glasses.  Yamamoto thought it was an excellent  idea, and suggested Bob pursue it further,   when he wasn’t doing his day job of course!  He worked with Mark Jordan and by 1983   the idea became a formal design proposal. Teams in  California and Tokyo would produce their ideas for   this new car in friendly competition. Although Yamamoto was interested,   others in Mazda’s management were more sceptical.  Only 2,000 cars of this type sold in the US   every year. But the Californian team pitched  it as a lead-in to the larger and pricier RX-7.  The Japanese designers came up with two proposals.  The first was front engined and front wheel drive,   reusing parts from their other small front wheel  drive cars like the 323. Their second proposal was   mid-engined with rear wheel drive, as  were many contemporary sports cars.   The California team took a different tack though.  Like Bob’s beloved 1960s roadsters, their car   would be front engined but rear wheel drive. The Californian styling was also a little   different. Where the Japan team was designing  a car that, like the MR2 was “of the moment”,   the American car’s shape harked back to those  1960s roadsters, and eschewed modern styling.   It wasn’t just pretty, but practical too. Car’s  styling was generally refreshed every 4 to 5   years. The American team wrote a document titled  “Why not a 10-year car?”. They figured a timeless   shape wouldn’t need updating as often, which meant  the car would be cheaper to produce over its life,   which not only meant more profit for  Mazda, but more reason to approve it.  But Mazda’s management felt that rather  than looking timeless, the Californian   design simply looked old. Mazda were going to  choose two of these designs to make clay models,   and then pick one shape as the final design. It  wasn’t looking likely that the Californian design   would even make it to the clay stage, but the team  caught a break. Bob Hall talked about it in 2014:  And they had this program where  they had these three proposals,   and they wanted to take it to two. So, they  showed ours, and everyone was like “yawn!” with   ours. And the chief guy, named Masakatsu Kato And Kato felt sorry for us. He didn’t tell   us we’d lost, and he said we could  do a clay model, but the intention   was our clay model wouldn’t be counted. Those two Japanese proposals were hardtops,   but the Californian proposal was an open top: And we did the presentation, and it was shown   to the management, and they were “ok”, and then we  took the roof off, and the guy who was in charge   of the mid-engined car, a guy named Youichi  Sato, who was completely insane! Sato jumps   up and says in English “Uh! Build that one!”. The team had gone from also rans, to winning the   competition. The next task was creating a running  prototype. With the car evoking British roadsters,   it was perhaps natural Mazda chose International  Automotive Design in Worthing in the UK to do   the work. They were told to make something like a  classic British roadster such as the Lotus Elan,   but the chassis and powertrain they started with  was almost the exact opposite – a 1977 Mazda 323!   The front suspension and wheels were taken  from the Mazda RX-7 and rear suspension from   the Mazda 929. IAD didn’t just work on the  chassis and exterior, they also mocked up an   interior design. This was far from the final car  though – Mazda was simply trying to get something   to sit in and drive around to understand  if a car like this would be successful.  Mazda’s management came to the UK to compare it  against the Fiat X1/9, Toyota MR2 and Reliant   Scimitar and liked what they found. Testing moved  to California where it was compared to the Mazda   RX-7, a Triumph Spitfire and a Straman Honda CRX  Cabriolet. The story goes that someone saw the   prototype being driven around, chased it down and  asked to buy the car on the spot for any price!  With a reception like this, it was natural the  car got formally approved in January 1986. The   US team was still in charge of design, but most  development now moved to Japan. The Japanese team   used the phrase “Jinba ittai” or “horse and rider  as one”. The car needed to fit you like a glove,   but also be an extension of you. They also  decided that, like those 1960s sports cars,   this new car needed to be simple. The roof  would be a basic ragtop unless you wanted to   install the fixed roof. But soft-tops of old were  fiddly affairs, sometimes involving tent assembly   skills! The MX-5’s soft-top would be so simple it  could be taken up and down from the driver’s seat   in seconds. But simple didn’t mean unsafe. The  car had to comply with modern crash legislation   and would come with a driver’s side airbag. The team knew they’d be using a small engine, a   lighter and more powerful version of the 1.6L that  would be used in the Mazda 121 and 323, so weight   was key. The team found weight savings in the  chassis design. Less metal meant less weight to   change direction, but also reduced Mazda’s monthly  steel bill. The look of the car evoked the 1960s   Lotus Elan, and so did the chassis, with a simple  backbone holding the suspension at both ends.  