The Mazda Miata has always been about pure driving pleasure rather than outright power, but that doesn’t mean the team behind the fourth-generation Miata are ruling out the possibility of a turbocharged model. Head of Mazda global PR Kudo Hidetoshi once told Australia’s Motoring.au they will ‘definitely’ consider a turbocharged ND Miata, and the company didn’t shy away from those statements at the Australian launch of the sports car.
Because Mazda has placed a 10-year lifespan on the ND Miata, it’s likely the car will go through many changes to keep it up-to-date. Mazda engineers said they would like to avoid turbocharging for simplicity and weight reasons when speaking to Motoring.au, but didn’t dismiss the idea entirely.
“If you could achieve what we want, to which is great response, very light and powerful with great performance feel with natural aspiration, then we don’t need a turbo,” said ND Miata program manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto.
“But if we want more power because we don’t get satisfied with natural aspiration then we may think about the turbo.”
If a turbocharged ND Miata does come along, it seems it would be strictly to produce additional power, rather than for fuel economy purposes. A second coming of the turbocharged NB MazdaSpeed Miata doesn’t seem far fetched, especially if Mazda plans on following through its 10-year lifespan for the ND generation car.
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