As far back as the late 1970’s, Mazda had flirted the concept of a light-weight sports car when Bob Hall, an American motoring journalist at Motor Trend, pitched the idea to Kenichi Yamamoto, Mazda’s head of research and development.
Yamamoto recalled the pitch when Hall joined Mazda North America’s design team working on Mazda B-Series pickup trucks several years later. Yamamoto encouraged Hall to continue with the project on condition…
The conditions stipulated that Hall could work on the project before 8:30am, between 12pm and 1pm and anytime after 5:30pm during the week. Hall spent the next 7 years starting at 6am and the rest as they say…
Checkout this great interview filmed at the New York Auto Show, April 2014 – credit and thanks to Jean Knows Cars;
The sports car project faced exceptional competition as Mazda considered other non-sport car related projects and then, additional competition from other sports car concepts including a mid-engined design as well as a front engined front-drive design. More details can be found on the MX5 Store website (search for Wrong Wheel Drive) however, the clay models seen below helped ‘seal the deal’.