The efficiency of design extended to the  cost of replacement parts and repair.   When coupled with a relatively small engine  this not only kept the purchase price down,   but also the cost to insure it. While the Japanese engineers were   about as far removed from Italy, England or  southern California as you could get, they lived   and breathed cars, and understood the classic  handing the car needed. Not only that, with modern   suspension design they improved on it, creating  a “go kart” feel that put a smile on your face.   And while they wanted it to be a fun track car,  it was going to be driven by people who’d never   seen a racetrack, so they made sure it  was a car with easy, predictable handling.  Now Mazda had a final design, they  needed 5 prototypes for further testing.   They again turned to IAD in the UK. The team was  also called on to do small changes, including   tuning the exhaust to copy the sound of an MGB,  after Mazda had listened to over 100 exhaust   recordings to find just the sound they wanted. The new car – named the MX-5 – would be simple   but being sold in the US it still needed creature  comforts. Those baby boomers who remembered the   1960s roadsters of their youth were now driving  cars with all the latest modern conveniences.   All those extras brought weight.  Mazda had to skirt a fine line between   keeping the car light and making it saleable. To  this end the base model would be paired back, but   customers could specify a stereo with CD player,  power-assisted steering, ABS, air conditioning,   cruise control, electric windows, and  Lord protect us, an automatic gearbox!  Small details like the door handle told you  this was a car unlike any other, something   different from the usual mass-produced car.  Like many 80s sports cars, and the Lotus Elan,   the MX-5 would include pop-up headlights. This  wasn’t what the Californian team wanted though.   They wanted fixed ellipsoidal lights somewhat  similar to the first-generation Dodge Neon. They   were lighter, there was less to go wrong and the  team thought they looked better than pop-ups. But   the Japanese team fought for pop-up headlights.  They preferred the look, plus they could reuse   the RX-7’s mechanism, meaning their limited  development budget could be spent in other areas.  The MX-5 was unveiled to driving enthusiasts  in a research clinic in April 1987.   You would think their enthusiastic reception  would give Mazda confidence in MX-5 sales,   but as it got closer to production, Mazda worried  about a car that was only an open top, so asked   the California team to design a coupé version.  It was duly produced, but there was a problem:  When you take a coupe and make a convertible, you  end up with a pretty heavy convertible because   you’ve got to cut off the roof and cannibalise  it. When you take a convertible and make a coupe,   because you have a tougher body you  end up with a pretty heavy coupe.  That heavier car would need a larger engine,  adding to the cost. But as the car got closer   to production, Mazda’s confidence  grew, and the hardtop was dropped,   although it would be shown as a concept in 1996. The car would be known as the MX-5, but Mazda’s US   office didn’t think the name was quite right.  After much searching, they hit upon the word   “Miata”, from the old German word for “reward”.  It seemed an appropriate name for a car that   was less about a car you bought with your head,  and rather something you bought with your heart.  (music - "Marvin's Dance" by Silent Partner) YouTube audio library The Mazda MX-5 or Miata launched at  the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989   to a rapturous reception. It would also appear in  Japan as the Eunos Roadster, Eunos being Mazda’s   upscale brand. But Mazda expected sales in North  America, and they didn’t disappoint, with long   waiting lists that only got longer when motor  critics drove one and started singing its praises.   Mazda had aimed for this to be a mini Jaguar, and  the quality and attention to detail certainly made   it a touch above those old 1960s open tops. It  couldn’t compete with Porsche’s for outright pace,   but it was just as much fun, and  customers instantly “got it”.  US sales began in May, and soon Miata mania  swept the country, with cars selling for   thousands over the sticker price. Sales in Japan  & Australia started a few months later. Mazda   hadn’t expected a great deal of demand in Japan –  maybe 250 to 500 cars a month, but the demand was   overwhelming, with 3,000 monthly orders. Supply  problems got so bad Mazda ran out of aluminium   wheels on the higher end models and had to  steer customers towards the lower spec cars!  