MAZDA MX-5 MK1 ‘NA’ (1989-1997)
The British classic has long been fondly remembered in Japan, with cars like the Mini enjoying a cult following to this day, and sports cars from the likes of MG and Lotus particularly prized. While idly chatting to some of Mazda’s R&D team in the late 1970s, American journalist Bob Hall said that the affordable small sports car should be reinvented. Mazda bosses agreed and by 1981 had appointed Hall as their head of R&D, before giving him the go-ahead to make his small sports car dream a reality.
It’s something of an open secret that Mazda looked to the original 1960s Lotus Elan for inspiration. But that wasn’t all, for during development, Mazda compared it to cars as diverse as the Triumph Spitfire and Fiat X1/9, too – there’s photographic evidence of both. The project
