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More 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata 30th Anniversary editions are heading to America

The 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata 30th Anniversary edition made its debut a few months back at this year's Chicago Auto Show. The special model was limited to just 3,000 units worldwide, with just 500 heading to the U.S. Miata enthusiasts were so excited by the car that the entire allotment sold out within four hours. To help satisfy demand for this limited edition model, Mazda is allocating another 143 cars for the American market, bringing the total number of cars heading to the U.S. to 643. Note, Mazda is still only building 3,000 cars total. The 30th Anniversary Miata is available as both a roadster and the retractable hardtop Miata RF. All of them will be painted Racing Orange and will be fitted with RAYS ZE40 17-inch forged alloy wheels, orange Brembo brake calipers and Recaro seats. The cars also come with a Bose audio system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The cars still retain the 2019 Miata's updated 2.0-liter inline-four making 181 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque. Cars equipped with the manual transmission get a limited-slip differential, Bilstein shocks and a front shock tower brace. This special edition isn't cheap. The manual soft top starts at $35,915, and the manual RF starts at $38,515. Adding an automatic ups the price by $499 on the soft top and $400 on the RF. That's up from $27,080 for a base roadster and $32,945 for a base Miata RF.

Mazda previews 2016 Miata Global MX-5 Cup racer

At this point, we all know that the Mazda MX-5 Miata is a highly capable racing platform. Mazda even claims that the car is the most road-raced model in the world. Fittingly, then, the Japanese brand is making a huge announcement about the future of motorsport for its next-generation convertible. The MX-5 Cup is going worldwide in 2016 as the MX-5 Global Cup, and all of the racers are getting behind the wheel of the upcoming fourth-gen Miata, similar to the gorgeous redhead pictured above.
"It has long been our goal to see Mazda fans around the world competing in identical MX-5s, and the launch of the 2016 MX-5 Miata is the perfect time to make this goal a reality," said Masahiro Moro, Managing Executive Officer in charge of Global Sales, Marketing and Customer Service for Mazda in the company's announcement.
The racing version makes its grand debut at this year's SEMA show, although at the moment it's really more of a concept. Mazda confirms that the racer uses the 2.0-liter SkyActiv four-cylinder, but the other important parts like tires, suspension and safety equipment are not yet determined. The cars "will be sold ready to race from a single supplier," according to automaker's announcement for the series.

Mazda6 diesel engine delayed over low performance, still coming

Oh Mazda... we had many hopes for the promised diesel four-cylinder in the Mazda6, but those have remained largely unfulfilled, as the oil-burning powerplant has failed to appear on dealer lots following its 2012 LA Auto Show announcement. Despite engineering issues that forced the company to announce that the program was delayed back in September 2013, Mazda remains adamant that the 2.2-liter Skyactiv-D is still coming to our shores. "We're still very much committed to diesel," Mazda's North American CEO, Jim O'Sullivan, told Automotive News. "We are still working on getting the performance aspects up to where we want them, and we do have a plan – an engineering road map – to get it done." According to AN, Mazda's initial plan with the 2.2-liter diesel was to build an engine so clean it could get by without an aftertreatment system, which generally accounts for the price premium of diesel engines versus their gas counterparts. The new system has come with performance issues, though, necessitating the delays. "If [we were] a commodity brand and didn't care about that, it would be on the market right now," O'Sullivan told AN. "But I know the people were expecting something from us, expecting certain drive characteristics and performance, and I didn't want to disappoint them." While O'Sullivan's defense of the diesel Mazda is admirable, the exec stops short of giving us an indication of when the new engine will finally arrive.