Although it came as a manual or an automatic,  at launch only the manual was available,   so there were probably quite a few burning  clutches from customers who just had to have   this car but had never used a clutch before! European sales began the following year. Mazda   had tried British Racing Green as a colour, but  never felt it worked with the black interior.   So, in 1991 they released 250 special edition  British Racing Green MX-5’s with a tan interior.  It’s always the same isn't it? You wait forever for a  roadster to come along, then two turn up at once!   This one also used a Mazda  chassis, but was very different.   Ford had a partnership with Mazda at the time,  and Ford of Australia conceived a small open   top they felt would sell well in the US market,  just as Bob Hall had surmised in the late 1970s.   Their roadster used a modern Mazda 323 chassis  and powertrain. Ford’s Italian styling house Ghia   created the exterior design, with ItalDesign  doing the interior. Production began in 1989,   the year the MX-5 appeared, but it would take  until 1991 until it appeared on North American   roads as the Mercury Capri and by then people  had fallen in love with the Miata. What’s more,   the attention to detail wasn’t as good, and by  1994 Ford beat a hasty retreat back to Australia.  The MX-5’s success made those car companies  who’d made sports cars in the 1960s   think about bringing them back. So, in 1995  Fiat introduced the Barchetta, and Rover,   ancestor of Triumph and MG, launched the  MGF. Both would go on to some success,   but globally it was the MX-5 that reigned supreme. Mazda would release a few MX-5 prototypes and   special editions, but true to Bob Hall’s vision,  the car stayed pretty much the same for the next   8 to 9 years. It got a few updates, such  as dual airbags, better side protection,   and a larger 1.8L engine. An amazing  430,000 first generation cars were produced,   but more changes came with the second generation  that launched at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show.  The MX-5 was always envisioned as a car to get  more people to drive the RX-7, and the new body   took design elements from Mazda’s larger car.  The most noticeable change were fixed headlamps,   a result of pedestrian safety laws. Despite  this, the new MX-5 only scored 1 out of 4 for   pedestrian safety in the Euro NCAP tests. Mazda listened to customers by including a   defroster in the rear window that was now made of  glass instead of plastic. The cockpit remained the   same size, meaning the first-generation hardtop  could still be used on the second-generation car.  The new changes made it 60kg (132lb) heavier, like  putting a full keg of beer in the passenger seat!   Mazda took pains to try to mount heavier  parts like the battery and the spare tyre   lower to help the driveability, and the  MX-5 stayed true to its goal of being a   barrel of fun to drive, and with a few  engine tweaks it remained just as quick.  It became the Mazda Roadster in Japan,  and the MX-5 Miata in North America to   bring the name more in line with the rest  of the world. But whatever it was called,   Mazda’s little roadster continued to sell well. But there were signs MX-5 mania was over.   Mazda produced 7,500 10th anniversary  special edition cars in 1999,   but it took that whole 10th year to sell them. A facelift in 2000 brought a stiffer chassis,   a small bump in power and other changes  such as the option of a 6-speed manual.   Just enough to keep the car in the public eye, and  the MX-5 kept on selling. In 2003 Autocar magazine   crowned it the best handling car, beating out  the Porsche 911. Not bad for a front engined car!  A fun car like this was begging  to be thrown around a track,   and many owners were doing just that. Mazda  showed off the Mono Posto concept in 2000,   harking back to single seaters like the  Jaguar D-Type or the Lotus Eleven, and   the 200hp (149 kW) MPS concept in 2001. They were  interesting, but it was spec racing that took off,   just like it had in the 60s with Triumphs battling  MGs for Sunday supremacy, and to help drum up more   sales of course! The Sports Car Club of America  held MX-5 races from 1999, and other amateur   and professional series sprung up. In the UK the  MaX5 Racing Championship started racing in 2004.  Mazda produced the MX-5 SP performance model  with a 6 second 0-60 time, and this paved the   way for Mazda’s motorsports division Mazdaspeed  to offer their own turbocharged version in 2004.  Mazda wanted to make more changes for the  third-generation car and previewed them as   the Ibuki concept in 2003. Built on the  larger RX-8 chassis, the car showcased   Mazda’s work at weight saving, with liberal use  of aluminium, magnesium alloy and carbon fibre.   The front pillars acted as a rollbar and the rear  section lifted up in the event of a rollover.  