One of the chief engineers is even building an off-road Miata of his own.
The2023 Mazda MX-5 Miata RFis pretty much the perfect sports car, and Mazda's Vehicle Development Engineer, Dave Coleman, agrees.
年代peaking with Coleman in a recent interview,CarBuzzhad some fun pitching how he might improve the car if pesky hindrances like market demand, production capability, and budgets were eliminated. To our surprise, Coleman agreed with our first suggestion, a Miata Shooting Brake like the old BMW Z3 M Coupe (lovinglyreferred to as the Clownshoe).
"I would very much like to do a Clownshoe," Coleman said. "It's too sunny here [in California], and I like to drive that car all the time. But there are some times when you want to put more stuff in it."
Aside from a one-off concept car from the 1990s called the M Coupe (not to be confused with the BMW) and a small handful ofRoadster Coupes during the NB generationin the early 2000s, Mazda has never put a coupe version of the Miata into mass production. Such a creation may never see the light of day, but it's fun to imagine; we've even rendered a few examples below.
For now, the RF (Retractable Fastback) is the closest we will get to a Miata Coupe.
"I think that the RF was a brilliant way to broaden the appeal of the car using the same hardware that we had already," Coleman said, explaining that the RF uses the same roof mechanism as the previous generation NC Miata. "The retractable hardtop hardware for the NC was amazing. It's the only retractable hardtop that doesn't take up any trunk space. As a car you're living with, that's a bit of practicality that's incredibly valuable."
Unlike most other sports cars with folding metal roofs, you don't need to run back to the trunk to move your luggage if you want to put the top down in the RF. "That kind of takes the joy out of it," Coleman joked.
“我们有一方特astic mechanism there, but with the ND, we really wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were redesigning a significant part of the car. I said, 'let's take this opportunity to try to make this a different visual experience, as well as a different ownership experience.' We were inspired by fastback hard tops you could buy for NA/NB Miata and Honda S2000. Those were getting really popular as we were working on the [ND]," Coleman added.
Mazda knew it wanted to continue making a hardtop Miata, but it wanted to try something new without spending too much on development.
"The mechanism itself to fold the top is nearly identical for the NC and ND, so all we did is the flying buttress Targa top part as the tonneau cover. Everything else is the same. That's the brilliance of that design; we were able to use a really good mechanism that we'd already developed but give the car such a different look."
Before we even had a chance to pitch our second idea, Coleman took the words right out of our mouth: an off-road sports car similar to the保时捷911 Dakar. If that idea sounds amazing, wait until you see our renderings (pictured below).
"It wouldn't make any sense as a car for [Mazda] to sell, but I have been itching to do an off-road [Miata]," Coleman said. "I've been looking at the NC generation as an off-road solution because it has so much RX-8 stuff in it. You can junkyard swap RX-8 dampers, which are longer and have more dampening for a heavier car, RX-8 springs will automatically lift the MX-5, and the RX-8 final drive ratio will make up for larger tires."
Much to our surprise and even his own, Coleman then told us that he plans to use an automatic transmission because having a torque converter gives more flexibility off-road. "You can then bolt in a 2.5-liter engine with an automatic transmission with RX-8 suspension parts and have an all-Mazda, off-road NC."
Mazda will likely never build this car, but the company's lead engineer just gave you the perfect recipe to build your own.
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