Early early Miatas (and hence early early MX5s); #14 and 15:
The Chicago Show wide body; Mazda’s vision in 1989 what the aftermarket would be making. They were 100% right:
Notice anything odd about this “NB”?
More on this Aladdin’s cave in the bowels of Irvine:
Some of the concepts given a day out:
NB with NA door mirrors and NA door handle .
really nice bonnet shut line aswell.
looks like a clay mock up of an early- but not quite there yet- of what they thought a mk2 should be
This car appears in a fair few books; it is apparently all metal, and might have been a mule for NB electrics etc.
Looks to me like theyd put some ideas for the changes to be made for the NB onto paper. then threw them together on the body of an NA to get an idea of what itd look like.
Amazing really the differences are really subtle but as a whole picture it makes a big difference. Im glad they exagerated the curves in the body work as it runs of the wheel arches compared to the NA and this example. makes it look much more muscular IMO.
Awesome post. really interesting to see. would love to have a look round that place.