Mazda MX-5 Miata Spyder and Speedster Concepts

The Mazda MX-5 Miata has always been a pretty light weight car. While it is very heavy compared to Lotus standards, coming in at just 2,332 pounds, it is about 500 pounds lighter than vehicles like the Subaru BRZ.

But what if it was even lighter? The folks at Mazda decided to find out what the result would be, so they built the MX-5 Miata Spyder and Speedster concepts. Both vehicles will be on display at SEMA starting on November 3rd.

The less extreme of the two is the Mazda MX-5 Miata Spyder. It attempts to capture the character of driving a vintage roadster. It has a leather interior and details such as the top that resembles the top on a Porsche Boxster Spyder helps give it a more purposeful look. The panels that frame the seats behind the passengers also help give it a high performance feel. The car is then finished in a new concept paint color called Mercury Silver.

The more serious toy of the two concepts is the MX-5 Speedster. The car was designed to pay homage to the roadsters of the 1950s. As such it makes changes such as replacing the windshield with a small lightweight wind deflector. It is a minimalist sports car made for open-air enjoyment. The concept is finished in a Blue Ether paint color.

While Mazda has said that the concepts are significantly lighter than the standard MX-5, they haven’t provided any numbers as of yet. Based on what we know so far we believe the Spyder is likely about 200 pounds less than the stock car (2,132 pounds) and the Speedster is about 300 pounds lighter (2,032 pounds).

While we know these are just concepts they sure look like they would be fun to drive around a track. In a car that weighs only about 2,000 pounds the stock 155 horsepower should be enough to keep up with many more powerful cars.

Should Mazda build these cars for the public? Let us know what you think in the comments.