Mazda Continues MX-5 Festivities with Black & Matte Special Edition

Paris: In honor of the MX-5's 20th French birthday, Mazda rolled out the MX-5 Black & Matte Edition at the Salon du Cabriolet, Coupé & SUV, an event that I have never heard of before in my entire life.

From the French press release, it sounds like Mazda teamed up with a local designer to throw itself a party; fine by me, but the invitations must have been lost in the mail, because I ain't there.

Starting with a 2.0 liter Roadster Coupe, Paris design house LK (run by Laure Kczekotowska) seems to have taken the black, matte Miata and covered it "with rhinestones, gems, [and] crystals". I don't see no rhinestones, Kenny.

Anyway, the point is this: PARIS. SPECIAL EDITION. MX-5. HAUTE COUTURE. SOMETHING SOMETHING. PARTY. You get the idea.

- By Phil Alex

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New Photos of Mazda MX-5 20th Anniversary Limited Edition

Together with UK pricing, Mazda published a new set of photographs of its limited edition MX-5 that was created to celebrate the popular roadster's 20th birthday. Starting from £16,850 on-the-road, the commemorative model is based on the 1.8-liter SE version, and even though it features 10 additional items of equipment worth over £650, it's priced just £55 more than the standard SE.

Special features include the ten-spoke 17-inch alloy wheels with a unique silver finish, front fog lights, chrome trims around the grille, headlamps and fog lights, body-coloured roll bars and a supporting strut brace.

Inside, the limited run MX-5 get stainless steel scuff plate features a unique '20th Anniversary' logo and limited edition number, premium '20th Anniversary' branded floor mats, a body-coloured front dashboard, aluminium pedal set, and manual air-conditioning.

The commemorative model will be available in a choice of three colors - True Red and for the first time in the UK, Crystal White Pearlescent and Aurora Blue Mica, each priced at £395.

And if you're wondering, Mazda did not say if it will offer the stripes and stickers featured on the white MX-5 in the press photos.

In terms of performance, 126HP 1.8-liter engine that's hooked up to a five-speed manual gearbox propels the MX-5 from standstill 62mph (100km/h) in 9.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 121mph or 195 km/h, while returning a combined fuel economy of 40.4 mpg UK.

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New Mazda MX-5 20th Anniversary Edition to premiere in Geneva

To commemorate the MX-5's (also known as the Miata in some markets) 20th birthday, Mazda will unveil a special anniversary edition of its rear-wheel drive roadster at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Called the MX-5 20th Anniversary Edition, this model will have a limited production run of just 2,000 units and will only be available in Europe.

Based on the 1.8-liter model, the limited edition MX-5 comes with a special exterior styling package that includes chrome grille, door handles and headlight fascia along with silver-look fog lamp surrounds, unique 17-inch alloy wheels and 20th Anniversary logos.

It will be available in three exterior colors - True Red, Crystal White Pearl and, specific for this edition, a new Aurora Blue, with matching body-color painted decorative elements in the interior.

A front suspension bracing bar and a scuff plate in stainless steel with its unique serial number (from 1 to 2000) complete the upgrades.

More details and pricing will be revealed at the car's world premiere at next month's Geneva Salon.

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Mazda Raffles Off Mazda2, Mazda3 and MX-5 in Doodle Design

Let me guess; some of you are wondering what the heck is "doodle design"? Well, simply put, it's the sort of unfocused and usually random sketches you've all drawn at some point in your life on schoolbooks and quite possibly in your later years, on notepads during work meetings maybe even throughout some horrifically boring speech at an automotive press event... But what has doodle-design got to do with these one-off Mazda models?

Well, as part of its sponsorship of the "O2 World Tour" event held in Hamburg, Germany, the Japanese firm raffled off a Mazda2, Mazda3 and an MX-5 / Miata Roadster, all of which featured the same drawings from doodle-design artist, Carl Heinz Daxl.

We can't but wonder how long will it take for the three owners of the cars to remove the 'doodly' finish...

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