We were smitten by the Iconic SP nearly two years ago when Mazda unveiled it at the Japan Mobility Show. However, once we stopped drooling over the coupe’s swoopy design, a question began to surface: Is this the next Miata? It was a fair assumption. Mazda is still a relatively small company, and perhaps it can’t afford to sell two sports cars. The Zoom-Zoom brand even suggested it could shrink the vehicle down to the MX-5’s footprint.
Thankfully, the Iconic SP isn’t a preview of the fifth-generation Miata. Mazda Chief Technical Officer Ryuichi Umeshita told Motor Trend the rotary sports car will be a separate model positioned above the beloved roadster. He even said we “can expect Iconic SP will be a good successor for RX-7,” although he stopped short of confirming the return of the iconic nameplate. He did, however, deny that it would wear the Cosmo badge as a nod to the Wankel-powered lineage that began in the mid-1960s.
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