Steve Toth wrote:
>Obviously, this is one of my pet peeves. Anyone that compares it to
one
>of our beloved cars has no class. Personally, I don't like the car.
It's
>just a plain and simple copy of a Lotus. It's just another thing that
the
>Japanese copied from another country.
I do not want to contribute to the thread on Miata bashing, but my
respect for this little car increased measurably during the Monterey
Historics/Pebble Beach Love In just a few weeks ago.
I attended a dinner where one of the guest speakers was Tom Mateno,
the head of the Mazda Design Studio where the Miata, MX-6, and other
Mazda automobiles were created. Tom's "other" car is a DeTomaso
Vallelunga, and he has owned it for several years. Tom was an
excellent speaker, and during his talk, he answered many questions,
many with regard to the "origins" of the Miata. Tom replied that his
true inspiration was the Vallelunga, but mid-engined cars were truely
impractical. Although pressed on the point, he did not claim that the
Elan was the main design study, rather he insisted that early '60s
Italian design firms were his source.
He was also asked about the "sound tuning"; he replied that this is a
rather common place excercise when designing modern cars; a sound lab
artificially generates a library of sounds, then passes them out to
a population of likley buyers - it then becomes "peoples choice" as to
what the car sounds like.
If ever you get the chance to meet Tom or listen to him speak, he
gives a fascinating insight into the daily life of a car designer.
Cheers,
Shane Ingate in San Diego
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