The Rare British Roadster That Helped Encourage The Mazda Miata

The Mazda Miata. It is a model so iconic by now that it feels strange to assume the automotive landscape without it. It stands almost alone in 2025 as a reasonable, two-seat, drop-top option for drivers who just need a minimal-frills sports automotive they will enjoy equally on a commute and on the weekends. We predict everyone should drive a Miata no less than once, and while there aren’t many similar options on sale today, winding the clock back a number of more many years reveals that — roughly 20 to 40 years prior to the Miata’s arrival — cars like this were way more commonplace.

They didn’t hail from Japan, though. Actually, there was little or no in the best way of cars hailing from Japan on this era. As a substitute, it was the British who were churning out small and reasonably priced sports cars, they usually did a very good job of it, too. Triumph TRs, the MG B and C, Jensens, and even greater, stronger stuff like Jags and Astons were in production for years. Nonetheless, it was a way more delicate model that will later function the first inspiration for Mazda’s world-dominating Miata.

That sports automotive was the Lotus Elan. It was tiny, like tiny-tiny, sufficiently small to make you think that twice about whether you’d even fit inside it. That ought to come as no surprise, as Colin Chapman’s Lotus was all about keeping weight low, and the Elan’s diminutive proportions definitely did a very good job of that – it tipped the scales at just 1,290 kilos.

The unique Miata is unusual within the proven fact that it spawned from only one man’s imagination — Bob Hall. An American automotive journalist, Hall had a fascination with the Japanese automotive scene, and within the late ’70s, he found himself in dialogue with Mazda’s then-head of research and design, Kenichi Yamamoto. When asked by Yamamoto what cars Hall thought Mazda should give attention to in the long run, Hall jumped at the possibility to elucidate his love of true old-school British sports cars, and the way the then-diminishing segment really must be given one other shot.

Fast-forward into the Nineteen Eighties, and Hall was given the chance to explore this possibility with Mazda, and work creating what would eventually change into the Miata began. Quite a few period photographs of Miata test mules exist, with it sitting alongside British classics just like the Triumph Spitfire and MG Midget, however the Miata’s design team — consisting of necessary names corresponding to Masao Yagi and Tom Matano — would settle upon a design that more closely matched the lines of the common-or-garden Elan.

A smiling mouth on the unique Miata gave character to the front end, and is a feature that also survives to at the present time, some 36 years after the primary generation of the roadster debuted. An iconic feature of years passed by, pop-up headlights were also featured, very similar to those on the Elan. The rear end’s design was similar, too. These cars didn’t just look alike either; the small print beneath the skin were just as closely related. Each got motivation from an inline-four engine, channeled it through a manual transmission, and placed it on the tarmac via the rear wheels. Inside, there have been two seats, a steering wheel, and never much else — the main target with the Miata has at all times been on the driving.

When buying a automotive, it is very easy to think that more is best. We at all times want more power, more room inside, more tech to play with. Regardless of the amenity could also be, we wish more of it. When creating these respective sports cars, though, each Mazda and Lotus made a conscious decision to give attention to the concept that less is more. Sure, this approach probably would not work with a contemporary three-row SUV — where we wish more room, grunt, and tech — but in terms of a glad little sports automotive for the weekend, the approach was good.

Lotus nailed this approach back within the Nineteen Sixties when it debuted the nimble Elan. Many may assume that power gives birth to the proper sports automotive, but Colin Chapman proved them unsuitable, furnishing the then-new sports automotive with just 105 horsepower, courtesy of a 1.6-liter twin-cam inline-four cylinder engine. The mix of that small but playful engine, a balanced chassis, and the all-important low curb weight was the proper recipe for the proper sports automotive. Don’t just take our word for it either: Each Gordon Murray and the ex-McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt are notable Lotus Elan fans, and people two clearly know a thing or two about what makes an honest British sports automotive.

Mazda and Bob Hall saw that a spot within the American marketplace for a sporty and reasonably priced drop-top experience. And as an alternative of attempting to make something greater, higher, and more powerful than the little Lotus that inspired them, they simply mirrored the approach and translated it right into a automotive fit for the fashionable age.