cars news 10: Second Look: Mazda MX-5 RF Details Revealed

Mazda stunned audiences at the New York show in March with the introduction of a super-fast-retracting hardtop Miata, impressing many with its fastback styling while repelling others with the fact that its open-air mode is not that of a roadster, but rather of a targa—a move that affords greater differentiation from the soft-top model by being considerably quieter and more refined. During Monterey car week the company revealed more specifics about the launch of the RF.

Taking a page from the Ferrari playbook, Mazda will open up the preordering process to a select group of its most loyal customers, who will be notified via email that they have a specific window of time to preorder an MX-5 RF Launch Edition before the ordering is opened up to the general public. Ordering for these and other initial buyers will be super simple, with only one option: manual or automatic. The first 1,000 RFs will look just like the New York show car, resplendent in (RF-only, at least for now) Machine Gray Metallic paint with a hand-painted black roof panel over Auburn Nappa leather upholstery. The trim grade will be Grand Touring. And taking a page from Bentley, MX-5 RF Launch Edition customers will also receive a custom-designed, numbered 42mm Tourneau watch to complement their cars. See, there are two good reasons for announcing the RF Launch Edition this week in Monterey—but in the Monterey spirit of “if you have to ask, it costs too much,” pricing and exact timing of the Launch Edition pre-ordering window will not be announced for a few more weeks. Stay tuned.

After the initial run of 1,000 Machine Grey GTs is built, the RF order book will open up to include most of the other colors currently available on soft-top MX-5s (but not Machine Gray), with the roof panel in either piano-black or body color, and the Club trim level will also become available. We are told to expect this wider range of MX-5 RFs to arrive during the first quarter of 2017. Oh, and Monterey car week afforded no drives from which to assess the RF’s open-air windiness and closed-cockpit coziness, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks or months as well.