Next Mazda Miata Will Have Everything You’ve Been Asking For

With every new MX-5, we have a few main worries. Will it have more horsepower, and will it be heavier? The first one, the market always seems to want. No matter how balanced the MX-5 is, the desire for a bigger engine never seems to go away. The second is always a tightrope walk Mazda manages impressively. Keeping a car the same weight while adding necessary modern safety features and tech is something Mazda does better than anyone else.

In fact, it does both so well that the next Mazda MX-5 will manage the almost unthinkable: It will have a bigger engine and weigh less. On top of that, it will retain a stick between the seats.

Miata Might Be A Slow Seller, But It Is A Key Part Of The Brand

The Mazda MX-5 is one of the brand’s lowest-selling models, but it is also an icon. And one of the best-selling sports cars of all time. Somehow, the beancounters at Mazda have been convinced, year after year, that this is a car they need to keep around. And to justify keeping it around, they have to keep making it better.

Mazda engineers do that by making smart choices. “When we have to select an alternative out of two, there is a simple principle to make the selection,” Mazda design boss Masashi Nakayama told Road & Track. “We tend to select the ones whose parts are less expensive, lighter, and smaller. By doing so, we can prevent a car from being too big.”

Nakayama said that Mazda is targeting less than one tonne for the curb weight of the next-generation car. That’s 2,200 pounds, or around 130 pounds lighter than the current US-spec car.

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It will keep that lower weight despite the move to a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. The MX-5 currently comes with a 2.0-liter in the US and a 1.5-liter elsewhere in the world. The new engine is necessary to help meet future emissions regulations. It will be one of Mazda’s upcoming Skyactiv Z engines, which the automaker recently announced.

These new engines will make less power per liter, Mazda has said. That’s why Mazda will need a larger engine to make the same horsepower as before.

Bigger Engine, But The Same Horsepower Could Have Other Benefits

Yes, that’s the same horsepower. Mazda chief technical officer Ryuichi Umeshita told R&T that “the current power-to-weight ratio is enough,” especially since the new car will be lighter than before. Umeshita said that the new model’s power and fuel economy would be “very good.” However, it’s possible that torque will increase with the larger capacity engine.

The MX-5 will also keep one other crucial component: a manual transmission. Umeshita described it as key to the package of the MX-5 and essential for Mazda’s Jinba Ittai (unity of car and driver) philosophy.

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Umeshita is a big backer of the MX-5. He even daily drives one to the office. Umeshita and Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro are also part of a racing team that regularly enters an MX-5 in endurance races in Japan. Both are pretty good signs that the eternally awesome sports car is in very good hands.

Source: Road & Track