Mazda Reveals Two Extreme Lightweight Design Concepts At SEMA

Mazda revealed a pair of design concepts today at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, based on its all-new 2016 MX-5 Miata, which demonstrate two vastly different takes on lightweight, open-air performance.

Lightweight. Fun-to-drive. Roadster. Those three tenets have served as the foundation for the Miata since its 1989 introduction and continue to serve the new fourth-generation model. Focused, lightweight engineering is a guiding principle of every Mazda vehicle made with SKYACTIV Technology, allowing for greater efficiency, improved performance and agile handling dynamics.

But what if that sense of lightweight performance were taken to the extreme, if Mazda’s designers harkened back to vintage roadsters to create thoroughly modern, bespoke concepts for what a lightweight performance car should be?

The results would be the MX-5 Spyder and MX-5 Speedster concepts.

The MX-5 Spyder is a sophisticated interpretation of the classic vintage roadster, designed to accentuate the open-air experience. Its bikini top was developed by ASC – American Sunroof Corporation with the fabric supplied by Haartz.

Other highlights include its specially formulated Mercury Silver paint color, carbon fiber aero kit, grille intake and body toneau cover and lightweight Yokohama ADVAN Racing RS II 17-inch wheels. Its interior is adorned in Spinneybeck “PRIMA” natural leather, lending a sense of vintage motoring from behind the wheel. The car weighs in at 2,301 lbs.

The MX-5 Speedster pares the roadster back to the essentials for an unadulterated, wind-in-the-hair driving experience, evocative of the open-top sports cars of the 1950s—even going to far as to eschew a windshield for a deflector. In the same vein, the utter dedication toward creating such a focused machine led the design staff to build the Speedster with custom 16-inch RAYS Extreme Gram Lights wheels, benefitting MX-5 with less unsprung weight. MX-5 Speedster finished in a new concept color called Blue Ether.

Other Speedster highlights include an adjustable coilover suspension, which lowers it by 30mm compared to the production-car, a Racing Beat center-mount exhaust, an interior retrimmed in Alcantara, carbon fiber Mu-Len Delta seats created exclusively for MX-5 and carbon fiber doors. In all, the lighter-weight materials have helped contribute to a weight loss of more than 250 lbs., with MX-5 Speedster weighing 2,080 lbs.

Both concept cars are currently on display at the SEMA Show in the Mazda booth #11647 in the North Hall.