I have to say that Mazda makes some decently cool cars in spite of the current trends happening today. But this is nothing new, Mazda has been on their own path for decades; as if their penchant for Wankel-designed rotary power is any indication. Mazda (a Japanese company) brought back the formula for the traditional British sports car in the late 1980s when most other manufacturers (namely the Detroit Big 3) were phasing out affordable, lightweight RWD vehicles in place of ugly and badge-engineered FWD econoboxes. They also helped Ford make small interesting cars when all Ford had was the Fox-platform (a decidedly awesome platform, though). Their most popular car (as far as some of the viewers of this site are concerned) almost phased out the fox body as the next generation Ford Mustang! And I’m sure that had it been a RWD Mazda platform, they’d have gotten away with it too. And to get back to present times: The next generation MX-5 Miata is to shed enough weight to get back to around 2,200 lbs and still retain it’s current horsepower rating. That’s hot rod engineering at work.
