Interesting analyses:
While the car looks superficially to be a butchered NC, actually there are a lot of differences visible; the windscreen is set further back, those NC door skins look be be shortened, and are covering a shorter door, less hardpoints on that exposed sill.
ah yes, interresting stuff, thanks, this is what we like…
Yes, good stuff, saz, keep it coming. I’ve been looking at the deals available on the Mk3.5 recently as my Mk2 is getting old now but maybe I’ll wait for the Mk4.
Gra
You might have to wait another 2 years for the ND, and then it will be Mazda or Alfa Romeo…
More spy shots; note the existance of two different mules, one of which appears to be fitted with 5-stud wheels.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1087132_2015-mazda-mx-5-spy-shots
Auto Express have caught on now…
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/66161/new-alfa-romeo-spider-and-mazda-mx-5-spied
Now caught out on the street, where the driver was trying to swap it for a MK1.
well, I’m a huge 5 fan but, if i have the money & if the final cars look like the ones on this link you posted, I will buy the Alfa version because the proposed 5 looks horrible from the screen forward.
That’s the old body plonked on the new chassis.
I am hoping the mk4 won’t have huge wheels with barely an inch of rubber, because aside from looking ridiculous - they would damage easily and the tyres cost a fortune. Conservative styling is what most people want. No turbo hopefully as well.
Yes along with an obligatory flat cap and spoked wheels
Well, I don’t think they drop a NC body on the of a ND “chassis”; these are monococques. Its likely this is a ND superstructure with modified panels from the NC grafted on; look carefuly and note that the door skin has a join, the windscreen is more steeply raked and set further back from the wheel centre line, there is severe gappage between the leading edge of the bonnet and the bumper.
When the NC mules first started appearing, they were spotted as a car that at first glance looked like a NB-FL with the RX8 front fitted. Look again, and you will see the NC.
As for styling (remember, the mule shown is actually the Alfa Romeo version, which some have said is back from trials at Chrysler’s Yucca facility, and may be slated for Chryslers new winter proving ground in Michigan (previously a Harley Davidson/Ford facility)), some of us attended, around about 2001, a Mazda Europe focus group in Frankfurt, to look at proposals for what was to become the NC (Mk3). All the attendees were existing MX5 owners. Mazda was obviously keen to hear our thoughts, but more importantly, to film our reactions to certain proposed styling cues. Mazda were very clear that while they did not want to alienate existing owners, on the other hand, they were far more interested in selling cars to the greater number of people who didn’t own a MX5, in the 30-45 age range. And if that meant styling a car that horrified a 70 year old who was in his mid-40s when he brought a first gen, so be it. Given that the ND will be in production from 2015 to probably 2025, I suspect the styling won’t be, thankfully, “conservative” and ossified.
Its absolutely certain that the next car will have a turbo. The new MG3, while quite liked for its chassis, is being panned because its engine does not have a turbo (though its not short of pep).
Tyres; a decent 185/60 14 is now much more expensive than an equivalent quality 195/50 15. Tyre price differences between sizes is down to demand.
I consider the latest Jaguar styling conservative - but it’s timeless and classic.
What I dislike is fads. I am not some 70 year (thanks for the implication) but there is a difference between tasteful (and understated) and silly things like stick out clear lenses and massive wheels - nothing “modern” about those - it’s just the marketing people losing the plot. Toyota managed to restrain them for the GT86 and hopefully Mazda will do the same.
I test drove an Audi TT turbo before getting the MX5. I honestly thought there was something wrong with it when it didn’t respond to throttle quickly. Horrible to drive and if the ND has turbo lag like that - it’s an easy choice. Buy something else - again Toyota deliberately did not have a turbo on the GT86. (Sort of a pattern emerging here!).
Here’s “Honest John’s” view!
As you go to bigger wheels and increasingly lower profile tyres, ride quality decreases and you run an increasingly greater risk of damage to the tyres or to the rims on potholes, etc.
Low profile tyres are also much more expensive than deep profile tyres.
And in most cases they rob the steering of ‘feel’.
The main advantage is showoff ‘bling’, like men wearing gold necklaces and women wearing tasteless jewellery.
There is a slight advantage on a race track.
