Miata Mailing List: December 1993, Message #124
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   From: Alan Dahl 
Subject: Re: bugatti/lotus (fwd)
   Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 12:25:31 -0500

>shyuehon@ecn.purdue.edu (Chuang, Shyue-Hong) writes:
>> I have a lot of respect for the Lotus' of the '70's and it would be nice
>> if Lotus could have a present-day success story, but they shouldn't
>> detract from Mazda's success.
>Maybe, it was 'cos Mazda's concept of the Miata was based too much upon
>the Lotus Elans of the generation past!! They felt that Mazda's success
>with the Miata was kinda stolen from their designs. I would say that the 

>new Elan (newer one being researched) failed 'cos the market wasn't
>ready for a totally new design that was relatively bold... and more
>costly than its other competition like the Miata which had drawn the
>q's from the Traditional Brit Roadsters. So most went for the more
>affordable and a bit less bold Miata. By the time pple began to appreciate
>the new Elans, Lotus had suffered so much losses that they had to 'suspend'
>its production.
Everyone always says the Miata was based on the Elan but everything I've read  
by Mazda's original design team says that the car was more inspired by the  
Triumph Spitfire than anything else. Mazda of America even bought a Spitfire  
(and a CRX convertible) to compare with their Miata prototype. Sure there is a  
certain styling similarity between the Miata and the original Elan but to me  
the Miata seems more like a descendant to the Spitfire and the MGB.

BTW: I find it funny that Lotus responded to the Miata by killing off the Elan  
while Rover responded by bringing back the MGB!

To be fair to Lotus I suspect that a lot of the Elan's problems were more a  
result of GM's tinkering than anything Lotus did. If it had come out back in  
'87 with the original twin-cam Toyota engine it probably would have been tons  
cheaper, better received (who wants to pay $40,000 for an *Isuzu*?) and  
wouldn't have had the Miata to contend with.

---
  ___   __   ___  Alan Dahl                    | alan.dahl@mccaw.com -or-
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