Mazda USA behind cloaked MX-5

MAZDA USA has posted an image of its next-generation MX-5 cloaked in a sheet on its official Facebook page ahead of the car’s unveiling next month.

It may be covered but this is the first official teaser photo of the upcoming MX-5 released by the Japanese car-maker, which surfaced online overnight on various forums causing excitement among Mazda fans.

The cloaked image is from marketing material produced to promote American televised charity fundraiser event, Fashion Rocks. Mazda’s United States media site says it is the ‘automotive partner’ of the show and the 2016 MX-5 will be unveiled at the concert event which will be broadcast on September 9 from California.

“Adding the elements of surprise and delight to the campaign, Mazda will reveal the highly anticipated, all-new 2016 MX-5 Miata roadster with a private concert by a yet-to-be-named Fashion Rocks artist on September 3,” reads the statement.

“True to Mazda's unconventionality, the iconic vehicle is skipping the traditional auto show introduction and being revealed directly to consumers through a global live streamed event.”

The Fashion Rocks Live event follows a simultaneous unveiling in the US, Japan and Europe scheduled for early September. The all-new roadster will then have its motor show debut in Paris in early October.

The fourth-generation two-seater convertible sportscar will have a new chassis, a revised engine line-up and an exterior design which Mazda says will be very different from the past, incorporating its Kodo design language, but still recognisable as an MX-5.

Mazda Australia says it is unable to confirm pricing or specifications at this point in time, but the car will go on sale here in the second half of 2015.

In the meantime Mazda has released a special edition 25th anniversary version of its current generation MX-5, priced from $48,380, excluding on-road costs, for the manual and $49,990 for the automatic. Of the 1000 built, Australia has been allocated 40, with 13 of those already snapped up as of last week.