First Look at the New for 2015 Mazda Miata

It’s official. Mazda will introduce an all-new version of its nimble MX5 sports car later this month at the New York International Auto Show- and, no matter how hard Mazda’s product planners want us to call it the MX5, we’re going to call this new Mazda what it is: the new Miata.

Speculation surrounding the 2015 Mazda Miata has been steadily leaking out in recent months. For example, (we think that) we know that the new car will use a version of Mazda’s next-gen, ultra-clean SkyActiv power trains. We know that the basic hardware of the new Miata will also underpin a reborn Alfa Romeo Spider that will undercut the hotly anticipated Alfa Romeo 4C when it heads to US shores, which will happen sometime after the Miata establishes a beachhead. We know it will continue to be a front-engine, rear-drive sporty roadster built to honor the spirit of the original Lotus Elan. We also knew, thanks to a leak at Mazda and Carscoop’s willingness to enrage the OEMs, that it would look something like this …

… which looks pretty good to me.

Mazda has dropped more clues as to how its 2015 MX5 (née, the 2015 Mazda Miata) will look when it is officially unveiled later this month- and it doesn’t exactly share the new 3′s corporate face, either. At Geneva, Mazda’s chief Miata designer, Peter Birtwhistle, told the guys at AutoExpress UK that the new, 2015 Miata will be “more masculine” than the current car. “If I had to describe it in one word,” said Birtwhistle, “it’d be ‘edgy’. I think it will be a surprise for people … It’s a tight, edgy little car that is going to appeal to a broader range of people. We know the clichés about the MX-5 as it gets older, but this will position it differently. I think it’ll attract a lot of young guys.”

So, there you have it. If you want to attract a lot of young guys, the 2015 Mazda Miata is going to be the car for you. Or, you know, you could just wait for the Alfa Romeo version, which is expected to look like the Duetto concept, below …

… which first bowed back in 2012.

We’ll be able to see how much what we thought we knew turned out to be known in a few weeks at the NY Auto Show. That’s when the 2015 Mazda Miata debuts for real (or so we’ve been led to believe), and we can start pining for a new-age, base-model track rat of our very own.

Sources | Photos: Carscoops