Customer Reviews

Mazda MX-5 Miata: The Book of the World's Favourite Sportscar

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Fantastic book for those who wants to know the history about the world's famous roadster and for those who own and admire MX-5. The book is full of fantastic photos and articles of all 3 models: NA (Mark I), NB (Mark II) and NC (Mark III) and drawings how MX-5 was prepared, designed and produced. It gives the detailed oveview of all parts of the famous roadster.
The book is "must have" for all MX-5 (or Miata) owners.

The latest of Brian Long's MX-5 Miata books, updated to include the third generation MX-5, reflects the same extensive research and attention to detail that the author put into the previous edition. The numerous photos and cutaway illustrations of concept cars, final products and advertisements are reason enough to buy the book, but it is also great reading. This book offers the enthusiast access to the engineers' and designers' decision-making processes as they culminated in the final designs. The reader also gets insider information about some "near misses", such as the proposed front-wheel drive platform, through interviews and first hand information. The differences between the model years are not only itemized but the reasoning behind the changes is also extensively discussed, making this the virtual Miata encyclopedia. It is a pleasure to have this book on the desk to reread a chapter or just to browse the pictures. The author brought his own unbiased view to the project, and that has allowed the product to speak for itself. This book may be most appreciated by the driver who has enjoyed many miles (Sunday drives to nowhere? autocrosses? laps around a track?) in one or more incarnation of the MX-5 Roadster and wants to know more about the inspiration behind the car. I strongly recommend this book as a gift to a Miata enthusiast. If that's you then go on, you deserve it.

This is an excellent book about the Mazda MX-5 Miata. It covers all versions of this car, including the NC 2006+ in the U.S., type. The author goes into to great detail about the features of each model and how they were developed. This is the best book on this topic I have read.

Mr. Brian Long's book on the Mazda MX-5 Miata provides a wonderful insight into the sequence of events that led to the creation of the first three generations of this delightful light sports car. The book carries the reader from the initial 1982 idea of developing a light sports car in the flavor of the British roasters of the 1960's through the third generation of the vehicle that was brought to market in 2005. Any MX-5 fan will find the information presented in the book fascinating and informative. Unfortunately, Mr. Long pads his wonderful work (222 pages) with about 100 pages of truly mind numbing minutia on the endless special edition variants of the vehicle Mazda marketed over the years and how they varied across the major markets (i.e., Europe, Japan, Australia, and America) where the MX-5 was sold. Reading the detail presented in these discussions is about as interesting as reading a dictionary. Fascinating on one level for the research performed in pulling it all together but truly mind numbing on another. Mr. Long could have presented this information much more effectively had placed it in tables and presented it in the appendix rather than interweaving it into the general narrative. Interesting for its brevity is the discussion on the one variant of the MX-5 that was truly unique. This was a fastback coupe variant of the second generation vehicle marketed in Japan during the 2003/04 timeframe. Mr. Long dedicates only one short paragraph to this interesting variant and he does not even have a good picture of the vehicle to show what it looked like. A glaring omission given the extreme level of detail presented for the other trim variants which were in the final analysis little more than parts bin specials painted different colors. Mr. Long is obviously British and the book is written in British English which is a little different that American English in the nomenclature used to describe the various parts of the vehicle. No problem for those of us who grew up reading British Shop Manuals but it may be a little confusing for the newly initiated. Overall, this is a truly informative book and the culmination of a lot of research for which Mr. Long deserves a special vote of thanks from the MX-5 community. Unfotunately, Mr. Long decided to pad the work to make it appear more than it is and this padding detracts from what is otherwise an outstanding effort.

I enjoyed this book. It is very detailed and at times that gets on top of you but I guess that is the attraction for many people. The chapters on the gestation of the car and the tuning options are excellent.

Some contemperary road tests would be nice, but there are other books for that. This is just a very detailed history of the model.

Oh Sweet MX5(Miata) for you American folk. For someone who owned a '99 10th Anniversary, this was a trip down memory lane and a book for all Miata fans to have in their man(or woman) shed bookcases. Very detailed and nice pics, not to forget all of the drawings from the design stages of the various models. Highly recomended.

I read this book some time ago after I had purchased a 2001 model in 2007. For the most part this is about its marketing which was startling to realize how involved it is, for example one year wasn't selling too good in Australia so they added more options to the base model, in France they had to detune the muffler system because of stricter noise regulations, and if you try to figure out the exchange rates from year to year it would appear that the markup changes from country to country. If you read between the lines you'll also come to understand that one years new model if inspected is often full of problem corrections of the previous year. This reflects back on the fact that originally the engineering came after the external design and mock up resulting in scavenging engines, drive trains, suspension systems and whatnot from other models for its initial launch with subsequent designs being molded by the original criteria into a more specifically defined Miata.
This is the bulk of the book, a description through enumeration and detail of how one model morphs into the next, some of which requires further research to understand why one feature is superior to another.
In regards the pictures (it is like a coffee table book) I liked them and wished in some instances they were larger and as far as the sales brochures go at first they seem annoying but after looking at them critically you'll find a distinct difference between how they look in Japan and other countries. In Japan it seems they are much more intent on depicting and explaining the various features and options as opposed to showing a sort of attraction by lifestyle approach as they do in the US. The Coffee Table attribute is vastly overcome by the amount of esoteric information presented. The idea of producing a British Triumph like sports car originated in the US with a Mazda employee and was ok'ed many years later after convincing the President of Mazda at the time in Tokyo to drive a Triumph through the mountains west of the city. The design and engineering was all Japanese but before production some models were vetted by English and German auto design companies, somewhat of an international effort, many, many people were involved.
Special Edition models also play a large, if largely unknown, part in Marketing. Maxing out the potentialities of a model and devising exotic colors and interiors to attract a niche market of those who are desirous of a distinctive looking car is covered, no doubt contributing to its popularity (the best selling sports car in the world) and humorously following upon one of their design criteria, a sports car doesn't have to be fast so much as to appear fast.
This book is like a puff piece but the amount of interesting and unabashed information it includes makes it a great read.

I am about to buy this car so I thought I better read up on the history of it. It is a bigger and fuller book than I expected. It is written in a genial way with plenty of illustrations. I have learnt a lot about the MX5; engine sizes, NA codes, world wide differences and so on.
It was a bonus to read about the original designers and their labour of love. The author is British and his wife Japanese. It was she who bought a Roadster first I believe. He slowly becomes a fan too.
Some of the photos were from ads and promotions which I found a bit tedious. I was also annoyed by the use of the word MIATA on the cover. Surely the American market does not need to be pampered so much?
All in all, a book that is more than a coffee table book. It does get a little repetitive as we scroll through the years but to many that may be good.
If you are an innocent like me who wants to know more to help own one then off you go. If you want something on a 2000 NR Limited edition well I think this is not the book. But there is no book on a car made in 2000 when only 500 were made for the Japan market.I got that from the book.
The car is so good that little in it changes. Those minor changes are recorded and noted.

This is a great book. It extensively covers all Miata generations. It is well written and has great pictures. It does a great job covering all the Miata prototypes.
A must buy for the Miata owner/enthusiast.

This is a perfect follow-up book to "Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster" by Toshihiko Hirai as there's stuff in here which is not in the Hirai book. That book is the best as it covers the development of the 1st Gen Miata in detail. This book covers the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Miata development.