Starting at the front, the central air intake is both enlarged and mildly reshaped and augmented by a smaller opening beneath. This moves more cooling air through the radiator and around the larger engine and combines with a more pronounced air dam across the bottom of the lower opening to give the Miata's face a stronger chin. So what if it brings to mind a largemouth bass when viewed straight on. It does what it's supposed to do. Compound, projector-beam headlights return but in housings that are marginally smaller, more oval than teardrop in shape, more deeply recessed and nearer to the car's centerline, all tending to emphasize the Miata's diminutive size. A taller, rounder hood wears a mini-bulge in the center, simultaneously suggestive of a scoop and of a similar bulge on the RX-8.
Differences between the new Miata and its previous generations show up more in the side view. Sharply sculpted wheel flares appear directly adapted from the RX-8 in a form the company calls Mazda design DNA. It clearly moves the new Miata away from the more cuddly look of its predecessors. The flares also spread wide enough to cover the new Miata's wider track. (Track is the distance between the left and right wheels). The new MX-5's track is three inches wider in front, two inches wider in the rear when compared with the 2005 model.
The windshield gives up a few degrees of rake, leading to a flatter, more classic top. The top, with a glass rear window, collapses into a well behind the seats cleanly and completely, in a way requiring no cover. That's good, because there are plenty of times when you'd like to drop the top but don't want to take time to snap on a cover.
Rollbar-like hoops rise out of the body behind the seats; Mazda doesn't list them as safety features, calling them seat back bars, but they're certainly more than merely surfaces to which decorative trim can be affixed. A mesh windblocker fits between the hoops. Small quarter windows, like yesteryear's windwings, fill the acute angle where the doors meet the A-pillars. The '05's concave side body panels have filled in on the '06, tumbling in a nearly sheer drop from the beltline to the rocker panels. Door handles are finger-friendly full rounds, instead of the previous model's top-hinged pull-ups. The hardtop (late availability) boasts a wraparound rear window, substantially reducing the convertible's rear quarter blind spots.
Taillights are evolutions of the previous generation's, retaining the basic elliptical outline but following the headlights' lead and sliding around the fenders toward the car's middle. The center brake light has been moved from the trailing edge of the trunk lid forward, right behind where the top folds into the body and where the hardtop will seat. The rear license plate housing is, like so much about the new Miata's contours, rounder and more crisply molded into the surrounding sheet metal than on the '05. A horizontal, black panel beneath the rear bumper echoes the front end's air dam, only this one is braced by twin exhaust tips, a spiffy step up from the '05's single tip.
