10/22/2026
Bob Hall owned a Lotus Elan before Mazda ever greenlit the Miata project. He convinced Mazda to buy it for him as a reference car, and it eventually got shipped to Japan for the team to study up close.
Designer Masao Yagi took that reference seriously. Early clay models moved away from a more Italian shape towards something closer to the original Elan’s proportions. At one point, the team photographed a prototype alongside a Triumph Spitfire and an MG, making the British sports car influence clear.
But calling the Miata “a reborn Lotus Elan” overlooks an important difference. The original Elan had a fibreglass body mounted on a steel backbone chassis. The Miata uses a steel unibody construction, more like the MGB. In other words, Mazda took inspiration from the Elan’s looks and driving philosophy, but didn’t simply copy its engineering.
That difference matters to owners, too. Elan owners often talk about the attention needed to keep their cars running well, from tuning carburettors to chasing electrical gremlins. MGB and Miata owners tend to describe cars they can get into and drive with less fuss. As one owner who’d had both put it, the Miata is what an MG or Triumph might have become if the factories building them hadn’t gone under.
The Miata wasn’t a Lotus Elan reborn. It was Mazda’s take on the original British roadster idea: the looks and driving fun, with its own engineering and the practicality to enjoy it more often.
