in May 2012
when the news of a Mazda-Fiat collaboration on the MX-5 first emerged. Since then we've had various top quality PH renderings of
an Alfa Spider
, the switch to a Fiat, then to an Abarth and finally the launch of
the MX-5
with no real mention of the Italian alternative.
Ah, the days before Photoshop
Now Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne has confirmed its version of the Mk4 MX-5 will be a 124 Spider. The original 124 Spider was a Fiat and then later an Abarth for competition. So a regular Fiat version and then a faster Abarth maybe? And an MPS MX-5? OK, perhaps we're getting a little carried away...
The Fiat/Abarth is expected 12 months after the Mazda which would puts its on-sale date as summer 2016. Appropriately enough that would be 50 years after the first 124 Spider was seen. If it's as good as the MX-5-with-Italian-flair premise would suggest, it could be a corker.