Some of the ND design options considered:
http://andoniscars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/all-were-better-nd-mazda-mx-5-miata.html
Great find, Ian, thanks for posting…
'All were better '? Not to my eyes they weren’t. I don’t usually like the cynical updating of an older design - that’s you , New Beetle and you , new new Mini (but not old new Mini )- but I was rather drawn to the very Mk1 looking homage . Maybe because it evoked the Elan so well- and Elans are the reason why I own an MX5. Tragically I couldn’t afford the £1200 Elan Sprint I was offered in 1978 and now I can’t afford the 40k plus to buy one…
There are some very striking and beautiful shapes going on here. It’s interesting so see how the designer’s mind was working through the various stages.
Thanks for posting this.
Wow! Spoilt for choice! But in the end they came up with the one that I have and am very happy with!
The red " nod to the mk1 " personally, I think is fantastic! Not in a position to own a ND ( at the moment ) and may never do so, however, if that version had been made available, I might not have bought Mrs B’s Audi avant? Hope she doesn’t read this?
Barrie
It is interesting to see the evolution of the design, I’m glad some of the options were not chosen and there is one which may have been a preference over the chosen one, I don’t agree the wrong one was chosen.
I agree.
And to have produced a pastiche of the NA, which must have been seriously considered, would have been tragic and wouldn’t have had me buying one.
These seem to have been taken from a Mazda website, where Mazda had added a little context to what you see. They had, like the NC, an internal competition, which came down to 1 submission each from Japan and US. the US was a long bonnet design, whereas Japan went for something which was generally like how the ND turned out. The US team thought the Japanese submission was too N-like, but in the end, only Japan came up with something that could be put into production. The interior generally came from the US.
Each of the teams, in Irvine, Franfurt, Japan, were given a design brief, and there were constraints, and each had to work Kodo into the design, but add some new element into the mix. Ultimately, Europe had the biggest influence on the headlight/grill treatment.
I’m sure i posted these over two years ago, but a good reminder of how much work went in
As Saz says the pics were lifted from elsewhere, this seems to be the original source minus the caustic comment…
Some of them are very nice designs, none look remotely close to being an actual car with crumple zones, roofs that actually go up and down, engines and suspension. Have to agree though, that NA homage is stunning.