When the third generation MX-5 appeared in 2005  it was clear it was a big update. Some of the   Ibuki styling carried forward, especially the  front grille and lights, but around the back it   was more like the second generation car. Inside  it was all new, with steering mounted controls   to keep your eyes on the road. The automatic  gearbox got the dreaded paddle shifters that were   little help until double clutch automatics made  them interesting. While the same backbone chassis   from previous generations remained, the suspension  was completely different, being borrowed from the   RX-8. The 50/50 weight distribution remained  as well; something Mazda had been keen to talk   about since the MX-5 launched 16 years earlier. It got another bump in weight, despite losing   the spare tyre. The keg of beer in the passenger  seat from the second generation was accompanied by   a baby elephant! That was 170kg or 374lb. It got  a little longer and wider, meaning it no longer   complied with Japanese domestic size restrictions.  Thankfully the engines offered a boost in power,   meaning the car still offered the same amount of  fun. It was living up to the “Zoom Zoom” tagline   Mazda was now using in its commercials. Maybe to make up for the lack of pop-up   headlights, Mazda introduced a cool and infinitely  more useful electronic toy – a power retractable   hardtop. It brought all the advantages of the  fixed hardtop, making this a good all-weather   car for the first time, and the compact  mechanism didn’t even take up any boot space.  But it made the car 36kg (79 lb) heavier, and  that weight sat up high. But after Mazda added   a larger front anti-roll bar and tweaked the  rear springs, most drivers would be hard pressed   to notice any difference from the regular car. The new MX-5 soon had competition from General   Motors in the form of the Saturn Sky,  Pontiac Solstice, Opel GT in Europe,   and the Daewoo G2X in Asia. It looked good, but it  fell down on the details. The interior felt cheap,   a constant GM gripe, the electric window  buttons were in an awkward position,   you had to get out to fold down the roof, and when  you did, the roof swallowed up the tiny boot. And   it was heavier. Forget about adding a keg and a  baby elephant, GMs cars were a full 215kg (474 lb)   heavier than the third generation MX-5. That’s  the weight of an upright piano! That extra weight   meant the MX-5 was better through the bends.  You might drive GMs car to look good, but if   you cared about the fun of driving and didn’t  mind the stiff suspension, you chose the MX-5.   Sales were acceptable, but all four GM models fell  victim of the Great Recession and GMs bankruptcy.  A facelift in 2008 gave the MX-5 a big laughing  mouth of a grille, along with front light and   indicator changes, plus small changes down the  side, all to give the car the new Mazda family   look. Maybe because of all the weight gains,  Mazda launched the Superlight concept in 2009.   The car was stripped down to the bare bones,  with an early form of Apple CarPlay – just   an iPhone stuck in a slot!, and it used  lighter materials throughout the car.   They even removed the windscreen! But there was  only so much Mazda could remove, and it still   weighed a full 59kg (130 lb) or a fully grown  Aardvark heavier than the first-generation MX-5.  Many other special editions appeared,  including 20th anniversary versions,   but Mazda took the unusual step of doing a second  facelift of the third-generation car in 2012,   maybe to boost the flagging sales of this once  popular roadster. The changes were small though.   The front of the car got another small change,  and to improve its pedestrian safety score which   had never been great, Mazda implemented “Active  Bonnet” technology, where in the event of a crash   the bonnet would open so if the person hit the  bonnet there would be a gap between it and the   engine. Brakes were also improved, reducing the  chance you’d hit a pedestrian in the first place!  Inside there wasn’t much of a change, although  by this time the car was offered with Bluetooth   and navigation to keep with the times. The  MX-5 got the usual raft of special editions,   including a 25th anniversary edition. But sales were dropping. Those baby boomers   who’d remembered European roadsters of the 1960s  were driving something a little more comfortable,   and those who had nostalgia for the original  MX-5 could still by an original MX-5. They   were plentiful enough, reliable and unlike  European roadsters hadn’t rusted away to nothing.  The MX-5 had put on weight over the years, and  it had undoubtedly made it a much safer car   without affecting the “fun factor”, which  was after all the whole point of the car.   But for the 2015 fourth generation car Mazda made  weight savings one of their main goals with the   mantra they’d used throughout - “less is more”. A lighter car allowed Mazda to include a smaller   1.5L engine, the smallest they’d ever used, giving  excellent fuel efficiency as well as performance.   The original MX-5 used a 1.6L engine giving 113hp  (84 kW) and 36 miles per British gallon (7.8l / 100km).  