2006 Mazda Miata Preview

From that, the Miata team decided that the new car must have five basic requirements:

1. that the car would be as compact and light as possible while meeting global safety demands
2. that the cockpit would hold two ''full-stature'' occupants comfortably but with no wasted space
3. that the basic layout would include rear-wheel-drive with the engine behind the front axle
4. that all four wheels would be attached by wishbone or multi-link suspension systems to maximize tire performance, road grip and dynamic stability, and
5. that a power-plant frame would again provide a solid connection between the engine and rear-mounted differential to sharpen throttle response.

As a direct result of those imperatives, says Kijima, the new Miata is actually ''more powerful, more capable, more comfortable, and more useful. It offers several new features, and further improves occupant protection from collision injury.''

2006 Mazda Miata (photo: Mazda)

While saving weight was a top priority, other concerns were the stiffness of the unibody structure, the height of the car's centre of gravity, the 50:50 weight distribution, and the vehicle's moment of inertia about the vertical (yaw) axis, since a lower yaw moment of inertia quickens the vehicle's responsiveness to the driver's steering commands.

''Each of these parameters strongly influenced the new Mazda MX-5's overall fun-to-drive characteristics,'' says Kijima.

Thanks to ''shrewd analysis'' and the application of advanced materials such as ultra-high-tension steel, the new unibody delivers an increase of 22 percent for flexural stiffness and 47 percent for torsional rigidity compared to the previous-generation Miata.

Moving the engine rearward by 135 mm was a major step towards balancing front-to-rear weight distribution and reducing the yaw moment of inertia.

Designing the new car was understandably tricky, since it had to retain the simplistic appearance of the first model. Only potential buyers can say how the finished product worked out well enough.

2006 Mazda Miata (photo: Mazda)

The big change is the end of what Kijima calls the ''Coke bottle'' shape of the contours, replaced by ''surfaces that wrap smoothly between the wheels without narrowing.'' The functional benefit of this change is a wider cockpit with additional hip, shoulder, and elbow room, along with some space for side airbags. Again, this would be a buyer's choice, but a bigger interior will make the new Miata available to a larger (pun intended) potential audience.

As well as that wrapping, the fender arches are ''notably more pronounced,'' which was done to accommodate the substantially wider wheel track dimensions and to provide a more athletic stance.

So 17-inch wheels that are larger and wider than before ''are available to define the corners of the car consistent with Mazda design DNA.''

In profile, says Kijima, the Miata ''continues the low, flowing shoulder line established by the original with side surfaces just below the shoulder creating prominent highlights between the wheels for a strong and muscular look.''