The Rare British Roadster That Helped Inspire The Mazda Miata

The Mazda Miata. It's a model so iconic by now that it feels strange to imagine the automotive landscape without it. It stands almost alone in 2025 as an affordable, two-seat, drop-top option for drivers who just want a minimal-frills sports car they can enjoy equally on a commute and on the weekends. We think everyone should drive a Miata at least once, and while there aren't many similar options on sale today, winding the clock back a few more decades reveals that — roughly 20 to 40 years prior to the Miata's arrival — cars like this were much more commonplace.

They didn't hail from Japan, though. In fact, there was very little in the way of cars hailing from Japan in this era. Instead, it was the British who were churning out small and affordable sports cars, and they did a good job of it, too. Triumph TRs, the MG B and C, Jensens, and even bigger, more potent stuff like Jags and Astons were in production for years. However, it was a much more delicate model that would later serve as the primary inspiration for Mazda's world-dominating Miata.

That sports car was the Lotus Elan. It was tiny, like tiny-tiny, small enough to make you think twice about whether you'd even fit inside of it. That should come as no surprise, as Colin Chapman's Lotus was all about keeping weight low, and the Elan's diminutive proportions certainly did a good job of that – it tipped the scales at just 1,290 pounds.

The original Miata is unusual in the fact that it spawned from just one man's imagination — Bob Hall. An American automotive journalist, Hall had a fascination with the Japanese automotive scene, and in the late '70s, he found himself in dialogue with Mazda's then-head of research and design, Kenichi Yamamoto. When asked by Yamamoto what cars Hall thought Mazda should focus on in the future, Hall jumped at the chance to explain his love of true old-school British sports cars, and how the then-diminishing segment really ought to be given another shot.

Fast-forward into the 1980s, and Hall was given the opportunity to explore this possibility with Mazda, and work creating what would eventually become the Miata began. Numerous period photographs of Miata test mules exist, with it sitting alongside British classics like the Triumph Spitfire and MG Midget, but the Miata's design team — consisting of important names such as Masao Yagi and Tom Matano — would settle upon a design that more closely matched the lines of the humble Elan.

A smiling mouth on the original Miata gave character to the front end, and is a feature that still survives to this day, some 36 years after the first generation of the roadster debuted. An iconic feature of years gone by, pop-up headlights were also featured, much like those on the Elan. The rear end's design was similar, too. These cars didn't just look alike either; the details beneath the skin were just as closely related. Both got motivation from an inline-four engine, channeled it through a manual transmission, and placed it on the tarmac via the rear wheels. Inside, there were two seats, a steering wheel, and not much else — the focus with the Miata has always been on the driving.

When buying a car, it's very easy to think that more is better. We always want more power, more space inside, more tech to play with. Whatever the amenity may be, we want more of it. When creating these respective sports cars, though, both Mazda and Lotus made a conscious decision to focus on the idea that less is more. Sure, this approach probably wouldn't work with a modern three-row SUV — where we want more space, grunt, and tech — but when it comes to a happy little sports car for the weekend, the approach was brilliant.

Lotus nailed this approach back in the 1960s when it debuted the nimble Elan. Many may assume that power gives birth to the perfect sports car, but Colin Chapman proved them wrong, furnishing the then-new sports car with just 105 horsepower, courtesy of a 1.6-liter twin-cam inline-four cylinder engine. The combination of that small but playful engine, a balanced chassis, and the all-important low curb weight was the perfect recipe for the perfect sports car. Don't just take our word for it either: Both Gordon Murray and the ex-McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt are notable Lotus Elan fans, and those two clearly know a thing or two about what makes a decent British sports car.

Mazda and Bob Hall saw that a gap in the American market for a sporty and affordable drop-top experience. And instead of trying to make something bigger, better, and more powerful than the little Lotus that inspired them, they simply mirrored the approach and translated it into a car fit for the modern age.