Is the Miata Overweight?

06.14.16 - 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata

06.14.16 - 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata

You might think the Miata is plenty light and for the most part everyone would agree with you. Heck, Mazda even did for a short period of time. They only gave this car 155 horsepower because that was all they thought it needed to be the fun and active roadster we have loved for the past quarter of a century, but now they think it might be a bit overweight. If you were to ask anyone who has loved this car on the track they would most likely disagree with Mazda and tell you this car is perfect the way it is right now.

To think about how this car could even be considered overweight seems ridiculous. The Miata we enjoy right now only weighs in at 2,313 pounds and is one of the lightest cars on the market right now for us to enjoy the drive. Mazda has decided they want to see this car get more performance without adding more horsepower under the hood. The only way this is going to happen is to add performance by cutting the weight of the car, otherwise we won’t be able to see this car actually improve any performance, which most of us might think is OK, but Mazda wants to have better performance before the car needs upgrades.

Many of us might look at the idea of adding turbocharging to this car or adding an engine that has more cylinders to gain the added performance needed, but that isn’t what Mazda wants to do. Mazda says it has no plans to add turbocharging at all and feels the car has plenty of power the way it is. Their idea is to add a bit more fun to the car with less weight in order to add a bit more performance to the vehicle.

The hope Mazda has is that they will be able to find ways to cut weight from the Miata in the next couple years. As a car that just came to the market as a new generation of the Miata you might not expect Mazda to be looking for a way to improve the car already but they are and what comes out of this car and the work Mazda puts into developing the new materials for the Miata will certainly be impressive. This means the Miata will continue to be a car that is similar to what we see now, but give us more drivability.

Would you have expected the Miata to be going even lighter? Probably not, but Miata is certain they have the right formula for performance. The Miata will continue to be fun to drive, low-powered and built on a light chassis that will eventually lose even more weight. It’s possible the Miata will be light enough to be less than 2,000 pounds when the weight savings is finally done. As much fun as we are having with the Miata that just came out we will get to enjoy a car that is even more fun in the next few years.

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