The next-gen MX-5 Miata thread

I would skip an Accord for two sports cars. You still get four seats and four doors!
 
You know what happened last time a Japanese car company collaberated with Alfa Romeo on a car? We got Japanese styling with Alfa build quality...

alfa-arna-1983-t.jpg

At least the Japanese handling was retained though. Pity it was 1980's Nissan handling.
 
Think this time it'll unavoidably work. Alfa Romeo is buying the rights to the Mazda's platform, rather than the other way around. They'll be chucking their own engine in there, but since the modern Alfa units are quite good it shouldn't be a problem.

Really, Alfa just needs to not screw up the styling, which isn't automatically a given considering what the 4C concept looked like.
 
ExigeEvan
That sentenced baffled me. Are you a not a fan of the 4C?!
Click to expand...

Not particularly. It's hugely over-designed, and yet more proof that the 8C's front end shouldn't be applied to every vehicle the company produces. The front end looks surprised, the rear lights are needlessly massive, and the Alfa badge looks like it's extruding itself from the boot lid. And will someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on with the doors?

The proportions look odd from some angles too. Admittedly the metal-look colour they showed it in at Frankfurt looked better than the odd colour-shift matte stuff they used at Geneva, but whichever way you look at it it's hardly beautiful. Interesting, "dynamic" (ugh), aggressive yes; beautiful, elegant, timeless no.


They can potentially redeem themselves with the MX-5-based model, but if they insist on dropping the 8C's front on everything (which worked on the 8C, but doesn't really suit anything physically smaller) then there's not much hope.

Ideally they should be doing something like the Duettotanta concept, though I think there's room for something even more forward-looking, while remaining a beautiful design.

duettotanta.jpg

Call me old-fashioned, but Alfas should be feminine and beautiful. If the 4C is feminine, it's the same sort of feminine as a 4am Lindsay Lohan crotch-shot on a celebrity website.
 
homeforsummer
Ideally they should be doing something like the Duettotanta concept, though I think there's room for something even more forward-looking, while remaining a beautiful design.
Click to expand...
Fair points but I still believe it gives a very good looking small sports car.

The Duetto'' however is a bit, um, bland. The girll/lights are great but the rest looks like an early 90's concept.
 
ExigeEvan
The Duetto'' however is a bit, um, bland. The girll/lights are great but the rest looks like an early 90's concept.
Click to expand...

I think that's more a sign that a large proportion of concepts these days also suffer from being over-designed, while those in the 90s were perhaps a little more toned-down.

While I don't mind Bangle-era BMWs too much, the chap has a lot to answer for given his influence on wider car design. Seemingly everything these days has to have multiple surfaces, lines that start and stop abruptly with little relation to their neighbors, and randomly placed details that don't seem to tie in with anything around them.

Keeping vaguely on topic, I also hope the next MX-5 is kept stylistically fairly simple as well as it being cleverly/lightly engineered. The current KODO design language Mazda is using looks okay on a CX-5 crossover, but whether those heavy-handed lines will work on a sports car smaller than the current MX-5 is a different matter...
 
Can't believe it'll be too long before they show us something - the Mazda Ibuki concept arrived two years before the NC was released, and the Ibuki was clearly the styling prototype for the NC:

mazda_ibuki_frontangle_mfr_430.jpg
 
800px-1967-Alfa-Romeo-Duetto-Red-Front-Angle-st.jpg


Gimmie gimmie gimmie!

If Mazda and Fiat are going to work together, this could be pretty beneficial. An MX-5 chassis with the 1.4L Multiair could be a lot of fun, and more than likely, fairly affordable. It's a great way to re-introduce yourself on a grand scale here in the US, and should be quite easy to sell alongside the 500 and it's variants.
 
homeforsummer
Not particularly. It's hugely over-designed, and yet more proof that the 8C's front end shouldn't be applied to every vehicle the company produces. The front end looks surprised, the rear lights are needlessly massive, and the Alfa badge looks like it's extruding itself from the boot lid. And will someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on with the doors?

The proportions look odd from some angles too. Admittedly the metal-look colour they showed it in at Frankfurt looked better than the odd colour-shift matte stuff they used at Geneva, but whichever way you look at it it's hardly beautiful. Interesting, "dynamic" (ugh), aggressive yes; beautiful, elegant, timeless no.


They can potentially redeem themselves with the MX-5-based model, but if they insist on dropping the 8C's front on everything (which worked on the 8C, but doesn't really suit anything physically smaller) then there's not much hope.

Ideally they should be doing something like the Duettotanta concept, though I think there's room for something even more forward-looking, while remaining a beautiful design.

duettotanta.jpg

Call me old-fashioned, but Alfas should be feminine and beautiful. If the 4C is feminine, it's the same sort of feminine as a 4am Lindsay Lohan crotch-shot on a celebrity website.
Click to expand...

I agree with this post 100%. Certified.
 
YSSMAN
An MX-5 chassis with the 1.4L Multiair could be a lot of fun
Click to expand...

Drove an Alfa MiTo with the turbocharged version of that engine (170-ish hp I think) last week. Great engine in an average car. Would be fantastic in an MX5 chassis. Moves along very nicely in the MiTo, so in something lighter it'd be usefully quick.
 
My understanding is that the 1.4 Multiair turbo is fantastic in the Abarth 500 and the new Dodge Dart. It would be more than adequate in a sports coupe, and it should let them slide in with some pretty decent fuel economy numbers.

I'd figure that, if they can get the 160 BHP or so matched to the rather light 1000kg target... That'd be one hell of a performance coupe.
 
It's a shame that each time Mazda touches it they get further and further away from the simple excellence that was the Ibuki concept.
 
Dear Mazda, please consider:
temppl.jpg


...instead of:
01-2013-mazda-mx-5-miata-628.jpg


You still get a smiley, but you're not showing your bloody gums to the world.

So sue me... all of three minutes on Photo-paint.
 
Prefer Niky's photoshop to the facelift. Toro is right, the further they get from the Ibuki, the worse it looks. Which makes it even more of a shame that the car itself is far better now than the first NCs were.

Endless-Wilso
I hope they make that Alfa-Miata thing but not that 4C bad idea me thinks. aint it just an evora?
Click to expand...

They are making the 4C and no, it's not an Evora.
 
Endless-Wilso
I hope they make that Alfa-Miata thing but not that 4C bad idea me thinks. aint it just an evora?
Click to expand...

people are clueless these days. The 4C and Spyder are for 2 different markets. the 4C isnt the Afordable "Spyder" the Spyder is the Afordable "Spyder". Get over it the 4C is already in developement. the Spyder will come later.


And please....
102-300x227.jpg


LotusEvora-600x366.jpg


the only thing thats simular is the common Body style you find on nearly all Mid Engine sports cars.
.
 
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Well, they use a similary chunky, muscular style, and the four-way intersection at the B-pillar and blacked out A-pillar styles are similar...

But hell, it's much better looking than the Evora... that's a car that has been styled.
 
Really? I much prefer the Evora. Some really neat details on it. The 4C is just a MiTo that someone has warmed up and stretched like silly putty.
 
Neat details, but it just doesn't resolve into a cohesive whole for me... or, actually... it does resolve into a cohesive whole (by comparison, I think the Alfa's design is unbalanced by the massive sidescoops...), but it's just not my type... not... drama-queen enough.

(Yes, that probably says more about me than the car...)
 

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