2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster Unveiled Today

The day we’ve been looking forward to for nearly a year now has finally arrived. Mazda officially revealed the all-new 2016 MX-5 Miata, the fourth generation of their iconic Japanese roadster. Even though the car won’t go on sale until next year, Mazda has given us plenty of mouth-watering technical details to pique our interest. More importantly, they’ve given us pictures. Behold the next-generation Mazda Miata:

You can see that the Japanese automaker has refined their signature Kodo design language for their iconic sports car, giving it “the presence of a living creature and a strong sense of vitality.” It definitely looks straighter and cleaner than what you might’ve expected given the curvaceous Mazda3 and Mazda6, but in a good way. Mazda had already told us to expect the new Miata to harken back to the roadster’s roots by reversing the ‘bigger equals better’ trend of recent generations. We have to say, they really pulled it off; the car looks simple, fast and fun.

The specs tell us that the new Mazda MX-5 is 105mm shorter than the outgoing roadster, but it doesn’t look stubby or fat. That’s because the majority of the length was taken from the front and rear overhangs; the wheelbase is only 15mm shorter than the old model. Mazda said that they were trying to move away from the classic British roadster by making the Miata compact and low-riding with a sharp, minimalist design. In fact, the new MX-5 has the lowest center of gravity of any model in the car’s 25-year history.

To truly appreciate the engineering ingenuity that went into the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata, you really have to get behind the wheel and feel the car’s agility for yourself. Just imagine – the new model is claimed to be 200lbs lighter than the outgoing model with a perfect 50:50 weight distribution. The weight reduction is largely thanks to the heavy dose of aluminum you’ll find in the all-new SkyActiv-Chassis.

Unfortunately, Mazda didn’t tell us too much about the engine. All we know is that the roadster will run on a “specially tuned SKYACTIV-G petrol engine and the first rear-wheel drive version of the SKYACTIV-Chassis.” If you do a bit of poking around, you’ll find that most rumors suggest the new MX-5 will run on a 2.0L direct-injection four-cylinder engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission. A turbocharger is a possibility too.

Clearly there’s still a lot we don’t know about the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. For example, we don’t know pricing, trims, technology options or verified powertrain specs, and we don’t even have a definite arrival date. All we know is that it’ll be a 2016 model – which means it’ll go on sale in 2015 – and that we’ll definitely be hearing more about the next-gen roadster at a major auto show sometime before then, possibly in just a couple months.