This was a “special” edition of the Miata Club of America magazine that introduced the second generation Miata to members. I think, but can’t be sure, that news of the remodeled car was already out there before this was published and distributed in late November of 1997. The car went on sale in February 1998 as a 1999 model.

Virtually Informed

By Gary Fischman
Founder & owner of Miata.net

LEAKS IN THE NET
The new Miata has been a topic of conversation, speculation, trepidation, and mediation on the Internet ever since Mazda’s top brass announced there would be “some minor changes” in ’98. Some looked forward to these changes, while others simply prayed that the new car would retain everything that made us rush out to buy the original.

Worldwide Rumors
Most of the early M2 information circulating on the net was learned from Mazda managers who’d been shown a concept video in the fall of ’96. This is when we first learned about the new car’s curved doors and fixed headlights, for example.

Soon after that, the electronic mailboxes at Miata.net – the clearinghouse site for online Miata info – began filling up with letters claiming knowledge about the various features or design decisions being incorporated into the new MX5. Some even came with graphics and introductory text vouching for their authenticity.

These images could invariably be traced to an artist’s conception gleaned from some obscure foreign car magazine, and in every case they turned out to be unfounded. One very popular early image was sent to Miata.net in December ’96 by an anonymous Asia source accompanied by a cock-and-bull story about it having been acquired from a “Mazda insider.” A bit of magnification proved it was a hoax; someone had simply taken an M Speedster photo and electronically added a few new features. Even so, it was enough to pique lots of online interest. That’s part of the Internet’s nature; since anyone can publish, anyone can try fooling you.

Eventually, as Mazda’s concept video was circulated to the company’s various regional offices and was seen by many dealers, more and more information dribbled out. With it came the inevitable worried online exchanges: Will it be an improvement? Will it make our first-generation cars look dated? Will it be another case of a carmaker caving in to its marketing department—after all, who buys a Miata because they need space for two sets of golf clubs?

The Video Gets Out
Mazda’s secret video eventually made its way to a dealership in the south-eastern US that didn’t understand its confidential nature. As a gesture to the local MCA chapter, they showed the video to some club members, and one enthusiast—eager to share the discovery with his equally enthusiastic friends on the net—asked if he could make a copy off the tape. Pointing his camera at the TV, he captured fuzzy, yet easily recognizable, footage of the new MX5!

By morning a few frames from his camera were posted on his personal web page and he had notified Miata.net where the pictures could be found. Just a few hours later, word of the leak had found its way to Mazda headquar-ters in Hiroshima, and Miata.net was immediately asked to hold off publishing the pictures.

The “perp” was also asked to remove them from his site, which he actually did. But information on the net simply can’t be controlled that way. In those few hours, some 300 hits were registered on the spy shots—enough for at least a half-dozen major car mags to find and download them for imme-diate publication. (And we thought we were the only ones who cared!)

The Real Thing
After the Great Video Debacle, it took a bit of time for the online world to regain the trust of Mazda’s PR folks, but that’s the way the informational cookie crumbles now. By the time official photos of the new MX5 were appearing on mainstream magazines’ websites, the leak was older than yesterday’s news. When rumors and real facts both travel at light speed, there’s always something newer to get excited about.