Photo: Newspress USA
Do you suffer from NA nostalgia? Then we've got the best new car for you. Mazda is celebrating the 30th birthday of the legendary Miata with a special edition unveiled this week at the Chicago Auto Show. In short, everybody is in love with it.
The original Miata was unveiled 30 years ago at the 1989 Chicago Auto Show. That information is kind of obvious, but it's easy to underestimate just how much history this little sports car has behind it. It's a few months older than the Lexus brand and predates the Audi A8, just to give you a few examples.
Over time, it would have been easy for Mazda to turn the Miata into a fast sports car. But they didn't compromise and stuck to the lightweight formula, and it's what we're celebrating today. The model will only be produced in 3,000 examples, 500 of which are coming to the United States.
You can have in both the regular soft-top body and the newer RF retractable hard-top version, both of which showed Racing Orange paint at the Chicago Auto Show. For us, the other primary way in which the 30th Anniversary differs from a regular model is the Recaro bucket seats with orange piping and Alcantara. But there are many other small changes.
For instance, it's fitted with forged aluminum wheels from Rays, sitting in front of orange Brembo brake calipers. And the models equipped with the manual box get Bilstein dampers as well. Inside, buyers are treated to orange trim on the doors and dash plus 9-speaker Bose sound system.
Special fender badges will tell you which of the 3000 units you have. And because they're on the outside, you'd better make sure not to lose those, as they look pretty difficult to replace. The American model with a standard 181-hp 2-liter engine is $35,915, but from what we understand, other markets will have 1.5-liter versions too.
Over time, it would have been easy for Mazda to turn the Miata into a fast sports car. But they didn't compromise and stuck to the lightweight formula, and it's what we're celebrating today. The model will only be produced in 3,000 examples, 500 of which are coming to the United States.
You can have in both the regular soft-top body and the newer RF retractable hard-top version, both of which showed Racing Orange paint at the Chicago Auto Show. For us, the other primary way in which the 30th Anniversary differs from a regular model is the Recaro bucket seats with orange piping and Alcantara. But there are many other small changes.
For instance, it's fitted with forged aluminum wheels from Rays, sitting in front of orange Brembo brake calipers. And the models equipped with the manual box get Bilstein dampers as well. Inside, buyers are treated to orange trim on the doors and dash plus 9-speaker Bose sound system.
Special fender badges will tell you which of the 3000 units you have. And because they're on the outside, you'd better make sure not to lose those, as they look pretty difficult to replace. The American model with a standard 181-hp 2-liter engine is $35,915, but from what we understand, other markets will have 1.5-liter versions too.
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