Thursday 17th November 2011

LA Show: Mazda MX-5 Spyder

Fancy a MX-5 with less headroom and a pitiful excuse for a roof? Actually, if it looks like this...

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Perfect for California but for the UK?

Mazda’s MX-5 Spyder was first shown at the SEMA show just a few weeks back and while it sounded fun on paper in the flesh it’s an absolute stunner. Or maybe that’s just the Californian sun going to our heads.

Little more than a chop-top MX-5 with a Boxster Spyder style minimalist shower cap, the slammed ride height and pared back bodywork really make sense of the slightly gawky looks of the standard car. Only last week a Mazda insider back in the UK mused to us the attraction of making a lightweight, track-ready MX-5 and the fact the standard engine is in fact basically the same as a Ford Duratec 2.0-litre means there’s plenty of tuning know-how out there. You can see where this particular daydream is going but a Cosworth crate engine in a car that looked like this would certainly tick a few boxes!

430hp screamer is a Grand Am champ

Also on the Mazda stand and worthy of merit for no other reason than it looks damned cool is this RX-8 Grand Am race car. And although it appears fairly standard it’s in fact a Porsche GT3-beating, all-carbon, triple rotor monster. 430bhp and a kerb weight of just 1,043kg sound promising, these $375,000 customer race cars honed since first appearing in 2006 and turning in a championship winning performance in 2010. Indeed, it only missed out on the crown this year by a single point. Just imagining the noise from that side exhaust at 9,000rpm makes the ears bleed.

 

[mrdemon]

1st post :-)

but it's a stupid roof

that's it

bye

[Benbay001]

Scout camp roof? nice.

[W00DY]

Make it lightweight and very basic (that includes junking the LED running stes) and I love it.

[Pistachio]

bring it on, great looking.

[johnpeat]

Amazing - take a car I already can't get into (lack of leg and elbow room) and remove the headroom as well.

Looks great but a car for midgets surely?

[TaylotS2K]

Looks awful. What were they thinking??!

[cjgreaves41]

Looks Brilliant!! Still think an MX-5 coupe would do well! I ran a mk1 a few years ago, looked brilliant with the hardtop on.

[Frimley111R]

WTF? Why don't they just say: We blatantly copied Porsche's Boxster Sypder but didn't a very job of it. Embarrassing.

[JonnyFive]

Very cool, love the RX8 too!

Nothing about Skyactiv which was also on the Mazda stand?

[ali_kat]

I like it

[stemll]

cjgreaves41 said:

Looks Brilliant!! Still think an MX-5 coupe would do well! I ran a mk1 a few years ago, looked brilliant with the hardtop on.

You mean like the current Roadster Coupe with the folding hardtop?

[GroundEffect]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jqEyAIRR1c

That's what the RX8 sounds like.

fking orgasmic.

[Dan Trent]

Sorry, erm, got distracted!

Skyactiv was the big focus for Frankfurt and is, fair to say, very cool stuff. I even caught wind on the CX-5 preview drive that Mazda is looking at Skyactiv rotary engines. Which could be interesting.

CX-5 is a good car too and plenty fun to drive for a crossover. Many of the engineers are veterans of the MX-5 programmes over the years and there's plenty of 'Zoom-Zoom spirit' when they talk about the CX-5 too. And it kind of makes sense when you drive it, with both the Skyactiv D and G engines showing plenty of revvy promise.

Watch this space - more on this in due course.

[Ali_T]

Dear Mazda,

Make a road legal version of that RX8. I'll buy one. Hell, I'll buy them all.

[Dan Trent]

$375,000 and it's yours. Oh, road legal? Well, the head and tail lights are about the only parts taken from a standard RX-8 so you're halfway there. Sort of.

[dandarez]

Less headroom etc... where I have heard/seen this (and that sort of colour scheme)?

Mazda influenced (worried) by the new opposition?





Laugh at the Coupe if you want, but seen a few now on the road already - mind you I am in Oxford !

[Twilight1]

The RX-8 has nice smile. Imagine seeing that smile from the mirrors.

[cjgreaves41]

stemll said:

You mean like the current Roadster Coupe with the folding hardtop?

No not a folding hard top! For me that defeats the point in a convertible. All that extra weight high up on the body isnt briliant! A coupe body that stiffenes the chassis. More what a GT6 was to the spitfire...... but less naff?

[marcosgt]

Ali_T said:

Dear Mazda,

Make a road legal version of that RX8. I'll buy one. Hell, I'll buy them all.

Will never happen - It's a spaceframe silhouette racer...

M

[Hammerhead]

GroundEffect said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jqEyAIRR1c

That's what the RX8 sounds like.

Like a very angry bee in a biscuit tin

EFA