Wednesday 9th January 2019

30th Anniversary Mazda MX-5 due at Chicago

Yep, it really has been three decades of the Mazda roadster - first details of the special edition here

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Here's a fun fact for your next (hopefully car themed) pub quiz: it was the Chicago Auto Show where the Mazda MX-5 was first shown in 1989, Mazda presumably keen to tap into the American demand for roadsters. Next month, exactly three decades years later and in the same city, Mazda will show another MX-5 to mark its 30th anniversary.

Now MX-5 special editions are nothing new - see here for the full lowdown here on various Jazz Festivals, Montego Blues and Red Peppers - but there does seem something rather more significant about reaching 30 years of production. There can't be many other sports cars that have, come to think of it.

Mazda is being pretty cagey about the car for now, revealing only this blurred image and suggesting the car has "been created in appreciation of the customers all over the world who have supported the success of the model". There's no detail yet on spec, engine or gearbox, though if we were betting boys we'd suggest it's an RF in an orange redolent of the 787B colour, with some new wheels as well - MX-5s have always looked rather good on BBS, after all. Other than that it's guesswork for now.

Press days for the Chicago show are 7th and 8th of Feb, so expect to see a lot of the car then. As for price and UK availability, we'll have to wait and see. But with more than 350,000 of the million MX-5s ever sold having found home in Europe, and the UK surely representing a big chunk of that, a few 30th Anniversary cars are sure to make it over here in time. More news as we have it!

[BFleming]

Intel suggests the all-orange Mazda MX-5 30th Anniversary model will be based on the current RF (hardtop convertible), and limited in numbers per market - possibly 30 units per country.
Each car will be numbered, with a plaque on the centre console, and buyers will allegedly receive a complimentary commemorative watch.
All examples will be powered by the Mazda MX-5’s 2.0-litre SKYACTIV-G engine with 184bhp.
Allegedly.

[David87]

Sounded good until it got to the bit about it being based on the RF.

[The Hypno-Toad]

Err...is there still such a things as stringers in the media world? & if there are, where do i send my invoice?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

As the youths of today would say,

"BOOM!"

[Housey]

I am told it will be 320bhp and 100kgs lighter.

Wait, told, I mean made up.