2016 Mazda Miata / MX-5 Will Go Turbo, Just Listen to It

The rumor mill sees the upcoming Mazdaspeed hot hatch incarnation of the Mazda3 motivated by a new 2.5-liter turbocharged mill, so things should run in the family.

There’s a catch here though. While the hot hatch label of the Mazda3 MPS allows it to go bonkers in any manner it prefers, the Miata has to stay true to its sportscar heritage. What this means is that the power delivery must be as linear as possible, so that the enthusiasts don’t start painting the 2016 MX-5 in Rotten Tomato Red. Let's just say the actual turbine will be a little smaller than the one we... immagined above.

There may or may not be more Mazda turbos in the pipeline, but turbocharging Mazda’s current Skyactiv-G gasoline engine range is certainly a rollercoaster ride for the Japanese engineers. That’s because they’ve strived to come up with a naturally-aspirated engine line-up that prides itself with a Skyactiv sky-high compression ratio of 14:1. This kind of value is not what you want when you introduce forced feeding.

The part that makes us jump for joy is that in either gasoline or petrol version, the Mazda Skyactive engine are brilliant, so we’re expecting a very sweet icing for this cake.

As most of you know, the 2016 Mazda Miata will have a sister car born in the Fiat Group (Abarth is a likely candidate for the badge). Previous rumors gifted each car with dedicated engines, but who knows what the engineers are plotting...