Fed-up LH from Hurst Green posed this question to Honest John: “I own a 2009 Skoda Superb 170 TDI DSG with 225/40 R18 tyres - my first experience of low-profile rubber. I am really pleased with the car, but the tyres wear much more quickly than those on my four previous Skodas. The front Bridgestones lasted 12,500 miles from new. I switched to Michelins, which managed 16,000, and finally to economy tyres that cost £70 each. It is very easy to damage them, especially the nearside fronts. I live in rural Sussex, which has notoriously bad potholes and unlit roads, and have written off three front nearside tyres and cracked a wheel during the past three years. I would like to keep the car for another few years and wondered whether it would be possible to fit wheels with a less extreme profile.”
Honest John replied: “I think 16in wheels are best for this class of car. Manufacturers fit wide, low-profile tyres because they are sold cheaply as loss-leaders with the aim of recouping profit on replacement sales, as you illustrate only too well. Four 205/60 R16 tyres would probably have lasted 30,000 miles and be less prone to damage.”
LH’s previous Skoda was probably an Estelle 120, 120 not being the bhp…
I keep reading about people who break wheels and tyres over potholes etc (is a 9cm profile now considered “extreme”). In 25 years, this is something I have yet to achieve. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but for LH to whine on about multiple failures on roads he knows quite well suggests to me he ought to got to Specsavers.
What Honest John doesn’t tell LH is that his insurance will go up now. I don’t know of any tyre maker who owns a car factory. And 30k is just made up. I struggle to get more than 12k out of 195/50 15s, on a lightweight MX5. Probably the main reason LH is ripping through the tyres is that diesel; with dual mass clutches, muppets can drive diesels like petrol cars. Hence, these cars are hard on tyres, clutches, driveshafts. Next LH will be wondering why his clutch bill is £2k…
If the fear is that low profile tyres ought to be avoided due to inherant proneness to damage, then we should be advocating standard fitment of steel wheels to MX5s, ignoring the benefits to reduced unspring mass. Back in the day, people used to like clobbering into kerbs all the time. Wheel repair consisted of some hammer blows.
Honest John is the unamed “journalist” who famously stated that Eunos Roadsters are rotboxes to be avoided. I’ll take his statements with a pinch of salt (not even sure he actually exists, in that there is a single person answering all these letters, week in, week out).
Interestingly I found this today, do they know something no-one else does?
http://www.motoring.co.uk/new-car-launches/2014-mazda-mx-5-launch_2277
I have to say the car outline does somewhat follow the shape of the captured mules above with the windscreen and shorter boot.
just had a quick check through this and the other ND speculation thread looking at all the images and frankly all these artists impressions are begining to look the same to me now. Its a 2 door roadster with Mazda cooporate front end, and lights.
I doubt the look of the new car will suprise anyone when it finally arrives, but I hope it will…
Now seen in Italy:
http://www.autoblog.it/post/280479/alfa-romeo-spide-2015-prime-foto-spia-del-futuro-duetto
The tyre makers subsidise the cost of low profile tyres to the car makers. They do this because they will more than make it up on the extremely high prices of these tyres to the consumer. It’s a loss leader for the tyre makers. This encourages the car makers to fit these tyres as OEM, and explains why they are so widespread on new cars, even when inapppropriate on saloons!
Some people like expensive and pointless bling - personally I would be looking to change any wheels over 17 inch for smaller ones.
It would be nice (but probably a forlorn hope) for Mazda to offer smaller wheels in the same way as they used to offer larger ones, as an option. That is assuming they follow the fashion and fit gigantic 18 inch wheels when 17 inch would look and perform better.
Testing at the 'ring…
"
Today we bring a second batch of spy photos showing the new Mazda MX-5 / Alfa Romeo Spider which are both due in 2015.
While the previous photos were taken outside Chrysler’s Tech Center in Auburn Hills, the MX-5 mule seen in these latest spy pics was photographed on the Nürburgring wearing the body of the current generation model but even so we can still see some changes in line for the Miata.
The doors look longer which indicates the car will have a stretched wheelbase, while the extended wheel arches imply a wider track. There also seems to be an added section in front of the A-pillar so the cars will adopt “long hood, short deck” proportions.
Details about what will power the cars are not known at this moment but both automakers have announced each will have its proprietary engines that will be “unique to each brand”. Expect the Alfa Romeo Spider to receive a 120 HP 1.4-liter MultiAir while the Mazda could be offered with a 1.3- or a 1.6-liter Skyactiv"
