Okay I thought this would be an interesting snip-it of an article to share
with the list...
***
It was the early '80s, and the era of the affordable roadster appeared to be
over. Triumph and MG were dead, Fiat faltering.
"They said, 'You've designed a car for a dying market,' " Matano recalls.
But he and fellow designers Bob Hall and Mark Jordan disagreed.
"We'd go to Newport Beach on the weekend, or anywhere on Pacific Coast
Highway, and see the old T-bird convertibles, MGs, Fiat Spyders, Alfa
Romeos," Matano recalls.
"We asked ourselves, how come people are keeping these old cars? Surely
there would be a market for a new one if we could make the technology more
reliable and affordable."
Mazda's then-chairman Kenichi Yamamoto eventually was convinced by the
designers.
Today, the Miata is the best-selling sports car in the world.
***
The article appeared in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, and it was mainly
about major international auto firms (Mazda and such) going to California
based designers. The full article can be found at:
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/98/May/03/business/ALCAR03.htm
Cheers,
--
Kai Radicke -- kmr@pil.net -- 1966 MGB @ http://www.pil.net/~mowogmg
IRC: irc.mcs.net, #inet-access (my nick: KMR or rebelgeek)
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