Mazda MX-5 News

Go back half a century or so and nobody owned the concept of the little roadster quite like the British. These days it belongs to Mazda and its ubiquitous MX-5 Miata, but as if to pay homage, the Japanese automaker has launched a new special edition in the UK. Called the MX-5 Venture Edition, it bundles a dozen or so additional features into one slick ...

As far as two-seaters go, they don't get much farther apart than the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 and the Mazda MX-5 Miata. The Mazda is as cheap as the Bugatti is expensive, and the Veyron has as many turbochargers – and digits in its output figures – as the Miata has cylinders. But this homegrown example aims to bridge the gap. Someone, it seems, ...

The Chicago Auto Show and the Mazda MX-5 Miata have quite a history. After all, the very first Miata debuted at the 1989 Chicago show, and since then, Mazda has routinely used the Windy City expo to showcase some sort of new roadster hotness. For 2012, we've been introduced to the MX-5 Special Edition (clever name, we know), which dons a new black power ...

Flashback to 1989, and you'll recall the Mazda debuted the very first Miata under the lights of the Chicago Auto Show. Because of that, Mazda has had a tendency to debut many a special edition Miata at the Chicago expo, and this year will be no different. Limited to just 450 units here in the Untied States, the 2012 Mazda MX-5 Special Edition takes the ...

Professional racing drivers are a different breed than the rest of us mere mortals. While fear – of dying, of killing or of simply making a fool of yourself – keeps most men and women from pressing their automobiles to the very limits of their capabilities, some people choose instead to embrace the fear, turn it into adrenaline and hit the ...

Mazda has given SEMA goers something to get excited about this week with this MX-5 Miata concept. The MX-5 Miata Spyder Concept (above) has done away with the standard car's folding soft top or retractable hard top mechanism in favor of a lightweight grenadine-red canvas covering à la the Porsche Boxster Spyder. The look lends the already lithe ...

Mazda has given SEMA goers something to get excited about with a pair of MX-5 Miata concepts. The MX-5 Miata Spyder Concept has done away with the standard car's folding soft top or retractable hard top mechanism in favor of a lightweight grenadine-red canvas covering à la Porsche's Boxster Spyder. The look lends the already lithe roadster an even ...

Truth be told, we find most SEMA concepts to simply be gaudy aftermarket overkill. These two Mazda models, however – now these are something we'd like to sink our teeth into. Let's start with the MX-5 Miata Spyder concept. The most obvious alteration here is the removal of the stock MX-5's folding soft top (or hard top) for the sake of a stretched ...

Point. Shoot. Grin. Wedging myself into the cockpit of Keith Tanner's 1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata turned Targa Newfoundland podium finisher, I'm struck with the realization that most race cars are the automotive equivalent of a pet electric eel. They look fantastic lounging around, and you may even be struck with the impulse to get close, but the reality is ...

Even the plucky Mazda MX-5 isn't safe from the temptation of a black edition. Mazda has just rolled out a Black Tuned Roadster in Japan, complete with a little more style than your run-of-the-mill convertible. The package is largely aesthetic thanks to the addition of a Brilliant Black retractable hard top roof and door mirrors as well as Gun Metallic ...

My helmet has just been crammed into the cross ribs of the roof of our Miata for the third time in less than a kilometer, driving a guttural "OOMPH" from my lungs mid-sentence at the same time. I regain my breath, look from the route book to the kitchen timer that's Velcroed to the rally computer on the dash, and start counting out the seconds on my ...

Two mistakes. After six days of late nights bent over the route book with calculator in hand, long days of non-stop rallying and lengthy transits, we've covered over 2,200 kilometers, raced 41 stages and made two penalty-worthy mistakes. There simply aren't words to convey the spectrum of emotions that accompanies the Targa Newfoundland, and the Flyin' ...

It's a good day to be in the Flyin' Miata camp. As of the conclusion of Day 3 of competition, both the Targa Miata and the Supercharged 2006 MX-5 hold the top position in their respective classes. While Keith and Janel Tanner have managed to sling their 430-horsepower machine through Wednesday's nine stages to take the top slot, Brandon Fitch and I ...

While I thought that I grasped just how unique and amazing the Targa Newfoundland is in the world of motorsports, the breadth of this event's character didn't hit home until I got here. We spent the majority of yesterday's morning and afternoon tackling stages in and around Gander, a small town about 206 miles north of St. John's. Despite my completely ...

The 2011 Targa Newfoundland is officially underway after three prologue stages on Sunday. As our first real taste of targa competition, the day was instrumental in alerting Brandon Fitch, driver of the number 1680 Flyin' Miata Supercharged Mazda Miata, and myself to the fact that we had no holy clue as to what we were doing. As a co-driver in the Grand ...

While Keith and Janel Tanner took Friday to hash out setting the odometer on the Targa Miata, Brandon Fitch and I continued on with our education with the Open Road Motorsports Targa School in our trusty Supercharged NC. The day's instruction orbited around two simulated stages on Bell Island just a short ferry ride from St. John's. With our notes ...

Racing is built on a foundation of tired sayings packed with monumental truths. Recently, few have been more poignant for the crew of the supercharged NC Miata we're set to co-pilot in the 2011 Targa Newfoundland than, "You have to start before you can win." Last week, Bill Cardell, our valiant pilot and part-time lumberjack, wound up accidentally felling ...

Bill and Teri Cardell are the husband and wife team behind Flyin' Miata. That name should be instantly familiar to fans of the Mazda MX-5 Miata and Autoblog.com alike. Flyin' Miata is the go-to source for go-fast parts for the Miata community. Bill is also the driver for a Targa Newfoundland Miata that will be co-driven by our very own Zach Bowman. Before ...

You'd expect a car labeled Black Edition to actually be, you know...black. Whether it's a Porsche, a Hummer or a Unimog. But then again Mercedes-AMG's top line of performance models are called the Black Series, and you can get those in any color you want. So maybe it's a page out of that playbook that Mazda has taken with its latest special ...

No matter what part of the world you hail from, there's really nothing quite like the Targa Newfoundland. Held on a beautiful island off the Eastern coast of Canada, the course is over 1,350 miles long and winds through small towns, open spaces and deep forests for some of the most challenging and varied stages of any competition on the continent. As a ...