Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

True but all things being equal, ugly cars have fewer "beholders". This is a business after all.

Over 900,000 Miatas have been sold.

Most raced car ever...

If you don't like the Miata...that is fine...

But it has been a commercial success for a reason (just like the Twins).

As silly as it sounds... I don't like smiling cars either.

Now there.. before we go getting too defensive, I'm not denigrating the quality, aptitude or importance of the Miata. Mazda is King of Kings in my eyes and big part of that is because they've always offered a car like the Miata even when it isn't financially viable to do so.
Most raced car? Well shit, it's an affordable sports car that's been on sale for 26 years and most of that time, it was the only one of its kind. Statistically, being the most raced car is only logical.

Numbers don't lie, but sometimes they don't tell the whole story either.

So let's talk about that 900k units sold figure. That's a Global Sales Figure from 1989-2011. That's 22 Years. Point of reference for "commercial success". From 2003-2013 (10 years) Mazda has sold 1.03 million Mazda3's just in the USA.

As for not liking the Miata, well that's just not true. I love the Miata. I just hate its face. ;)

I don't dislike the miata, its platform is IMO even better than the GT86, but I wish it had a coupé version (always with only 2 seats), even it it would add up to 50 kg.

I like smiley cars. technically the BRZ is smiley too. Just sayin.

those statistics arent an accident though. things do well, because they are good. its kind of silly to take away from the cars track history because of the fact that it does all the thing necessary to make it the most tracked car ever.

I don't know if "accidental statistics" is a course I missed in school. :bellyroll:

You're inferring something that wasn't there to infer. Nothing is being taken away from the car by countering the use of the term "commercial success" as a point of reference.

If there was another Miata-esque car of rough equivalence that sold in direct competition as the Miata and spanned the same time period... the 900k figure would surely be different and perhaps the "most raced car" name-tag would be as well. The same can be said for the Camaro, if there was no Mustang; or the Insight, if there was no Prius. Do you see what I'm getting at?

"Things do well because they are good." :lol:
... and have no real economic competition.
... don't get canceled despite low volume.
... have lots of racing/track support from the OEM.
... are very cost effective to race.
...

There's more to the car, than just the car in this case. It's no accident that's part of what made this car so great. I hope the existence of things like the Twins, force the Mazda to make the Miata better, if nothing else better looking.

Well.. It looks like Mazda may not want my money after all. Good, however, for those who like "happy" looking cars.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Secret-...dster-project/


http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/upload/...spider.a03.jpg


Supposedly this is just a "test-mule" and there are no confirmations of how much it resembles the actual looks of the 2015 Model Year car. What's also not been released yet is the design look of the Alfa version.

Please Alfa, sell your version in the states. Americans need more Miata-esque cars!


Another edit: Another Car and Driver article says this test mule is Alfas, just using an old MX-5 shell. http://www.caranddriver.com/news/201...py-photos-news

The more I look the more I feel people like us are a tiny tiny minority. I wish some company would produce a lower priced 2 seater fixed roof RWD car with serious sporting pretentions, but I think most people buy sporty cars because they just want to cruise top down. I see more Cabrio 911s than fixed top ones by a large margin (drop top 911 Turbo is a common poser car in Cali), far more Boxsters than Caymans, and more convertible Mercedes E class and BMW 3 series than fixed roof ones. I drove past a McLaren dealer after the 4C Spider came out, and they stocked way more of those than the normal fixed roof 4C, and all the customers rolling in for service and crap had the Spider too.

It sucks even more that putting a hard top on a convertible isn't the same as a car that came in 1 piece in the first place. The latches get loose, the hard tops are usually extremely rare and expensive, the aerodynamics are usually terrible, they don't provide much added stiffness, etc.

from what i gather, your argument gets boiled down to "the miata is good enough to have a virtual monopoly on the market and because of that monopoly, its success cant be determined since there is no competition." there have definitely been competitors to the miata and it has stood the test of time. there is a reason for that. the car is great.

I'm more excited for the Alfa version, but I've heard it might be a Fiat instead, which could be good or bad.

Alfa/Fiat should have the 170hp 1.4L turbo from the Dart/500 Abarth. I would much rather have that engine over a skyactive NA powerplant.

To be fair, the first test mules of the twins were kinda ungainly too.
Sorta like a Japanese 318Ti