The new 1.5L Skyactiv engine produced  129hp (96 kW) while returning 47 miles per   gallon (6l / 100km), and although the car was a  little heavier than the original MX-5, about the   weight of 4 cans of paint, it was still faster  to 60, and just as nimble through the bends.  It also retained that all-important 50/50 weight  balance and the same backbone chassis from the   original car, but the first thing customers  would notice was the dramatic new shape. Gone was   the nostalgic look back to the 60s, replaced by  something more reminiscent of a 2002 BMW Z4. Cars   always seem to get bigger, so it was maybe not  a surprise the new MX-5 was wider with a longer   wheelbase. Maybe more surprising, it was shorter  than any of the previous three generations.  Inside Mazda made good use of its parts bin  to include the latest technology. Mazda knew   customers wanted fun, but also their creature  comforts. This was no track day special like   the Ariel Atom, but that didn’t stop you  having a barrel of laughs on the racetrack.   Texts were automatically read  through the new infotainment system.   The car featured a lane departure warning system,  blind spot detection and backup warning sensors.   With climate control and heated seats all in a  light car with a powerful, fuel-efficient engine   it seems you could have your cake and eat it! One thing that disappeared was the ingenious   automatic hard top. Mazda’s new MX-5 only had  a manually opening soft top, but in 2016 Mazda   launched the MX-5 RF or Retractable Fastback. The  rear buttresses gave the car more of a coupé feel   and featured an automatic removable targa  section. Not quite the same open-air feel,   but if you were in the market for a 2-seater coupe  with excellent handling it was a good option.  In 2016 Mazda reached a significant milestone  – the MX-5 had sold its millionth car.   It had already been crowned the best-selling  two-seater sports car in history in 2000.  Another small update appeared in 2018, giving  a little more power, plus a few small changes   inside. There was another update in 2021 featuring  “Kinematic Posture Control”. That’s a lot of fancy   words, but to you and me it meant better steering  response and less body roll in high-g corners.  The chassis codes for the four generations of  MX-5 were, rather logically, NA, NB, NC and ND.   Mazda entered an agreement with Fiat Chrysler  to use the MX-5 chassis for their own roadster,   the Fiat 124 Spider and Abarth 124 Spider  which was launched in 2016. The codes for   those chassis were NE and NF, meaning  any future MX-5 will have to start at   NG. If there will be one. Declining sales may mean  the latest version of the MX-5 will be the last.  As those original MX-5’s start to become classic  cars, more people who lusted after them in their   youth want restored versions of their own to  drive. Mazda launched a restoration programme in   2017 in Japan for those original Eunos Roadsters.  As Mazda needed to reproduce some original parts,   in 2019 they started offering those  parts to North American customers.  Most of the work for the original MX-5 was done in  Japan. That’s where their main engineering staff   were. But Mazda were smart enough go against their  own better judgement and listen to the Americans   who’d original proposed the car, and were closest  to the customers who would ultimately buy it.   That paid dividends in creating a car that Mazda’s  management might not have understood, but millions   of people around the world immediately “got”. And I think that as long as the car keeps those key aspects of driver involvement and being  enjoyable, it can go on forever. I mean that class   of those lightweight sports cars started around  1914, and they’re still with us. Now they aren’t   like they used to be, they’ve got brakes on  all four wheels, the brakes are hydraulic,   they’ve got real engines in them, but the  philosophy behind the cars is the same.  The MX-5 started as a nostalgic, throwback  dream. It’s a car that’s been around so long,   it’s become a piece of nostalgia itself, and  there are plenty of cheap cars around to enjoy   some low-cost thrills. But every generation  of MX-5 has remained true to the vision   of a good value two-seater that puts a smile on  your face every time you hit the accelerator.  As usual, there’s an Optional Extra video where I  talk a little bit more about the MX-5. If you’re   interested there’s a link on the right. Thanks  for watching and I’ll see you in the next video!
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Channel: Big Car
Views: 203,465
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Keywords: mazda mx-5 story, mazda miata story, mazda mx-5, mazda miata, eunos roadster, mazda roadster
Id: 6zAFUfaKdf4
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Length: 29min 4sec (1744 seconds)
Published: Fri Jul 08 2022
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