Mazda rules out MX-5 coupe

Mazda will not build a coupe version of its new MX-5 – and will not share its iconic sports car’s architecture with Toyota.

Indeed, while it is an open secret the company is developing a folding hard-top version of the new-generation roadster, insiders have categorically ruled out a coupe version of the car and dismissed stories of licensing the car’s all-new platform to the world’s largest car-maker.

The Toyota 86 MX-5 link up was ruled out categorically by a number of Mazda execs at the weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

On the MX-5 coupe suggestion: “It’s like saying there’s no V12 version of a Mazda2,” one Mazda insider told motoring.com.au.

“It simply is not a consideration. If it was a coupe, it wouldn’t be an MX-5.”

MX-5 development head Nobuhito Yamamato also ruled out higher performance versions of the lightweight roadster. Although Australia, the USA and Euro markets will see 2.0-litre versions of the MX-5, Yamamoto-san says that’s as far as the performance offering will go.

“If a driver would like more [performance than the 2.0-litre], then I would invite him to drive a different car,” Yamamoto-san told motoring.com.au.

One option for Mazda to leverage the development of the all-new MX-5 platform is to use it as the base for a new generation RX-7.

Having worked previously on two generations of RX-7, Yamamoto-san was steadfast in refusing to comment on any plans related to a rotary sports car return.

Our Mazda insider was [a little] more talkative.

“We’ve made no secret the platform can be ‘stretched’,” he stated.

“You can see the confidence in the company growing.

“If I was a betting man, I’d say it will happen. I’ve seen studies that say we could have the [RX-7] development completed in not much more than 12 months,” the insider said.